Word: ops
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...beginning of the Beethoven Sonata in G (Op. 31 No. 1) Ohlsson's fingerwork was troublingly sloppy, at least compared to his voicing; but this may have been a matter of adjusting to the piano. He took the opening allegro a good sight slower than the indicated vivace, but used the broadened canvas to play around with all its quirky syncopations...
...second half of the recital was all Chopin, a calculation made no doubt in part on the success of Ohlsson's recordings for the Arabesque label. The Op. 46 Allegro de Concert in A is an exceedingly unpianistic work, and Ohlssonis performance was less than motivated, but at least he was about to make some sense of it. His ferocity in the chromatic runs recalled his excellent performance of the finale of the Second Piano Concerto...
...Op. 64 Waltzes are basically failsafe for any equipped pianist, but one might have hoped for a bit more gusto from Ohlsson, whose suavity in these three miniatures was at times offputting. The Minute Waltz (at 1:53, mind you) sounded tossed-off, although with a hilarious ending, and the third of the set had nothing to recommend it. Only the ravishing C-sharp minor, trademark of Rachmaninoff and Rubinstein, demanded close listening. Ohlsson privileged the left hand at times when other pianists wouldn't, and sculpted a middle voice between the melodies...
Things got slightly worse with the great C minor Nocturne, Op. 48, at a tempo that sapped its strength. This is one of the few performances I can think of where the chordal middle section was actually more interesting than its famous neighbors. The left hand would disappear and reemerge at odd, disjunct moments, and there was no sense of heightening at the return of the first theme in its slick new clothes...
...Anti-Social Behavior" by Jonathan Jacoby (Opinion, Nov. 4): What is the justification for an individual's existence? The idea of justification appears in various places in Jacoby's op-ed, with millionaires justifying their existence through "corpulent, guilt-ridden" donations to charities, and in his claim that one's "career choice is only valid if you can justify it" to a "Tibetan political prisoner...