Word: fantasias
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...these siren songs, Walt lent half an ear. Encouraged by Leopold Stokowski and Deems Taylor, he made the biggest boner of his career: Fantasia. Its basic idea, to illustrate music with pictures, was depressing enough to anyone who loves either form of art. Its declared intention to bring "culture" to the "masses" turned out to be silly: it had nothing to do with culture, and the "masses" would have nothing to do with it. Fantasia has never earned back what it cost. Worse yet, though Walt learned a lesson from Fantasia, he learned the wrong one: mistaking for culture what...
...first of the featured works, a small string orchestra under Norman Shapiro's direction performed Purcell's Fantasia on One Note. The novelty of this work lies in the "one note"-C-sustained throughout. All the harmony and counterpoint revolve about this tonal pivot, and it is a tribute to Purcell's genius that the technical tour-de-force never overshadows melodic beauty and expressiveness. Mr. Shapiro's treatment, however, seemed a bit heavy-handed and the players assigned the persistent C could not quite agree on its pitch...
...piece played at the first prom; Serenade to Music, a short choral work written by Vaughan Williams for Wood's golden jubilee as a conductor 16 years ago; Sargent's own Impression of a Windy Day, which had its prom premiere in 1921; Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia, played by Pianist Mark Hambourg, 75, who played his first prom in 1896; Hary Janos Suite, by Hungary's Zoltan Kodaly, which, like works by many other modern composers (e.g., Bartok and Stravinsky), was first introduced to a curious London public at the prom concerts...
David Lewin, in an all-Mozart piano recital Sunday afternoon, did for his composer all that may be expected of intelligent and careful musicianship, conscientious preparation, and a highly competent technique. This is very much indeed. In the D-minor Fantasia the audience could not fail to thrill to the sensitively tapered phrasing of the opening arpeggi, the furious and technically accurate rendition of the contrasting scale passages near the middle, and finally the delicate yet sparkling manner in which he tossed off the final Allegro...
...more taxing C-minor Fantasia did not have this unity of conception. In its opening pages, as in the Menuetto of the E-flat Sonata (R. 282), Mr. Lewin played so slowly that one lost the momentum of individual figurations, not to speak of whole phrases. One might also criticize the frequent obtrusion upon the melodic line of reiterated chords and single notes which should serve only as subdued accompaniment...