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Health & Fitness

Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester

Max Raabe is the debonair crooner and front man for the Palast Orchester, which is scheduled to tour the U.S. this spring.  I reached Mr. Raabe at his home in Germany as he prepared for his trip to America.  He told me that the tour will include a performance at Carnegie Hall, which he called the “holy temple for musicians”.  Mr. Raabe viewed this prestigious booking as a “gift and a miracle”. However, anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Raabe and the Palast Orchester in concert will agree that it is an honor well-deserved.

As a teenager Max Raabe enjoyed the popular tunes of the day as well as Wagnerian compositions, but he found that his “special thing” was the music composed in the 1920s and 1930s.  He was familiar with this music through Tom and Jerry and Walt Disney cartoons.  After hearing a 78 gramophone recording of “I’m Crazy About Hilde”, he started listening to a weekly radio show where a collector would play music of the Weimar era and he searched flea markets for more material.  Mr. Raabe views this music as medicine for the times that continues to transport people to another reality.

The performance by Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester is not nostalgia or parody or satire.  Instead, it is a pure interpretation or re-creation of a bygone entertainment genre presented honestly and stylishly. Mr. Raabe has been compared to Fred Astaire not because he dances but because he embodies the air of sophistication and elegance of the period.  With his lovely baritone (he trained for Opera) serenading us with songs of Hammerstein, Gus Kahn, Cole Porter, and others, and his elegant stage presence, Max Raabe is a matinee idol from the 1920s and 1930s REINCARNATED. 

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Max Raabe says he is always searching for “new old songs”. This year’s tour will include two “new” songs – one a new arrangement of Hammerstein’s “I Won’t Dance” and Cole Porter’s “You Do Something to Me”. A consummate performer, Mr. Raabe promises that every performance is of the highest quality whether it be in a large city, a small city or in Carnegie Hall. The spring tour begins in Fairfax, VA at the George Mason University Center for the Arts on Sunday, March 2nd. Get your tickets now and be prepared to be amazed.

Tickets for MAX RAABE & PALAST ORCHESTER are $46, $38 and $23. Youth Discount: tickets are half price for youth through grade 12. Visit the box office (open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) or charge by phone at 888-945-2468 or visit cfa.gmu.edu. The Center for the Arts complex is located on George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus at the intersection of Braddock Road and Route 123. Paid parking is located in the Mason Pond Parking Deck adjacent the Concert Hall and FREE parking is located in university Lot K. For more information, please visit cfa.gmu.edu.



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