Word: flatness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...wistful, genuine, eerie and, above all, nuanced. It is, in fact, so scintillating that it shines light on another flaw in Nicholson's text: it needs to be written in the first person. The peculiarities of Nicholson's style--in particular, his penchant for sprawling over-description--sound flat in the voice of an outside observer: "He knew what a wasteful, hopeless emotion jealousy was," or "[Absence] was what she called it, though it was not the most obvious term. It was not any sort of physical absence." Since Stuart and Stuart alone is allowed to heave his heart into...
...every song pumped forward like an amphetamine-induced joy ride, however, GO! would fall flat on its otherwise toe-tapping feet. Hanley & Co. have already perfected the art of incorporating myriad tempos and styles--all deviating from the same rock standard, of course--into their musical output, but this album boasts few departures from the peppy pace set by "I Got Time." This is not to say GO! will bore or sound repetitive because within the charming, speed-laced tunes are some of the best variations Letters To Cleo have ever recorded...
This is not to say Pollini was at all lacking in his fabled lyricism. With no prizes left to win and therefore little left to prove, the aging artist had no incentive to subsume beauty of tone to mere bravura. His performance of the Berceuse in D flat, nestled between the two Ballades and the muscular Op. 39 Scherzo, was a pearl--though he glided so rapidly through the right-hand runs that it didn't end up sounding all that much like a cradle song. Like the rest of the program, this piece benefited from the pianist's indescribably...
...audience, Pollini then catered to its insatiability with three tasty encores--another demonstration of his irreproachable showmanship. Beginning with a lovely rendition of Debussy's "Isle Joyeuse," he raised the ante with the best, most exquisitely nuanced performance of Chopin's Op. 27 No. 2 Nocturne in D-flat that I've ever heard, live or on disc. Thank goodness the crowd didn't ask for a fourth helping of dessert: it would have been impossible to surpass the scintillating brilliance of the famous "Black Key" etude with which he concluded...
Although he called officials at the College to request a wheelchair in addition to the crutches he had at home, the wheelchair that greeted Saldivar had a flat tire...