Word: f-sharp
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Kissin’s performance of Robert Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor was much more convincing. The work was written during the white-heat inspiration of Schumann’s tumultuous courtship of the brilliant pianist, Clara Wieck, whom he would later marry. While the work does not quite reach the desperation and pathos of other Clara-obsessed compositions (such as the Fantasy in C Major), it shares many of the features of other Schumann compositions from the same time period, namely capriciousness and extremity of emotions (from the heroic Eusebius to the introspective...
...first half of his program was all Chopin, beginning with the F-sharp Impromptu, Op. 36. A rich sotto voce approach was somewhat undone by an erstwhile banginess in the right hand; transparent scalar passages were a key ingredient in the strong finish. This piece reminded one of the best playing of the rude and unpredictable Vladimir Feltsman, who seems to patronize Mr. Zimerman's barber, if not vice versa...
...lifted himself off the bench. The ending, mostly reminiscent of the G minor Ballade, included a final two chords that were so well executed as to seem prophetic. The second half of the program was a Schumann sonata in which all of the details were in place. The F-sharp Minor sonata Op. 11 is a sprawling piece of juvenilia that requires a tight vision of elements that don't necessarily relate organically to each other, as is the case with the greater master-piece, the Fantasy Op. 17. Although Zimerman seemed marginally less comfortable here than in the Chopin...
...well to host him at Symphony Hall where his foolproof program of old Austro-German masters brought the house down. Perahia opened with a lesser-known Bach English Suite, the fifth, in E minor, S. 810. The Prelude was full of crisp slides and sounded a lot like the F-sharp Major Prelude from Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier. The allemande was suffused with a sense of wonder at Bach's creation, but the courante was a little muddled. This particular Suite has passepieds instead of minuets, and they could have been more sprightly. But the concluding gigue...
...have to agree to aerial spraying in trying to thwart the Mediterranean fruit fly [July 27]. As the 1981 edition of the Farmers' Almanac specifically points out, "Scientists have discovered that the mating call of the Mediterranean fruit fly has exactly the same frequency as lower F-sharp on the harmonica." All the good Governor needs is a harmonica and an amplifier...