Word: pianos
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DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER JOHN LA MONTAINE? In 1959 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his Piano Concerto, Op. 9, and went on to a career as an unabashed writer of down-to-earth tonal music. Now the composer, 72, has issued several works on the Fredonia Discs label (3947 Fredonia Drive, Hollywood, California 90068) that ought to trigger a reappraisal. Wilderness Journal, a symphony for bass- baritone (the late Donald Gramm), organ and orchestra (the National Symphony), on texts by Thoreau, surges and soars, while The Nine Lessons of Christmas lyrically transcends its seasonal origins. And La Montaine the virtuoso...
...backdrop for Rough Crossing is spare. The costumes and set are adequate, but not especially imaginative. For a play of this kind where the action flip-flops between the straight and satirical, a few more quirky details would have been appreciated. One creative touch was the addition of a piano player (in the original script Adam Adam plays the music) on stage. The Quincy House JCR may not be the best place to stage a show, especially when considering seating. Advice to the visually or vertically challenged: get there early...
...Kiss) and composer Gerald Busby fuse the two in ORPHEUS IN LOVE, an off- Broadway retelling of the Orpheus legend -- mingling hints of Oedipus -- in which the characters are music teachers or pupils and hell is interwoven with high school. The sound, too, (by a string quartet, piano and two bassoons) - hovers between melodic-traditional and staccato-modern. Kirsten Sanderson's witty staging deftly evokes dreams -- their fleeting lyricism, transposed logic, sexual ambiguity and poignant blend of chagrin and nostalgia...
...such as Move with Me, Twisted and Red Paint, show Cherry in a soul-searching mood, singing and rapping almost mystically ("Move with me, I'm strong enough/ To be weak in your arms"). The sparse, moody arrangements, combining synthesizer strings, record-turntable scratches and occasional guitar, bass and piano riffs, give her hip-hop, rock and jazz fusion a delightfully surreal ambience...
...overdressed couple from Houston berating a desk clerk or a homesick American family dashing into a Venetian Wendy's. The U.S. cannot be that broke, comes the comforting thought, since some of us still have enough credit left on our charge cards to venture abroad. As the outdoor piano in front of Florian cafe plays Feelings, there is an irresistible urge to gauge world prosperity by categorizing vacationers by nationality: a large Japanese tour group; seven Germans all with guidebooks; three French couples (undoubtedly sneering at the food); and -- yea, team! -- five certifiable Americans...