Word: pianists
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Nureyev's determination is nowhere more evident than in class with Stanley Williams, a coach at the School of the American Ballet. Dressed in thick gray leg warmers and a tired white leotard, Nureyev looks sloppier than the rest. A pianist pumps out This Nearly Was Mine while the class practices rapid combination exercises that end in a burst of squeaking slippers. Nureyev finishes last. Working very slowly, he clears an envelope of space round him in which each ringer, each joint, every muscle locates its place. "Keep the arms closer to the body for balance and to project...
...says Kipnis. The impressionism of Debussy or Delius, which calls for a dreamy, sustained tone, simply will not work on a harpsichord. A stride bass can sound downright laughable. The technique of the harpsichordist exists entirely in the fingers, not partly in the arms as with a pianist. The music must be written so that it lies, as Kipnis puts it, "all under the fingers." The special gift of the harpsichord is its startling ability to define close-set contrapuntal strands, together with its staccato brilliance...
Beethoven: Sonata No. 31, Op. 110; Sonata No. 32, Op. 111 (Pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy; London, $6.98). There is no halfway point in attitudes toward late Beethoven. For performers and listeners alike, it is either the ultimate in communicative art or too personal and troubled to share with a large audience. Rubinstein and Horowitz subscribe to the latter view and avoid both the music and the problem. Even a comparative youngster like Cliburn has kept his interpretive thoughts on the matter largely to himself. Fortunately there is Ashkenazy, the finest all-round pianist in music today, a man who is possessed...
Aleksander Slobodyanik Plays Liszt; Sonata in B Minor, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 (Columbia/Melodiya, $6.98). Slobodyanik ranks among the half a dozen best keyboard artists under 35. A galvanizing pianist whose appeal is not confined to showers of notes, he fuses virtuosity with a sense of poetry, but in this account of the Liszt B Minor Sonata, Slobodyanik shows a lapse of heart. The allegro passage work is more muscled than brilliant; where it should be bold it thumps...
With the passage of time, the quartet -Pianist John Lewis, Bassist Percy Heath, Drummer Connie Kay and Vibraharpist Milt Jackson-became a phenomenon of a different sort. It stayed together for 22 years, longer than any other jazz ensemble. Last week, during an emotional yet curiously subdued evening at Manhattan's Avery Fisher Hall, the group confirmed that it was disbanding and gave a final concert...