Word: rubato
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...crowning achievements in instrumental music. She has begun with Nos. 12, 18, 20, 23, 24 and 26, all written after Mozart, renowned as Austria's greatest pianist, moved to Vienna. His playing was famed for its singing touch and exquisite taste. Eschewing broad contrasts and romantic rubato, Miss Kraus emulates the 18th century master...
...romps into a high E perfectly. A crucial disappointment, however, was the lack of a big sound when he needed it. The two climaxes of the second movement depend upon massive crescendos, which the soloist was unable to provide. Lack of a real forte, plus a general timidity with rubato, occasionally impeded a very impressive performance...
Alone with Her Rubato. Landowska was constantly musing over the role of the interpreter in music. "One must have visions. The richer the imagination of a musician, the more possibilities of sonority he hears." She insisted that "the idea of objectivity is Utopian. Can the music of any composer maintain its integrity after passing through the living complex-sanguine or phlegmatic-of this or that interpreter?" But at the same time an artist must not go out of bounds, warns Landowska, reminded of the time Gounod had to chide his wife at a funeral: "Be careful; do not cry louder...
...Landowska alone who decided how loud to cry. When a critic complained that he could not follow her in a certain rubato, she thought, "I am perfectly happy, alone with my rubato. Why should you follow me?" Nor did she welcome ghostly interference, however distinguished the ghost might be. She announced that "if Rameau himself would rise from his grave to demand of me some changes in my interpretation of his Danphine, I would answer, 'You gave birth to it; it is beautiful. But now leave me alone with it. You have nothing more to say; go away...
...musical highlight of the evening was Ursula Oppens' fine performance of the Beethoven Second Piano Concerto. Miss Oppens' command of the instrument is now familiar to Cambridge audiences; her phrasing last night was beautiful, revealing a through understanding of the music. Only occasionally did exaggerated rubato obscure a cadence or mar an elision. Her musicianship showed through especially in the pedalling of the second movement and throughout the cadenza of the first. The orchestra, despite an irresistable tendency to rush, supported her quite well. The soloist herself took command when the Adagio turned into an Andante in restoring the original...