Word: britten
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...than the complaints of avant-garde critics who consistently patronize him. He is what he is, and proud of it. "In art, there is no use wearing masks," he says. Among the fashionable masks he refuses to wear is that of twelve-tone music. Like England's Benjamin Britten, Menotti is well aware that after 50 or more years, serialism and atonality have never become a common "spoken" language. He doubts that they ever will. "Atonal music," he says flatly, "is essentially pessimistic. It is incapable of expressing joy or humor." Menotti is correct about the joylessness of atonality...
Even in his disastrous New York period, Barbirolli made important contributions to music. Here he conducted several Britten premieres, including the Sinfonia da Requiem, and the Violin Concerto. Nonetheless, he could not control the orchestra as it needed to be controlled, and was left to return home, disheartened...
After he left New York, some of the finest contemporary composers chose him to conduct their work. He directed premieres of works by Britten, Vaughan Williams, Rawsthorne, and Arthur Benjamin. But this did little to better his reputation. The New York episode is the best remembered of Barbirolli's career...
...kind of get out of myself and into something mysterious and wondrous and exciting." Fleisher is still hoping to achieve such moments at the keyboard again. With great determination, he has plunged into the tiny but exciting piano repertory written for the left hand alone by Ravel, Prokofiev and Britten. Mastering the vast orchestral literature necessary for a conducting career will be a tougher job. But if anyone has the musical dedication and the talent to succeed, it is Leon Fleisher...
...topnotch performances. The costumes were excellent, and so were the instrumentalists. (Hats off to Cyrus Stewart for his virtuoso performance of the horn part in Curlew River. ) The main credit, however, must go to Martin Kessler, musical director of both works, and to Wakeen Ray-Riv (choreographer in the Britten) and Charles Heckscher (director of Daniel ). Most of all, they deserve our gratitude for producing these seldom heard works and, even more, for giving them the performance they deserve...