48 hours ago, The Young Musicians Foundation hosted their “Yeethoven” concert as part of their Great Music Series. The 70-piece orchestra, conducted by Yuga Cohler and arranged by Stephen Feigenbaum, performed at the Aratani Theatre in LA.
As the titled pun suggests, the concert, which was free, paired six most renowned works from Ludwig van Beethoven (including his “Egmont” overture, his Fifth Symphony, and his String Quartet No. 14) with orchestrated snippets of six songs from Kanye West’s Yeezus album. Not that West’s egotism needs further encouragement, but it is a huge testament to his music, and an unexpected one at that, being played alongside one of the world’s most celebrated classical composers.
The Young Musicians Foundation is widely known for its offering of scholarships to thousands of young musicians in the Los Angeles area, as a non-profit organisation. The intriguing thing about this concert was the fusing of two completely different genres and contexts into an orchestral setting. It is no easy task morphing the prodigal work of two juxtaposing genres, however it goes to show how inter-relatable music can be, and how well Kanye’s music translates on an symphonic level. It is satisfyingly revealing, or even slightly vulnerable, hearing Kanye’s sound in such a new light, being stripped down to the bare of his melodies without the narcissistic rapper overlaying it.
On a social level, the concert inspired some weird deja vu to a classic Kanye moment back in 2012- a year before the release of Yeezus, when West compared himself to the classical composer during a concert in Atlantic city:
“I am flawed as a human being. I am flawed as a person. As a man, I am flawed, but my music is perfect,” he began. “This is the best you’re gonna get ladies and gentlemen in this lifetime, I’m sorry. You could go back to Beethoven and shit, but as far as this lifetime, though, this is all you got.”
Only Kanye West would place Beethoven and ‘shit’ in the same sentence.
Watch the Young Musicians Orchestra perform “Blood on the Leaves” and “New Slaves” and decide for yourself just how relevant Kanye and the word ‘perfect’ correlates not only in a sentence, but in this lifetime.