Word: allegros
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Johannes Brahms' String Quartet in c minor, Opus 51, No. 1, was the final and most substantial piece on the program. Unfortunately, this work sounded the least polished of all that the Quartet performed. In the first movement, "Allegro," where the texture is quite thick, the balance was not effective, the notes of the accompanying voices excessively labored and the melody not sufficiently passionate. Here also the contrasting characters displayed by the different instruments detrimentally affected the Quartet's performance; while in most places these variations added interest, the dryness of the violist's sound in the Brahms grated...
Photo Courtesy BCSM one of the few displays of ecstatic ensemblewithin the context of the Bartok. The thirdmovement, marked "Allegro" and abounding withvehement and syncopated rhythms, concealed for themost part Chase's difficulties; while hertechnique was not impeccable, it certainly farsurpassed her vibrato. In this section, though theperformers were always "with" each other, one didnot receive the impression of collaboration whichhad appeared briefly in the second movement andwhich graces the best chamber music performances.On the whole, Chase's rendition of the Sonata wascompetent but uninspired; she did not seem toderive any personal significance from the work orendow it with...
...lasted a little longer in a life that was lived harder and faster than most (mood: appassionato; tempo: allegro con brio), Leonard Bernstein would have turned 75 this week. But the polymath pianist, conductor, composer, television personality, Harvard man, Broadway baby and quintessential New Yorker died in 1990, leaving a hole in the fabric of American musical life that many have found irreparable. In the three years since Bernstein's death, sales of his records have doubled, his compositions have started to win greater respect, and his legend has waxed. It's almost as if the great man had never...
...deep throated brass added to the robustness characteristic of modernist Slavic composers, especially in the galloping allegro motto. The three fascinating andantes each brought back the dirge-like motif that characterized the first. In the latter two, the incorporation of bells over sometimes undulating, sometimes fluttering strings lent itself to the overall theme of exoticism...
Handel's "Water Music" continued the string of brilliant performances. Professional polish and good timing characterized the famous "Hornpipe," "Bouree" and "Minuet" sections, and the orchestra sustained its trills without fading. The strings and winds maintained a sublime rapport in the concluding "Allegro" and "Gigues...