Word: bachs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Germans, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a jealously guarded possession, and judgments of any new Bach performer are sharply critical, especially if the performer is a foreigner. But last week a Munich audience applauded a harpsichord recital played by a middle-aged American housewife. As Virginia Pleasants performed Bach's French Overture and a Rameau suite, cognoscenti listened attentively, demanded seven curtain calls...
Last May. after two years of practice and water boiling, Harpsichordist Pleasants made her debut in Essen. Response was staggering. "She opened the door to the world of Johann Sebastian Bach," said one critic. Others acclaimed her "sovereign manipulation of tonal line," the subtle clarity of her rock-solid rhythm, taste and imagination. Wrote one fan: "It seems that the dry, tinkling sounds emanating from this delicate box satisfy an inherent longing for an orderly perfection which has long been lost in our vulgar present day." Last week, as Germany's "Hausfrau at the Harpsichord" continued her triumphant tour...
...program, which combined many of the old favorites with a couple of brilliant new works, started off with Bach's "Little" Fugue in G Minor, as arranged by Leopold Stokowsky. One is continually impressed by the faithfulness to the spirit and style of the original in Stokowsky's tasteful arrangements, and this is one of his very best. The clarity of the polyphony was especially remarkable in yesterday's reading...
...Bumblebee, giving the ringers a chance to display the virtuosity for which they are so justly famous. Following this came one of the group's specialties, a group of Russian Folk songs, selected from The Fireside Book of Siberian Laments, an anthology which is second only to Bach's Clavieruebung in the ranks of the great musical collections. The ringers were generous enough to perform seven, the last in response to demands for an encore telephoned in during the intermission. It is hard to choose a favorite from among these miniature masterpieces, mainly because they are somewhat difficult to tell...
...whole life have I believed in God nor do I intend to start. I consider myself a true materialist. That never stopped me from visiting churches . . . splendid monuments of the past ... I have heard some very good concerts in various churches and still like to attend them . . . Handel, Bach and Beethoven are among the greatest composers. They will surely be played and loved even after nobody on earth believes in God any more ... A true materialist can certainly hear a good concert of classical music in a church without losing his materialist virginity...