Word: fortissimo
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...veritable Heldenflöte; it actually is one. It weighs 20 oz., compared with 15 oz. for the average silver model. Shaffer psychs herself into certain musical moods, thinking of bright white lights for staccato passages, for instance, or of the setting sun when she has to change from fortissimo to pianissimo. "As the sun drops lower," she explains, "the heat may lessen but the colors become more intense. That is what a pianissimo should be like...
...biblical spectacular, all the extras would be wearing Mickey Mouse wristwatches. His directorial tone has the subtlety of a timp roll played on an eyeball. A new Russell film, particularly one about an artist (the dramatization of artists' lives being his forte, or rather his fortissimo), is therefore to be approached warily -especially with a title like Savage Messiah. What squalling imp have those nuns of Loudun now suckled...
...control: this was a pleasure to watch. The Symphony also included strangely disturbing phrases, which gradually built into loud and powerful sections: once again, Mr. Mehta was in full control, wielding a very precise energy over the orchestra. The final section involves a sudden shift, from an extremely loud fortissimo to a barely audible pianissimo--and Mehta employed finger-tip control in the transition. Ending the work was a mysterious piano, celeste, and harp trio, and the audience's reaction, which was hardly overwhelming, was also a bit baffled...
...most clearly, a rather generous-sized foot in a heelless brocade slipper working up and down on the soft pedal while I lie there on the floor watching it at eye-level. In answering Bebb's ad, I am sure that I was, among other things, hungry for fortissimo...
James Yannatos, who conducted the Mass, has an unusual approach to the piece. His interpretation was generally a novel one, filled with quick tempi and done with a bit too much fortissimo for my taste. But the piece hung together remarkably well under his direction, reaching its peaks in the Credo and the Agnus Dei. There were a few minor flaws, of course; the Kyrie went a bit too fast, the strings weakened during the Sanctus, and the horns were out of shape for the Gloria. The bass did not project as well as it could have, but this...