Word: tempo
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...transcribes for viola a work for an extinct instrument. A Viennese violin maker invented the six-stringed arpeggione in 1823 and for some reason Schubert wrote a masterpiece for it. Transcribed, the sonata is one of the mainstays of the viola repertoire. And Doktor, though he chose a questionable tempo to begin with, modulated it with good, sensitive rubatos where needed. Perhaps because he was just not warmed up, some of the technical display in the later movements came out more forced than forceful. Still the Schubert was the most impressive piece on the program...
Hindemith's greatest triumph was in making Wilder more believable: musically, the composer was often able to achieve rapid shifts in stage tempo and mood following a death or a birth with far more convincing effect than Wilder was able to achieve in plain prose. Critics hailed Christmas Dinner as first-rate opera, and the audience was clearly moved. "It certainly fits our family," muttered one damp-eyed woman as she left the hall...
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...
...Jackie was hostess to the others in the Blue Room. There were some Melachrino echoes of the past: the Air Force Strolling Strings (20 wall-to-wall violinists and a harpist) playing Victor Herbert dinner music. Then, after dinner, everyone repaired to the East Room, and the tone and tempo changed abruptly. Casals and his noted colleagues, Violinist Alexander Schneider and Pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski, had decided to forgo the dinner in favor of a short rest and a warm-up rehearsal. They had also ignored the formal order of the night, appeared in black tie because Casals is uncomfortable playing...
Work begins slowly. The men lounge in corners, chatting about home and family, pinching the waitresses as they arrive. Slowly the tempo of preparation rises. Cleavers whack, pots rattle, steam billows up. Jokes and insults fly like salt and pepper; the chef gives the back of his nasty old tongue to a cook caught pilfering a pullet; the broiler man tips a pot of boiling water off a rack and-YEEEOOOWWW...