Igudesman’s ‘Insectopedia’


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Aleksey Igudesman is perhaps best known as one half of inventive and irreverent clas­si­cal duo Igudes­man and Joo, who have taken the world by storm with their unique and hilar­i­ous the­atri­cal shows, com­bining com­edy with clas­si­cal music and pop­u­lar cul­ture.

Igudesman and Joo’s YouTube clips have to date gath­ered over 35 mil­lion hits, and the duo has appeared live and on tele­vi­sion in numer­ous coun­tries.

But there’s a lot more to St Petersburg-born Igudesman, who describes himself variously as “The World’s Most Ambiguously Inglorious Composer”, “Most Accidentally Immoral Producer” and “Most Attractively Intense Violininst”.

Insectopedia is one of Igudesman’s latest projects, a collection of ten insect-inspired solo piano pieces for the intermediate pianist (the book would suit players around UK Grade 4) which aim to be as educational as they are entertaining.

From the rear cover of the beautifully presented Universal Edition publication, global superstar pianist Yuja Wang tell us:

“Reminiscent of Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, you will have a lot of fun with this little album. In fact, the more you are involved, the more fun you will have with it. The music in Insectopedia is so vivid that you feel like you are becoming one of the insects. Well, perhaps not the cockroach, but try not to fly away after playing it!”

Well that got my attention! Intrigued? Let’s check it out…

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