Word: pianos
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Falla: Suite Populaire Espagnole (Isaac Stern, violin; Alexander Zakin, piano; Columbia, 3 sides). The six parts of this suite were originally written for voice and piano; in this transcription, Violinist Stern catches every flicker of flame arid fillip of flavor. Falla at his Spanish best. Recording: excellent...
Mozart: Sonata in B Flat, K. 454 (Georg Kulenkampff, violin; Georg Sold, piano; English Decca, 6 sides). A clean, forthright performance of a minor classic. Recording: excellent...
...dubious investment. At home, Albert's brothers & sisters called him "the dreamer." At school, reading and writing came hard to him, and his nervous giggle earned him the nickname of Isaac (in Hebrew, "He laughs"). His parents had all they could do to keep him at his piano lessons. Twenty minutes was set aside for practicing each day, but Albert often scandalized the family by spending the first 15 minutes in the bathroom groaning with a trumped-up stomachache...
...employed by the wicked to prove to them by his example that virtue doesn't pay." His targets ranged from the ancient Greeks ("Greek tragedy, that unparalleled bore, is confined almost wholly to actresses who have grown too fat for Ibsen") to chiropractors ("heroic pummeling by a retired piano-mover"). Since he was "a skeptic as to all ideas, I have never suffered a pang when the ideas of some other imbecile prevailed...
...when he attended a studio party for the then unknown young actress who had just gotten rave notices for her first big picture. María Félix invited Lara to a party next night at her apartment. She apologized for not having a piano, and asked him to bring a guitarist along. Instead, Lara sent a baby grand with the note: "To the incomparable María Félix from her admirer, Agustin Lara." They were married soon after. Every Mexican knows how Lara's famous María Bonita was composed during an enraptured trip...