Word: beethovens
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...fingers cold . . . getting weaker and weaker." He was "submitting to an ordeal by fire in front of some half-hundred string players . . . come to . . . rehearsal with a decided 'show me' attitude." That December day in 1925, young Budapest-born Violinist Joseph Szigeti showed them-with the Beethoven Violin Concerto...
...Beethoven's late works for the piano are among the greatest written for the instrument. They are fantastically difficult to comprehend and to play. Hearing them well performed can be a completely overpowering experience. Webster Aitken is giving a series of three programs of these works in Sanders Theatre. He is a remarkable pianist, and his performances have been superb. Aitken has obviously studied these pieces carefully, and has very definite ideas on their interpretation. Naturally, these ideas are open to criticism, but with very few reservations, I found his playing convincing. Furthermore, he has a technique equal...
...These are wonderful little pieces, expressing a great variety of moods; because of Aitken's lack of tone coloration, these moods were not completely realized. Next came the "Hammerklavier" Sonata, op. 106, which Aitken projected so magnificently that it almost sounded "at home" on the piano. This was Beethoven in black and white, a Beethoven of great contrasts and climaxes, altogether a gigantic conception of a gigantic work. Some details of the performances appeared faulty. The volume level never wont below mezzo forte, so there could hardly be any distinction between forte and fortissimo. Some of the phrasing...
...high point of the recital was Aitken's performance of the c minor Sonata Beethoven's last. This is an incomparable composition, full of wonders like the dramatic introduction and the surprisingly modern sounding syncopation near the end. It seems impossible that a human brain could have created a place like this; it is as though Beethoven smashed through all conceivable limits of human creativity, leaving us to admire, if not to understand...
Webstor Aitken, pianist, will offer the first of a series of three recitals at 8:30 p.m. tonight in Sanders Theatre. Aitken's selections will all be from the work of Beethoven. The second of the series will be performed at 3:30 p.,. Sunday...