Word: bache
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ONLY amateurs should play music," said someone in the audience at Saturday's Bach Society concert. The kind of excitement about the music that John Adams elicits in the members of his orchestra carries composers' intentions to audiences and makes the Bach Society Orchestra a fine group...
Most interesting in ways was the performance of the Bach E major Violin Concerto by James Oliver Buswell IV. It was practically unconducted, and that created obstacles to the flow from composer to listener. Buswell's head and body gestures did not keep the orchestra together or effect good ritardandi, and the reduced orchestra sounded best in the parts of the slow movement that Buswell actually conducted. Here he created a clearer pulse, sensitive phrasing of the bass line, and even, mysteriously, better intonation...
DESPITE problems, technique was good enough so that the music was presumably moving along as Buswell intended, and his approach was ill-suited to Bach. Rhythm in Bach grows from phrasing, not phrasing from meter; the over-all shape results from the growth of phrases rather than from dynamics or metric energy. The performance struck me as metrical in its phrasing, and in places, the bass line was simply un-phrased...
...musical terms, the force of Bach is in relatively inner things. Feeling is not expressed, to be incorporated again by the listener, but remains inner throughout the conveying process. Thus Saturday evening's performance of the E major concerto achieved vigor but not inner focus...
...change, deserved the title of special. CBS led the parade with S. Hurok Presents-Part II, and the indefatigable impresario produced a musical program of a quality that television has not achieved in years. Pianist Artur Rubinstein performed Beethoven's Concerto in G Major, Violinist David Oistrakh played Bach's Concerto in A Minor, and the Bolshoi Ballet danced a segment of Act II of Giselle. Throughout the 90-minute show, both music and ballet were presented on their own terms-without the usual TV camera tricks and, more important, without commercial interruption. In the 60-second intermissions...