Word: maestro
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Neat, round, goateed, vaguely bomb-shaped Sir Thomas Beecham plummeted into Brooklyn, announced: "I am not prepared to transform your community overnight into a center of art and enlightenment. However, if there is anything I can do. . . ." But the British maestro whipped the year-old Brooklyn Symphony into a little demonstration of Mozart and Beethoven that stole the musical show from the neighboring New York Philharmonic under Artur Rodzinski. "I prefer the smaller orchestras," sniffed Sir Thomas, "because they're better behaved. I find they're not possessed of this overweening self-satisfaction...
...assisted by a cast of able youngsters, each of whom does his best to steal scenes from an incomparable scene stealer--and they come awfully close every once in a while. Roddy McDowell--the youthful Huw Morgan of "How Green Was My Valley"--and Ann Baxter give the old maestro quite a run for his money. And there's a wonderful portrayal of an unstereotyped Nazi officer to round things...
...despite this modern dress, Rosalinda looked and sounded enough like Fledermaus to leave oldtime Strauss fans gasping with pleasure. Strauss's rose-tinted melodies (conducted by Viennese Maestro Erich Korngold, specially imported from Hollywood for the job) set its opening-night audience to swaying in their seats, caused at least one white-haired fan, Walter Damrosch, to go shagging down the aisle like a Habsburg jitterbug...
...Favorite Spy," Kyser's band plays about one and a half musical numbers, and spends the rest of the time following its one-lunged maestro around through an aimless plot involving--surprise!--Nazi spies and saboteurs, and an assorted bunch of blondes and brunettes. If Kyser is worried about his future, he can eliminate acting as a possibility. He'd better hold on to that orchestra...
...familiar tear-jerker about the barroom piano thumper (Charles Laughton) who has written the great symphony, is finally given a chance to play it by a Toscanini-like maestro (Victor Francen...