Word: viola
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Beethoven: "Eyeglass" Duet for Viola and Cello (Joseph de Pasquale and Samuel Mayes; Boston). One of the most recently discovered Beethoven treasures (first published in 1912 ), this one is puckishly scored "with two eyeglasses obbligato." Scholars are still puzzling over what this notation means; Beethoven may have simply wanted to say: "Take a close look at the notes, boys, and play it right." Boston Symphony First Deskmen de Pasquale and Mayes play it so right and so resonantly that it sometimes sounds like a full quartet...
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp (Julius Baker, Lillian Fuchs, Laura Newell; Decca). This is one of the sonatas for various instruments that occupied Debussy in 1915, just before he learned that he was dying of cancer. It is a beauty. Its outlines are firmer than usual, but the darkling tones of the viola, the haunting, woody quality of the low flute, and the romantic harp are as ecstatic as ever. Performance: hard to beat...
...filles of dubious joie, vying for the favor of a sleepy potential customer (Tudor). Famed Choreographer Agnes de Mille, who danced the part first in 1938, turned up as Venus in droopy net stockings, ruffled corselet and a blonde wig suggesting Gorgeous George playing Lady Godiva. As Juno, Ballerina Viola Essen conveyed the bored allure of a Minsky stripper at the first morning show. And as Minerva, Ballet Theater Angel Lucia Chase achieved the air of a brave but discouraged workhorse whose limbs simply can no longer negotiate that hill. In the end, Dancer de Mille's tired...
...Barbaric!" With a springy step, a cheerful but firm manner and a superior baton technique, Katims can be as impassioned as Toscanini (he played the viola under the Maestro for eight years to study his technique, guest-conducted the NBC Symphony 52 times). "Warm . . . tender . . . dream with me!" Katims will shout in rehearsal, or "Barbaric! Make it barbaric!" "Come on," he once implored the cellos, trying to get them in the mood for Salome's final scene. "I want you to play like a bunch of sluts." At a recent rehearsal with Violinist Nathan Milstein, Katims called a halt...
...years' toil, Britain's famed Sir William Walton, 52, last week unveiled his first opera, Troihis and Cressida, at London's Covent Garden. The melodramatic plot (of amorous scheming and betrayal in ancient Troy) was lusty, but the heavily sweet music resembled Walton's lyrical Viola Concerto more than his uproarious Belshazzar's Feast. The London Times called it "a great tragic opera," and the Daily Express hailed "the proudest hour for British music since the premiere of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes." Sir William made his own evaluation: "It won't please...