Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures a performance, by Rob Schwimmer, of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars.
Schwimmer uses a Moog Etherwave Theremin, played through an Electro Harmonix Talking Machine, inspired by Peter Pringle’s virtuosic performance of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma.
Schwimmer has worked with a wide range of artists, ranging from Antonio Carlos Jobim to Laurie Anderson to Stevie Wonder.
His intonation and phrasing are impressive. In the right hands, those instruments are pretty mesmerizing. Watching his left hand controlling the volume, the gestures are very subtle. Judging from all the examples I’ve seen, it is clear that this is a difficult instrument to play well. Schwimmer has skills.
It seems the Electro Harmonix Talking Machine is really the must have effect for Thereminists.
Very nicely performed!
If you really want to appreciate this, do a search on YouTube for theremin. Most of them are full of out of tune wailing.
Wonderful!