Word: sonata
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Command performances were agony. Once, playing before Portugal's Queen Amalia, Bauer found the court piano in such bad shape that half the keys stuck. At the Spanish court he had to struggle through a Beethoven sonata while twelve-year-old Alfonso XIII romped about him, and the Infanta Isabella chattered all the way through the piece ("How like Wagner . . . This reminds me of Chopin...
...Ives: Sonata No. 2, "Concord" (John Kirkpatrick, pianist; Columbia, 9 sides). Written around 1913 by the long "forgotten" U.S. composer who is a recluse in Connecticut, this sonata, has been called "the greatest music composed by an American," which is neither true nor saying so much as it seems to. Listeners will find it hard digging at first, but there is gold there. The performance is better than the dull recording...
...what was played in concert halls during the season. For the second straight year, Chopin's Ballade in G Minor won the prize. In 225 piano recitals, it had been played, for better or worse, in more than one out of ten. Runner-up: Beethoven's "Appassionata" sonata...
...Sonata and Chopin waltzes. As usual, she put on a good show by changing dresses three times (lilac for Liszt, black for Bach, green for Chopin). Her encore, Home, Sweet Home, had them stamping their feet...
These introductory bits served a purpose, however, in preparing both pianist and audience for Hindemith's Sonata No. 1, for by the time Lee reached the second movement it was apparent to all that he was in complete command. The Hindemith piece, a product of the composer's earlier romantic period, is somewhat long for what it contains, nor does it have sufficient unity to bind it together. "In the tempo of a very slow march," the second movement, however, does include passages of great beauty, and the pianist put it forth with unquestioned understanding and competence. The growing excitement...