Word: passacaglias
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Sunday's concert opened with a new work, Victor Yellin's Passacaglia for String Orchestra. Over a repeated bass passage, Yellin has devised an extended development that builds to unusually powerful climaxes; even his use of dissonance seemed subordinate to the overall dramatic pattern. The rhythms had a tendency to excessive four-squareness, at least on first hearing, but sincerity and intense emotion kept the Passacaglia nearly always exciting...
Stefan Wolpe (Esoteric). If these three pieces were jazz, they would be called "far out," for German-born, U.S.-naturalized Composer Wolpe. 52, has hewed his way to extremes of modernity. Passacaglia (played by David Tudor) was written in the early '30s, is as dissonant and involved as the more recent Violin Sonata (with Frances Magnes and Tudor). Composer Wolpe has taught jazz musicians, and his Quartet for Trumpet (Bob Nagel), Tenor Sax (Al Cohn), Piano (Jack Maxin) and Percussion (Al Howard) has, a barely recognizable jazz flavor. Performances: superb...
...quartet-Alto Saxophonist Paul Desmond, Drummer Joe Dodge and Bass Player Bob Bates-go to work. Desmond's tones are plaintive and pure, the rhythm of drum and bass is as rich and firm as a deep-pile carpet. Like Bach starting off to improvise a passacaglia, they lay down the tune-say, Let's Fall in Love-as a kind of groundwork. Desmond's eyes close, his long fingers glide over his alto's mother-of-pearl keys, and he is off on a flight that may take him into Moorish arabesques or old English...
...revolved around his taunting sweetheart (beautifully danced by pert Nathalie Philippart, his wife) with the intensity of an angry bird. His tremendous leaps, over chairs and tables, were sudden darts into the air. Even with its hanging scene, Le Jeune Homme (danced incongruously to the Bach C Minor Passacaglia) was no great ballet. But the fans found plenty of excitement in both the Babil...
...program will include: Bach, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor; Haydn, Symphony in G major, No. 88; Berlioz, Overtime to Beatrice and Benedick; and Strauss, Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, Op.35...