Word: bartok
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DIED. ISAAC STERN, 81, classical violinist who played everything from Bartok to Bach in his own impassioned style; of heart failure; in New York City. He practiced obsessively. "I have begged him not to play so much," manager Sol Hurok told the New York Times in 1959. "I tell him, 'The less you play, the longer you will play.' It does no good." Stern was a generous teacher who mentored and encouraged cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Emanuel Ax (see Eulogy, below...
...minute symphony for string orchestra is a reworking of Corigliano's String Quartet of 1996. In five movements, its "arch-form" is influenced by Bartok's fourth quartet, in which pairs of movements (one and five, two and four) are related, while the middle movement "night music" stands on its own. Furthermore, as Corigliano wrote in the program notes, "the symphony is based upon a motto composed of even repetitions of a single tone, and a sequence of disjunct minor thirds. There are also four pitch centers recurring throughout the work: C, C-sharp, G and G-sharp." These elements...
...When you talk about Bach, sometimes you feel like you need to genuflect. It's just that good. I often speak of classical music as philosophical. It's not necessarily in terms of personal preference. I like Debussy's music, Ravel was a genius orchestrator, but there are many. Bartok, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, so many great composers...
April 2 marked the performance of what just could be the new soundtrack for The Phantom Menace. Not exclusively modern, the program did include Brahms' "Piano Quarter in minor, Opus 25" along with Bohuslav Martin's more contemporary "Memorial to Lidice" and Bela Bartok's "Violin Concerto No. 2." Even this was tainted by the great Modernist Arnold Schoenber who re-arranged the chamber piece for orchestra. According to the program notes, "Johannes Brahms and Arnold Schoenberg are [not-so] strange bedfellows" in a filigree of 20th century musical fracas that indeed would have made Obi-Wan proud...
...remaining pieces were also excellently executed. Perhaps the most famous of all child prodigies, Midori, like many one name phenoms (Madonna, Cher, etc.) has a style that is hardly replicable by any other. Playing what was once considered the Bartok Violin Concerto (before the discovery of the First Violin Concerto), one was led to a feeling of extreme awe. Awe at the masterful execution by this petite Japanese virtuoso, awe at her apparent humility, and just plain heart-thumping, jaw-dropping...