Word: sonata
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Davison, who is doing graduate work in the Harvard music department, warmed up with the Preclude from Bach's Fourth English Suite-a routine piece, mechanically played. After a pleasant set of Variations by Buxtehude, Davison Joined with violinist Paul Revitt to play Schubert's Duo Sonata, (op.162). Despite the high opus number, it is a product of Schubert's youth, full of happy tunes and harmonic surprises. But Revitt's thievish tone and generally erratic technique made thorough enjoyment of the price difficult. Three Brahms Intermezzi followed, all of them receiving broad, well-molded performances...
Fuchs and Balsam play the sonatas with an energy and selfless dedication that more renowned virtuosi rarely show. Even in such an oft-performed favorite as the Kreutzer Sonata, their version has as deep and clear a musical perspective as any on the market...
...more details than they believed possible, played in tones of pastel shading. Then the pianist flashed through Schoenberg's tortuous Suite, Op. 25 and surprised even hardened modern music lovers: its improbable burblings came through almost as easily as a Viennese waltz. After that came Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 110 and, for a dazzling change of pace, Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit. When it was over, the audience demanded four encores...
...most striking work of the evening was the Piano Sonata in G which received its first public performance by the composer, Paul Des Marais, instructor in music. The breadth of development in the opening movement is what impressed me first. Here is a modern composer who does not strip his form to its barest outlines. The piano is treated in almost orchestral terms, yielding in quick succession highly contrasting effects of sonority, dynamics, and range. The opening theme of the first movement is violent and harsh but it soon alternates with some warmly expressive passages that reminded me of Brahms...
...Phoebe Wood seemed logically constructed, though it did not make much of a point to me (it was heard to its disadvantage immediately after the Des Marais). I found Stuart Feder's Sonatina Movement an attractive, waltz like number. The two movements performed from Mr. Wester guard's Violia Sonata impressed me as pleasant and skillfully conceived...