Since many people are too young to recall musical prodigy and stand-up comic Victor Borge, Rainer Hersch may best be described to the uninitiated as the classical music fan's Bill Bailey. Radio 4 listeners may know him from his series 'Rainer Hersch's Victor Borge' or 'All Classical Music Explained'. Here he presents the latter in its condensed, accolade-winning Fringe Festival format.
Rainer, of German descent, does indeed have a Borge-esque sense of humour (if not the same endearing accent), which can seem somewhat unusual to the average modern British audience member (eg., me). Not being familiar with his radio work, and expecting naively to learn something as well as be amused, I had high expectations. Much of what Rainer presented didn't teach me anything new about classical music, being aimed a bit too low for anyone with any classical training (as I suspect some of his audience in Oxford would have had) - though there were some amusing interactions with recorders to take us all back to the same childhood plateau.
Much of the music in the show actually consisted of 1970s pastiches of popular classical pieces (perhaps subliminally emphasising the Borge connection) - even including some disco versions, which was unexpected (he made no reference to this in the show itself). On the plus side, a few of his madcap skits hit home so hard that I was positively shrieking. His mimed faux-translation of famous librettos, Ennio Marchetto-style, with cue cards stating alternative lyrics including “I can soak the brothels in pee!” (that's not the original Italian, is it?!) was uproarious.
Given that this show was almost snowed off, and thus that what would most likely have been a sell-out house wasn't, it's a tribute to Rainer that he risked the slithering traffic to bring his full kit (including electric piano) in his car from London to put on his show for a weather-battered group of diehards. (Plenty of other performers bailed out of their Oxford shows this week.) As a seasoned Fringe Festival performer - both in the UK and abroad - he's used to week-long runs of sell-out shows in 300+ seater venues, so to do this kind of show he must be a True Performer: in it for the love, and the thrill you only get from interacting with an audience face-to-face. I'm pretty sure we rewarded him adequately for his trouble.
Rainer, of German descent, does indeed have a Borge-esque sense of humour (if not the same endearing accent), which can seem somewhat unusual to the average modern British audience member (eg., me). Not being familiar with his radio work, and expecting naively to learn something as well as be amused, I had high expectations. Much of what Rainer presented didn't teach me anything new about classical music, being aimed a bit too low for anyone with any classical training (as I suspect some of his audience in Oxford would have had) - though there were some amusing interactions with recorders to take us all back to the same childhood plateau.
Much of the music in the show actually consisted of 1970s pastiches of popular classical pieces (perhaps subliminally emphasising the Borge connection) - even including some disco versions, which was unexpected (he made no reference to this in the show itself). On the plus side, a few of his madcap skits hit home so hard that I was positively shrieking. His mimed faux-translation of famous librettos, Ennio Marchetto-style, with cue cards stating alternative lyrics including “I can soak the brothels in pee!” (that's not the original Italian, is it?!) was uproarious.
Given that this show was almost snowed off, and thus that what would most likely have been a sell-out house wasn't, it's a tribute to Rainer that he risked the slithering traffic to bring his full kit (including electric piano) in his car from London to put on his show for a weather-battered group of diehards. (Plenty of other performers bailed out of their Oxford shows this week.) As a seasoned Fringe Festival performer - both in the UK and abroad - he's used to week-long runs of sell-out shows in 300+ seater venues, so to do this kind of show he must be a True Performer: in it for the love, and the thrill you only get from interacting with an audience face-to-face. I'm pretty sure we rewarded him adequately for his trouble.