Word: ops
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Schumann's Konzertstueck for four horns and orchestra, Op. 86, was another sort of problem, for while it was good to hear this interesting, energetic piece, it was plain that the supremely confident soloists required had not been found, the horn being a notoriously intractable beast. There was volume, but no dash, nor was the Orchestra able to warm to its part in the proceedings. Unhappily, the Brahms Tragic Overture also turned out in a pale, unsatisfying version. The opening was uncomfortably ponderous rather than massive, while the uncanny march towards the middle was revved up to a prosaic speed...
...without costumes or sets (lost in a plane crash), Robbins & Co. proved to be the hit of the Edinburgh Festival. Most of the program at both Edinburgh and London's Piccadilly Theatre was originally devised for last year's Spoleto Festival. Included last week were N.Y. Export, Op. Jazz, a deadpan exercise in which knees break, shoulders shrug in a serpentine evocation of youthful loneliness; The Concert, Robbins' acidulous spoof of the classical ballet; Moves, an abstract ballet without musical accompaniment; and Afternoon of a Faun, Robbins' coolly lyrical dissection of Debussy...
...most critics, Op. Jazz was the high point of the evening. "The hottest, coolest orgy I have experienced!" cried the Sunday Times reviewer. As for the program as a whole, the Daily Express found it "as exciting to us Limeys as anything that could be dished up by Chinese, Turks, Russians or what have you." To the granny London Times it was apparent that "what Diaghilev did for a past generation of balletgoers, Robbins is doing now. [He] is evolving the valid balletic idiom of today." And the Guardian's James Monaghan, after rapping the Royal Ballet...
...opening work, Scnumann's Aminor sonota, Op. 105, Miss Bales evinced a pleasant tone, but not a very large one. Consequently, she was often overpowered by the piano--a common happenstance since Schumann, a pianist himself, tended to favor his own instrument in composing his chamber music. Technically, Mr. Tucker handled his part most expertly. The over-all result, however, should have had more passionateness...
...medium: the trio for piano, violin, and 'cello (played, respectively, on this occasion by Bruce Simonds. Robert Brink, and Karl Zeise). The two works: Beethoven's Trio in B-Flat Major ("Archduke"), Op. 97, and Brahms' Trio in B Major, Op. 8--though Brahms' two later contributions to the medium press them hard...