2024-11-27 08:34:00
What works for Elvis always works for Udo: the musician, who died almost ten years ago, sings to live music via video recordings in the show “Da Capo Udo Jürgens”, which performed in Vienna on Tuesday, and the fans are thrilled. This is due, on the one hand, to the charisma of the star and his still current songs, but also to the excellent performance of the Pepe Lienhard Band, Jürgens’ long-time companions. Technically, the concept was implemented optimally.
“It’s going to be a big deal, we’re all very much behind it,” Lienhard emphasized in an interview with the APA in advance. “I think the show also corresponds to Udo.” The 4,500 visitors in the town hall must have agreed with the Swiss, at least there was a lot of applause and happy faces. At first, the audience wasn’t sure what to expect: “I’m excited now, someone has to sing,” said one guest.
Udo in particular did that. His singing (and partly also his piano tracks) were isolated from concert recordings and digitally processed. In perfect harmony, the band provided the music for evergreens such as “An Honorable House”, “Greek Wine” and “A Thousand Years Are One Day”. It became clear once again what a great entertainer Jürgens was – and how much his songs addressed current and timeless themes (as it says in “Let Love Happen”: “Leave violence out of the game, let the hearts rule, and the… “lose your fists”).
Radiance also radiates from the screen
“It would be a bit too easy to reproduce Udo’s last show (which was filmed, note) one-to-one,” says Lienhard. “We don’t want to make it too easy for ourselves.” So they didn’t present a continuous concert, but instead had Jürgens appear in sections, interrupted by a moderation. Karim Khawatmi, a former leading actor in the musical “I’ve never been to New York,” led the program and praised Udo extensively. It remains to be seen why he had to do the singing on “17 Years, Blonde Hair”.
The stylish stage arrangement almost made you forget that the great chansonnier wasn’t actually there. Especially with duets – the great Dorothea Lorene, among others, sang with a canned voice – and with solo performances by the musicians in the middle of songs, the impression of a “real” Jürgens performance was created (especially since the videos were perfectly edited ). The performance of “I’ve never been to New York” with swing interludes was even furious. The finale with Udo in a bathrobe (which, by the way, could be bought at the stand for 80 euros) showed what power Jürgens radiates from the screen: the mood was boiling during the medley without band accompaniment.
(By Wolfgang Hauptmann/APA)
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