Word: piano
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
ALBERTO GINASTERA: CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA (RCA Victor). The violent and voluptuous new opera Bomarzo (TIME, May 26, 1967) demonstrates that Argentina's Ginastera does not let such modern disciplines as serial technique stand in the way of red-blooded musical drama. His concerto is full of mellow drama as well-racing scales, rushing rhythms and suspenseful pauses, after which, sometimes, nothing much follows. Nevertheless, orchestral color is beautifully provided by the Boston Symphony under Erich Leinsdorf, and flashy keyboard fireworks are brilliantly set off by the young Brazilian pianist Joáo Carlos Martins...
...first mellow chords rippled from the organ and piano, Aretha stepped out of the robed choir that was massed on tiers behind the altar. Moving in front of a lectern, she closed her eyes and sang: "Precious Lord, take my hand ..." The congregation nodded or swayed gently in their seats. "Sing it!" they cried, clapping hands. "Amen, amen!" Her melodic lines curved out in steadily rising arcs as she let her spirit dictate variations on the lyrics, finally straining upward in pure soul...
Then 18 months ago she switched to Atlantic Records, which for two decades has specialized in bedrock rhythm & blues. Savvy Producer Jerry Wexler backed her with a funky Memphis rhythm section (which she ably joined on piano), and cut her loose to swing into the soul groove. Her first disk, I Never Loved a Man, sold a million copies. "It had looked for the longest time like I would never have a gold record," she says. "I wanted...
...expectink you!"). But Cecil says: "For the last few years Aretha is simply not Aretha. You see flashes of her, and then she's back in her shell." Since, as a friend puts it, "Aretha comes alive only when she's singing," her only real solace is at the piano, working out a new song, going over a familiar gospel tune, or loosing her feelings in a mournful blues...
...century later, Gottschalk is beginning to be appreciated for what he was-America's first important nationalistic composer. New LPs of his piano music by Amiram Rigai and his two-movement symphony, A Night in the Tropics, show how much he loved the Negro, Creole and Latin American melodies and rhythms. More important, they show that he handled those native folk ingredients with astonishing sophistication, charm and originality. Listening to his music is often like hearing Stephen Foster delivered with the elegance of Chopin and the romantic flair of Berlioz...