Word: tympany
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...moves through the station. Janney calls it the "further adventures of translating people's movements into sound," and an adventure it will be. He can't quite seem to put his finger on what he wants to do: "Tuesdays it might sound like oboes inside Carnegie Hall; Wednesdays, tympani in a studio; Thursdays, flutes in the Gardner Museum. His confusion is symptomatic of the show...
...prologue promised opera on a grand scale. An eerie rumble of double basses and tympani built in the pit. Then a beam of light stabbed down onto the blackened stage, illuminating the figure of the blind poet Milton (Arnold Moss). "Hail, holy light!" he intoned. The choir of black-robed, monklike figures, clustered on either side of the stage in two four-tiered towers, burst forth in a great invocation: "What in us is dark/ Illumine...
...Cakes and Ale," the violins conveyed the lilting melodies convincingly, although they sometimes sounded muddy. The restrained notes of the strings in "Hankin Booby" constrasted interestingly with the sudden intrusions of the tympani; the orchestra's evocative and controlled playing in this second part was particularly fine and beautiful. The lyrical elegance which suffuses Britten's work appeared most notably in the last part, "Hunt the Squirrel," in which conductor Yannatos had the players emphasize nicely the passages of the strings vying against each other...
...concerto's first movement Allegro signalled some of the unusual, if dubious instrumentation which Gershwin wrote into the work. Elegant piano flurries, which Melnyk delivered with consummate clearness and excitement, seemed more than once gratuitously marred by chopping sounds from the tympani. But Gershwin's orchestration is extolled as clever or charming by many; there's no point in carping about something which many people inveterately enjoy. The performance of such unusual sections and of the rest of the piece was usually quite exciting, due in large part to the pianist's resounding and sensitive execution. The orchestra was particularly...
...lower strings. Throughout this section, Mr. Mehta was in complete control, especially in his precise handling of the cello and bass passages--which were, rhythmically, quite complex. Yet the orchestra's ensemble playing was perfectly clean and balanced, adding to the work's percussive quality. The solo tympani section towards the end of the piece was yet another example of precision: At times, the two tympanists, playing in unison, appeared to operate in exact synchronization, as though both were working under one's control: this was a pleasure to watch. The Symphony also included strangely disturbing phrases, which gradually built...