Word: soloist
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ROBERT PORTNEY, violin soloist in the Tchaikovsky, was not helpful to the ensemble. He appeared lost in indifference when not tuning his instrument (during several orchestral passages) or playing solo. His technique is impressive and certainly of professional caliber. His very mastery might cover up for the cavalier attitude he held toward an audience he apparently felt was not up to New York concert standards. Coming to a dead stop in the middle of the first movement cadenza, Portney explained that it was hot (more than obvious to everyone in the room) and that he wished to tune the violin...
Gerry Moshell has put together a high-powered program of concertos at Kirkland House this Friday night. Two of the best violinists in the area are soloists, Robert Portney in the Tchaikovsky concerto and Ronan Lefkowitz (with Barbara Jacobson, vlute, and Hugh Wolff, harpsichord) in the Bach Fifth Brandenburg. Moshell is soloist in a DeFalla harpsichord concerto. No excuse for missing this: it's free and given twice the same evening, at 8:30 and midnight...
Betts' genius taken for granted, the real star of this album is piano man Chuck Leavell. Taken from the bank of Allman running buddy Alex Taylor, Leavell gives the band depth, and an added soloist. His playing, whether it's out front, or with the ensemble, is fluent and varied throughout. His chording underneath Gregg's vocal on "Southbound" focuses the rhythm section, and keeps time on the twelve bar bridge. His solo shows off his Otis Spann influences, rolling chords and full notes, all done in the middle ranges to avoid the piano's occasionally fragile sound...
...then headed for New York in 1943 (he was medically exempt from war service). Two days after arriving, he landed a job with Ben Webster's band. Soon he was playing with such performers as Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Finally he established himself as a soloist in Manhattan's plush East Side nighteries as well as clubs on the bop frontier of "The Street" (West 52nd Street...
...Conductor Milton Katims told her stories and played games after her appearance with the Seattle Symphony. At age twelve, Dylana is a thoroughly natural child whom everybody seems to adore. Last week at the New York Philharmonic Promenades, where she appeared as violin soloist under Maestro André Kostelanetz, one of her concerns seemed to be to limit her smile so as to conceal the braces on her teeth. Despite a few nerve-induced intonation miscues, she played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with sweep, dash and daring...