Word: pianissimi
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...soloist for Beethoven's fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58-technically the most challenging of five; and musically the most adventurous. Schiff is known for silky Schubert and playful Bach, and the Beethoven fit under his fingers less naturally. Although his prodigious gifts made for some hair-raising pianissimi, his playing lacked the requisite Schnabelian drive. He strove for a nearly pedal-free sound at times when more blurring would have been a relief, and he attacked the first movement cadenza with all the grace of an angry farmer. The effect was wild, precipitous, unique--but out of place. The second...
Finale: Maestoso. New York, Carnegie Hall. Wagner's Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde begin at the very edge of audibility. Celibidache's pianissimi are courageous, and in them, Eros stretches provocatively. Each intense, chromatic line is achingly detailed, and when the climax of the Love-Death is reached, the effect is shattering. "Music," says Celibidache, "is a meditation. When it is transcendent, it is as transcendental as a prayer." In the concluding Scythian Suite, Celibidache unleashes Prokofiev's panoply of barbaric orchestral splendor...
...back. But when she nodded to her accompanist and opened her mouth, her rich, bronzelike voice seemed to flood the hall. Her singing was brilliant and ringing at the top; she impressed her audience with an absolute control that permitted her to fade from full voice to soft-spun pianissimi that hushed the hall to admiring silence. If her attitudes sometimes seemed stagy, she was completely natural and quietly moving in Deep River, Sweet Little Jesus Boy, Stand...
...part of the program seemed scarcely important, however, by the time Madame Schwarzkopf had finished singing Schubert's Seligkeit, one of the seven encores which she bestowed upon the audience with the charm of someone giving candy to children who have behaved well. Here her voice soared buoyantly; the pianissimi were fine-spun and beautifully controlled. This vocal gold was at the service of an extraordinary musical intelligence in the Hugo Wolf group which followed the intermission: each song, as Miss Schwarzkopf rendered it, became a drama in miniature. The alternately anguished and tender dialogue of Herr, was traegt...
...sides). The new hero of the Met's Italian fans (TIME, Jan. 20) sings arias from six operas (Mignon, Tosca, Rigoletto, The Barber of Seville, Manon, Elisir d'Amore). The Italian tempi are perhaps a little languid for U.S. tastes, but Tagliavini's contralto-like pianissimi are wondrously lyrical. The imported Italian discs (which cost a whopping $3.25 each) are technically as good as most U.S. recordings. Performance: excellent...