Word: toccata
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STRAVINSKY: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR (Philips). A rare and rewarding encounter between the neoclassicist Stravinsky and the romantic David Oistrakh. Oistrakh gaily sets off short rhythmic explosions in the Toccata and Capriccio and then lets the melodies pour out in the two calm stretches called arias. Conductor Bernard Haitink and the Lamoureux Orchestra are also attuned to every instantaneous change in the musical weather...
...holiday in Germany and Holland, playing with artistry the twelve surviving baroque organs of Master Builder Arp Schnitger (1648-1719). The tones of Schnitger's organs are exceptionally bright and buoyant, wrong for the romantics but wonderful for the music Biggs plays: Bach (including the Dorian Toccata and Fugue in D Minor) and chorale preludes by the modern Berlin composer Ernst Pepping...
...overlooked on the Angel record are four short pieces by Schumann on side two, all recorded by Horowitz on the thirties. They are: "Toccata," "Arabesque," "Traumes Wirren," (from the "Phantasiestueke") and "Presto Passionato...
...Toccata," on paper, looks like a five-finger exercise. Schumann wrote it when he still hoped to be a virtuoso, and proudly claimed it was one of the most difficult pieces ever written for piano. Horowitz, of course, reduces the difficulties of a "semi-quaver" to nothing, and brings out the smooth melody. As for "Arabesque," I heard it for the first time, and wished it were recorded more often. My delight was only slightly lessened when I read the record jacket, which said the piece contained two imaginary characters--the bold Florestan and the tender Eusebius--who represented...
...Piano Concerto, with John Browning as soloist, Composers Copland, Walter Piston and William Bergsma had also provided opening-week pieces, all of them competent occasional music (Copland's brassy, sinewy Connotations for Orchestra, Piston's stately Lincoln Center Festival Overture, Bergsma's festive In Celebration: Toccata for the Sixth Day). But of the four new works, Barber's seemed most likely to survive in the repertory. A busy, intricate piece, it blazed with melody and bristled with ideas. The audience gave it, and Composer Barber, a standing ovation in the most spontaneous accolade of the week...