Word: concertos
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...didn't turn out that way. Cliburn was condemned by an adoring public to repeat again and again the concerto for which he won his prize, Tchaikovsky's First, and he never fully developed into a mature concert artist. In 1978, overwhelmed by expectations, crippled by stage fright and exhausted by his celebrity, he stopped performing and holed up in the Fort Worth, Texas, home he still shares with his mother and first teacher, Rildia Bee Cliburn, now 97. He re-emerged in 1987 for a few tantalizing concerto performances. Now, at 60, Cliburn has embarked on his first national...
...concert, held at the Hollywood Bowl, the nearly neurasthenic Cliburn experienced what he called "light-headedness," and the program was delayed while a doctor took his blood pressure. Eventually he returned to the stage, sheepishly informing the audience of 14,000 that he felt unable to play the Rachmaninoff concerto, and so substituted a series of solo encores, including a Szymanowski etude, Liszt's arrangement of Schumann's song Widmung, Debussy's La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune and the Chopin C-sharp minor Scherzo. And then he was gone...
...Cliburn watcher, therefore, could really have been surprised when the pianist failed to answer the bell for Round 2. The Rachmaninoff, which he says is his favorite concerto, is even more difficult than the Tchaikovsky. Cliburn calls it "a one-act opera in which the soloist sings all the roles...
...might be expected with Paganini's work in general, the violin usually has the more interesting of the two parts, and I compliment Sollscher for his consistently sensitive playing. Shaham is right at home in the genre, and considering his knuckle-busting recording of Wieniawski's first violin concerto, the works are but child's play for such a player gifted with a singular virtuoso technique. To his credit, Shaham avoids adding excessive schmaltz, and concentrates on making solid music with the material...
...music by its very nature is not profound, one finds less of Paganini's naturally extroverted nature in his writing for violin and guitar. We see more of an introspective bent than one might expect from the composer of such flashy showpieces as Le streghe and the first violin concerto, both touchstones of technical facility. But, those looking for violinist pyrotechnics certainly will not be disappointed--Shaham has ample opportunity to flex his violinist technique, and he dose so impressively, yet tastefully...