Word: concertos
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...Manhattan apartment. At the age of three, Rabin demonstrated that he had perfect pitch by plinking notes on the piano to correspond to any sound he heard. At 14, he made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall, launching his professional career with a flawless rendition of Wieniawski's Concerto No. 1. The next year came the first of his 84 appearances with the New York Philharmonic. The pressures of being a prodigy took their toll, and in 1963 Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown that interrupted his concert tours for two years...
...Second Suite, essentially a concerto for baroque flute, is the masterpiece of the four. Leopold Stastny, the soloist, is a phenomenal player: his pitch is dead accurate. He complements subtle shadings of tone and fine techniques with beautiful phrasing that never is broken in awkward moments for breathing. The supremely beautiful moment of the Suite is the Double of the Polonaise: the theme of the Polonaise appears in the bass (played as if a solo part by Harnoncourt himself) with an incredibly florid counterpoint in the flute part. The beauty and care taken by Harnoncourt in his accompaniment is outstanding...
...violinists of those days would be considered good musicians today. They took too many liberties. Today they have more respect for the music they play. On the other hand, pianists have become too literal. As a result, if you are going to hear Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto, unless you are listening to a really great artist like Artur Rubinstein, all the "Emperors" sound alike. This shibboleth about playing notes exactly as written is bunk. Notes are blueprints. They express nothing...
Jetting to Hell. When Paganini died in 1840, many of these compositions -including the third violin concerto -were tucked away in a bank vault in Milan under the care of the violinist's heirs. Other violinists have been trying to get at them ever since. By last year, all the concertos except the third had been released. It was still held by the Paganini family. Last Christmas, Philips Records, aided by Violinist Henryk Szeryng, finally obtained it after ten years of delicate negotiations...
...Philips release, Szeryng and the London Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Gibson give the first performance of the third concerto since the last documented performance by Paganini 138 years ago. Jovial, pretty and full of technical traps, the Rossini-influenced work sends the solo violin scampering like the hero of some demonic opera bouffe...