Word: timpani
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...18th century style from the first desk, the 16-man ensemble achieves a dramatic precision that would do credit to Toscanini. The three Divertimenti for strings, written when Mozart was 16, are stunning miniatures in Italian rococo symphonic style. The Serenata Notturna, scored for two small orchestras plus timpani, also sparkles with classical elegance...
...most recently composed and the most colorfully exciting offering. Beginning with a stunning passage for bassoons, saxes, and solo horn, the composition also contains a lovely oboe solo, and an evocative passage for flute, piccolo, and bass drum side. In addition, Persichetti calls for hammer and anvil, four timpani, xylophone, sizzle cymbal, ratchet, marimba sticks on suspended cymbals, and bare hands on snare drum. At the end of the composition, all these returned in a brilliant overall unity...
...troublesome iron curtain was the one that divided the massive Kiel Auditorium into two parts: a symphony hall on one side and a sports arena on the other. Once, Pianist Andre Watts, playing a concerto with the orchestra, heard a strange noise. "I thought something was wrong with the timpani," he said, "but it was only applause for a basketball game on the other side of the curtain." Another time, a union party at the arena got so boisterous that light bulbs began falling into the string section...
...Euridice, and in the third act consoles Orfeo with four lengthy passages. But the opera also sparkles with tuneful solos, and concludes with a scene of effective operatic violence: the Bacchanalians who have poisoned Orfeo are swept away by a tidal wave; the curtain falls to an eerie, pianissimo timpani roll, with only the dead couple on the empty stage...
Peggy Lucchesi, mother of three, hauls around two 35-lb, timpani and beats the big bass drum for the San Francisco Symphony. While most married symphony women practice the "offbeat rhythm method"-that is, plan their babies for delivery during the off-season-Peggy merrily pounds away on her drum practically right into the labor room. Before her last delivery, the boys in the band room were betting that the baby would be born with its hands clapped over its ears...