Word: basses
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Like Motown was at the time, the Minneapolis Sound (not to be mistaken with alternative rock's Minneapolis Sound of the Replacements and Husker Du, among others) was new and fresh. Powerful bass, a driving funk beat, suggestive lyrics and occasional guitar riffs propelled the Sound to the top with fans and critics both, a rare feat...
...hard-driving, meanspirited hit single, "Fake," makes reference to one of Janet's hits when it pointedly talks about "nasty bass." And as Alexander sings, "All you ever do is criticize," he seems to be directly responding to Janet's challenge, "What Have You Done For Me Lately...
...broad range of expression. His 'romantic' was romantic--resplendent in rolling arpeggios and octave runs. His 'energetic' evoked a clockwork sort of busy-ness with fast chromatic fingerwork; and his 'mysterious' combined bright interjections from the right hand over dense tone clusters and sombre, meandering notes in the bass to set a mood of eerie expectancy...
...Golden Calf: gold is collected and formed into an idol; a ritual slaughter of animals is followed by a sacrifice of Four Naked Virgins; there is an orgy of drunkenness, sexual license and suicide. By forsaking emotionally neutral biblical robes for specific ghetto mufti (only Moses, portrayed by Bass-Baritone Theo Adam, is outfitted in Old Testament garb), Ponnelle risked having the quarrelsome Jews appear like characters in one of Julius Streicher's Nazi racist fantasies, evoking the stereotype of avariciousness and the calumny of blood libel. Even the splendid performances of Adam, British Tenor Philip Langridge as a smooth...
...cast seemed sluggish and unfocused, but in the more stimulating environment of live performance, the interpretation gleamed. His is not the rhythmically incisive, sharply chiseled Mozart currently in favor in the wake of the original-instruments revolution, but a mellower, more reflective interpretation that prizes sonority and melodic beauty. Bass Samuel Ramey was a swaggering antihero, cocky till the end, and Soprano Julia Varady brought a sweet pathos to the obsessive Donna Elvira. Director Michael Hampe's staging was conventional until the climax. When the Commendatore dragged the unrepentant Don to perdition, the Iberian setting vanished to reveal a cosmic...