Beethoven, Mozart
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SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 2014 K-Pop stars big Beethoven, Mozart in Japan bridge manuscripts on show in Poland diplomatic divide ne wrote neatly and methodically, the other crossed things out and Otore pages up in frustration. Beethoven and Mozart may be two of the greatest composers of all time but they could not have arrived at the same point by means more different. The personalities of the deaf German legend and the Austrian child prodigy come alive through a collec- tion of their musical manuscripts now on show in Poland’s southern city of Krakow. “Mozart was very tidy. He wrote without making any changes. Beethoven on the other hand, that’s another story,” said Zdzislaw Pietrzyk, director of the library organizing the show. “His manuscripts were messy, there are crossed out sections, Members of South Korean K-Pop group “CRAYON corrections. And that passion is reflected in POP” pose during a press conference prior to attend- his symphonies and music,” he told AFP. ing the K-Pop chart show “M Countdown” at the Krakow’s Jagiellonian Library picks out a dif- Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefec- ferent selection of musical works from its ture. — AFP vaults to display each year alongside evening concerts performed during the housands of K-Pop fans flocked to a major concert by annual Beethoven Easter festival. top South Korean music stars in Japan this week, with This year’s collection of several dozen Torganizers and fans alike calling it a “bridge” for two works by various composers, on display The Beethoven manuscript of Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op 133 for string nations locked in a never-ending diplomatic squabble. The until April 22, includes a sketch for quartet shown in Krakow’s Jagiellonian Library. — AFP K-Pop juggernaut has been spreading around the world Beethoven’s 9th symphony and the origi- build on a view also reflected in their points to its own losses. Warsaw says it lost with South Korean music, television and movies making a nal handwritten score of Mozart’s Piano big splash in countries with few ties to Seoul. But the coun- appearances: Mozart always pictured with half a million works of art during the war Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major. “You can a perfect wig and Beethoven shown with a that today would be worth around $20 bil- try’s offerings are particularly loved across the sea in Japan really see that Beethoven was human and whose own unique culture has long been a hit with South mad mop of hair. Their manuscripts on lion (15 billion euros). The Polish govern- he did really, really suffer when he did not show in Krakow were originally stored in ment returned several manuscripts to East Koreans, despite historical animosities and territorial dis- find the right idea again or when he putes. the Prussian State Library in Berlin but the Germany in 1977 as a gesture of goodwill changed his mind or he made a mistake,” Nazis removed them during the Second between the two then communist states. That mutual love was on display in Yokohama, south of said German pianist Hinrich Alpers, who Tokyo, on Wednesday as a slate of acts including Supernova, World War to protect them from Allied Many Poles including musicologists, histori- performed at this year’s Beethoven festival. bombing. ans and politicians reacted with dismay. teenage girl band sensation Crayon Pop and crooning boy “He was very, very upset and the way he band 2PM performed for screaming Japanese fans, includ- They were moved to a Benedictine Hinrich Alpers argues that the location is crossed out things was very fierce and bru- monastery in Silesia, which after the war inconsequential as long as the manuscripts ing young girls and some middle-aged men. Kurumi Hagi, a tal sometimes. He even ripped the paper 17-year-old fan of 2PM, was among the 9,600 capacity became part of Poland. They were subse- are visible. “It’s most important really that and had to glue in a new page,” he told quently transferred to Jagellonian these things don’t disappear in somebody’s crowd packed into the concert put on by popular South AFP. Korean music television show M Countdown. University in Krakow. Germany has for years private collection in a vault or somewhere Legal ownership called for the return of the manuscripts, but where nobody can see them or touch them “When I feel tired, I just need to see them to feel lively The composers’ distinct working styles again,” Hagi said. “Their performance gives me energy.” Poland argues it has legal ownership and anymore,” he said. — AFP Another huge fan of the six-boy band is Hagi’s mother, who landed a backstage pass, while 40-year-old Kan Yokoyama can’t get enough of the group Girl’s Day. “I am totally Late Motown icon Marvin Gaye hooked by Girl’s Day,” he said. “I met them at one recent fan meeting, and (band member) Hyeri showed me how to dance. She was so sweet, and I’ve been huge fan of her ever remembered on 75th birthday since.” The event was held as relations between Tokyo and Seoul are at their worst level in years, mired in emotive dis- putes linked to Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, particularly amily, friends and fans of Marvin Gaye us,” recalled Jimmy Falwell, whose own doo- record label founded by Berry Gordy that revo- Japan’s use of South Korean “comfort women” as sex slaves came together Wednesday to pay joyful wop group the Velons is still in business after lutionized pop music in the 1960s, cranking out in wartime brothels. In an illustration of sensitivities, South Fhommage the late Motown legend and 56 years. hits in the same production-line manner that native Washingtonian on what would have But, Falwell told AFP, “Washington wasn’t General Motors turned out cars. His first solo hit, Korea’s national publicly-funded broadcaster KBS this week been his 75th birthday. Gaye was shot and that good on supporting a lot of the music we “Stubborn Kind of Fellow,” charted in 1962, fol- banned Crayon Pop’s latest song because of a Japanese killed by his father on the eve of his 45th birth- were doing at that time. Most artists had to lowed by such songs as “Can I Get a Witness,” word contained in its lyrics. day in 1984, leaving behind a remarkable leave Washington to get their success.” Fame “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and string of hits-led by “Let’s Get It On,” “I Heard It awaited the young Gaye at Motown, the Detroit “Ain’t That Peculiar.” —AFP Musical diplomacy Through the Grapevine” and “Sexual Healing”- Hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week that remain pop, funk and soul classics. held his first summit with South Korean President Park “When it comes to DC, there’s nothing big- Geun-Hye, an occasion in the Hague hosted by US President ger, nothing better than Marvin Gaye,” pro- Barack Obama, whose administration is increasingly frustrat- claimed local radio DJ Guy Lambert, emcee of ed by incessant sniping between its two major Asian allies. a birthday soiree at Marvin, a bar-restaurant Park stood stone-faced at a press conference where Abe honoring the nearly two years Gaye lived in tried his hand at speaking Korean, and one-on-one talks Belgium. Spotted in the diverse 200-strong appear a long way off. A dispute over islands in the Sea of crowd were Gaye’s youngest sister Zeola, who Japan, which Koreans call the East Sea, and Abe’s tendency sang backing vocals on his 1977 dance hit to flirt with historical revisionism have also aggravated ten- “Got to Give it Up,” and his longtime friend sions. Demonstrations by Japanese far-right nationalists and music arranger Gordon Banks, who on against Koreans living in the country are another distraction. guitar led a lively jam session on Marvin’s al But the concert’s organizer said South Korea’s spreading fresco stage. of so-called soft power through music and pop culture Performing as well were members of Gaye’s very first combo, the Marquees, a doo- could help bring the combative neighbors together. “Since wop quartet that came together in 1959 in the we are a cultural industry company, we believe we can do Washington basement recording studio of something small that government won’t and can’t do,” said pioneering rhythm and blues guitarist Bo Gordon Banks, Marvin Gaye’s music director and band member, puts his guitar Shin Hyung-Kwan, executive producer of CJ E&M’s music Diddley. “Marvin goes all the way back with away after performing at the Marvin Bar and Restaurant April 2, 2014 in channel Mnet. —AFP us. We used to do talent shows at Dunbar Washington, DC during the 7th annual Marvin Gaye Day celebration to honor high school and Marvin played drums behind the 75 birthday of singer and song writer. — AP.