Word: crescendi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...left playing in the background like a string of Handel concerti grossi or even Bach trio sonatas. It demands closer attention. But the fruits of attention are often sparse (in contrast to the Bach trios!). Beautiful themes are exposed, but then lapse into less-than-profound filler. Huge crescendi too often come from and lead to nowhere. Basically, Victorian music could not cope with the olympian symphonic medium. Although the time of the E-minor's composition, 1866, antedates Brahms and Dvorak, the Sullivan is valuable to us more as a well-crafted curiosity with touches of genius (particularly...
...interpretation of the Bach. Kirchner demanded a full-bodied sound from his small ensemble. Occasionally his insistence backfired, as in the final chorus of "ewiges Feuer" (BWV 34) where the sopranos had to force and went noticably sharp. Most of the choruses were full of dramatic dynamic contrasts, crescendi and decrescendi. And Kirchner had no qualms about taking expressive liberties with the tempo...
...most successful ventures. There are eight verses with tremendously varied settings: a simple hymn; a lament that borders on the sublime (and I'd like to shoot the guy that made the open fifth of the final chord into a major triad); songs of Thanks giving with the longest crescendi since Rossini stopped writing overtures; and a chorus of "Woe unto them that..." that reminds me of the brand of hell fire and damnation I thought you'd only hear when the brothers and sisters got happy in that one story wooden church, the one up the side street back...
...Poto's interpretation of the symphony certainly showed it to best advantage. Taking special care to clarify the complex yet essentially conventional form, he began crescendi long in advance of their final culminations. Thus a sense of gathering sonority and mass brought the structure more clearly into focus. And by avoiding the extremely show tempi some conductors favor, he made overall textures far less turgid...
...hope to speculate soon. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Morgenthau, has expressed his suspicion, "informally," according to one report, that some of the supporters of the movement are not altogether "disinterested" in their activities. (Mr. Morgenthau displays a commendable restraint of phrase in these days of flaming crescendi of indignation). The newspapers, with their usual acuity of perception, have reached the same conclusion, which must be extremely gratifying to Mr. Morgenthau...
| 1 |