Word: rossini
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Such a performance obviously garners an encore, and the audience actually brought Shaham back for two--one, a joyfully exaggerated rendition of Rossini's The Barber of Seville (think "Fi-ga-ro!"), the other a surprisingly sedate charmer (arranged by one of the most famous of all violin virtuosi, Fritz Kreisler) entitled The Waltzing Dog--both showing Shaham's ever-present humor. All in all Gil Shaham is truly to be congratulated for a successful glimpse at the world of the virtuoso...
...writer Haruki Murakami's The Windup Bird Chronicle, a hefty 611 page work of near genius, probably won't get the attention that it deserves. Although it spans a comparatively short six months in 1984, beginning with a Japanese thirty-something making a spaghetti breakfast to the beat of Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie," The Windup Bird Chronicle is a noirish, tragi-comic epic worthy of its own praise dictionary. From a bizarre story of the thirty-something's marital and spiritual crisis, Murakami's novel kaleidoscopes out into an exploration of post-WWII Japan that moves from the horrors...
Differences such as these cast an entirely new perspective on Sunday's concert filled with classical favorites. The program consisted of Mozart's Overture to "Le nozze di Figaro" (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492, and his Violin Concerto in G Major, K. 216; Rossini's Overture to "L'italiana in Algeri" (The Italian Girl in Algiers), and Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 36 by Beethoven. The performance was conducted by guest conductor Andrew Parrott, who has won critical acclaim for his recordings of Baroque music. However, Parrott's expertise and insight into Classical and Romantic music...
...Rossini's Overture to "L'italiana in Algeri," like most of Rossini's work, was composed in a hurry; opera companies often lost their commissions and (more often) composers procrastinated up to the last moment. Such haste, though, was not evident in the H&H's sparkling performance. The piece is highly whimsical and melodramatic in an almost burlesque manner, making it easy to see why Rossini overtures figure so prominently in cartoon soundtracks. Despite the overture's comic nature, the beautiful oboe solo at the beginning of the piece was highly expressive. A flute and oboe duet later...
...night concluded with a grand finale performed by 32 students on eight grand pianos: Gioacchino Rossini's "Overture to the opera semiramide...