Word: soloist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Carrying his priceless Stradivarius cello* over his head like a toy. strapping (6 ft. 3½ in.) Virtuoso Gregor Piatigorsky threaded his way through the string section of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony one evening last week, settled himself into the soloist's chair by the podium and launched into a Cello Concerto newly written for him by his old friend Sir William Walton. If the piece itself seemed to ramble like a sun-warmed cow through sprawling masses of musical foliage. Piatigorsky's playing of it was a marvel of taste and tone. Under his sensitive hands...
Sheldon Lubow, a pupil of Claudio Arrau, and a winner of the Pierian Sodality Concerto Contest, was soloist in the next work, Liszt's Piano Concerto in E. With his big tone and sure technique, Lubow was in full control of the brilliant Liszt idiom. Fortissimo octaves boomed and cadenzas scintillated with the appropriate spice and dash. Lubow has one disturbing mannerism, however--he will linger on an appogiatura until the suspense becomes unbearable and the note of resolution is given up forever as lost. The orchestra, which seemed to revel in the bacchanalian decadance of the music, gave...
Hose in the Horns. Other selections: a concerto in which the piano soloist is under the impression that he is supposed to be playing Grieg, while the conductor is concentrating on Tchaikovsky and the orchestra is working on Roll Out the Barrel; a second concerto, written by Mozart's father Leopold for alpenhorn and played on two lengths of garden hose by Britain's distinguished Hornist Dennis Brain; a set of variations for wheezy winds, featuring Hoffnung himself playing a tuba so big that it runs on wheels and requires built-in bellows to supply enough wind...
...playing and singing in the Magnificat were generally of high quality. The vocal soloists, Lee Calder, Dorothy Crawford, Sarah Jane Smith, Thomas Beveridge, and Karl Sorensen all gave musicianly readings of the arias, duet, and trio. At times there was not sufficient balance between soloist and orchestra, as often the result of too soft singing as too loud playing. Dorothy Crawford, in particular, could not seem to muster enough volume. There were also instances of imbalance between chorus and orchestra, caused mainly by the great army of tenors and basses that filled the stage...
Boston Symphony (Mon. 8:05 p.m., NBC). With Charles Munch. Soloist: Isaac Stern...