Word: sharpness
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Kissin’s performance of Robert Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor was much more convincing. The work was written during the white-heat inspiration of Schumann’s tumultuous courtship of the brilliant pianist, Clara Wieck, whom he would later marry. While the work does not quite reach the desperation and pathos of other Clara-obsessed compositions (such as the Fantasy in C Major), it shares many of the features of other Schumann compositions from the same time period, namely capriciousness and extremity of emotions (from the heroic Eusebius to the introspective...
...Liszt’s “Rigoletto” paraphrase of Verdi. Both demonstrated the utmost in fluidity and lyricism—in Kissin’s hands, the hideously difficult becomes the sublimely simple, even if the material is third-rate fluff. Scriabin’s D-sharp minor Étude (Op. 8, #12) was next (a nod to Horowitz), followed by an arrangement of waltzes from Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus—again, breathtakingly impressive. Still, I can’t help but wonder how much more enjoyable it would have been had Kissin...
...interrupted by spontaneous applause. After receiving such a warm welcome, MacDonald took the stage to read “The Apple Tree” by Trevanian. The story, set in a Basque village in Western Europe, evokes fables told to children about provincial life, but distinguishes itself with a sharp sense of humor. A tale of rival widows battling over a mutually owned apple tree, it combines the authentic flavor of Basque culture with a tale of loneliness and the human drive to keep on living. Trevanian’s hallmark, however, is his approach to humor. MacDonald capitalized...
...piano appeared amid flashing beams, and Amos, clad in shoulder-padded white, hurtled onstage, straddled the piano and laid her fingers on the keys. Recent tours had seen her experimenting with a full band, whose bluster was in sharp contrast to the fiery solo piano that had been Amos’ trademark. The “Strange Little Tour,” as it was called, marked a return to the girl-with-a-piano paradigm. In that vein, only three of the songs Amos played that night were from Strange Little Girls, opting instead to grant a grateful audience...
...hope to bring down the Taliban by coaxing moderate elements to switch sides are mistrustful and hostile towards the Northern Alliance, while the Alliance refuses to consider having even moderate Taliban elements in a future government. And the prospect of the Taliban's defeat may even be exacerbating sharp differences between the agendas of the rival Uzbek, Tajik and Hazari components of the Northern Alliance, and between the competing regional interests of Iran, Russia and Pakistan. The Taliban's demise, however, will depend strongly on whether Pashtun groups can be persuaded to switch sides. And despite Pakistan's efforts...