Word: sonata
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Included on the program were excerpts from Thomson's The Mother of Us All, a two-act opera about Feminist Susan B. Anthony, with text by Gertrude Stein, the Sonata da Chiesa, Etudes for Piano, Lamentations for Accordion. Although Thomson's neatly fashioned, strongly melodic film scores have a misty, impressionist charm and are his best known works, there is a more abrasive and far more somber side to his music. It was clearly demonstrated in the anniversary concert's Sonata da Chiesa, with its opening chorale based on a Kansas City Negro church service. Strangely...
Beethoven's grand "Tempest" sonata (Op. 31, No. 2) dominated the program. Mr. Boyk's interpretation could be challenged here more than anywhere else. For example, he began at a Killing tempo, and it ended up wounding him; the first movement was too fast. While he had never swelled beyond a forte in the first two numbers of the program, here he used his six-foot build to advantage: the Steinway really stomped. Again in the third movement, an "Allegretto," Boyk travelled presto. As a result, he had to stretch rhythms at the crucial transitions. But the music's momentum...
Whether or not Boyk intentionally programmed Chopin's "Raindrop" prelude to follow the "Tempest" sonata, the music unfortunately dropped from a storm to a drizzle. The Chopin prelude in D minor ended the program on a dazzling, but musically insubstantial, note. Chopin, though entertaining, cheapened the program...
...Bach's Sonata No. 3 in E major for violin and klavier opened the program. In the classic manner, the gamba, with its forest of tuning pegs, doubled the continuo of the harpsichord. The trio maintained a nice balance; its members played to each other. But slippery intonation and lack of clarity marred the violin's performance, and the harpsichord indulged in unjustified rubatos and changes of tempi...
...parts of the Sonata No. 2 in D major for gamba and klavier, the double-manualed harpsichord sounded as if it were sporadically unwinding. It is no criticism of the gamba to observe that it lacks intensity in the ranges where the cello would have it, but the notes themselves seemed lackadaisically defined in the fast passages, and the general shape of the concluding fast movement was unclear...