Word: violas
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...report from NYC: the city was crawling with Harvard peeps--from the Bill Viola exhibit at the Whitney, to the Metropolitan Opera, to downtown shopping Meccas. The NYC cook kidz, clad in de rigeur black, chattered at downtown hot spot Moomba, overhearing cell phone conversation about West Coast casting, Oscar gossip and the upcoming Seventh on Sixth fashion shows in Bryant Park. As ever, the eight dollar martini called for "drinks at the bar with my American Express," as Wyclef puts...
Each of the twelve variations featured one part of the orchestra as a soloist in this creative piece, such as a powerfully emotional viola solo by Sarah Darling `01, vibrant with chords and trills that built up tension. More solos came along throughout variations including a morning song by the oboe and bassoon, while the noticeable act of taking off the string mutes presented a disturbing trumpet and trombone variation, and led off to others such as the solo violinist, hornists and the return of the cello and harp. A lively end with a piccolo solo created a warlike effect...
...intense after that. Every phrase in this movement seemed fraught with some deeper meaning, as ponderous strings led the orchestra to a profound conclusion and a transition to "Sleepy Bones," the last and perhaps loveliest of the movements. A lucid, delicate flute line passed to a low and beautiful viola as this most melodic of the movements progressed to an ending almost beyond endurance in its volume and dissonance...
Among the two violins, viola and cello, there is a sense conveyed that goes beyond clarity and sparkle, beyond coloration and eloquence. There is a sense of oneness. It is a unity that is conveyed in moments when the ensemble sounds not like four distinct instruments, but like one single voice that is guided by the same rhythmn and timing--and more importantly, by the same vision and spirit. What is remarkable is that this doesn't come at the sacrifice of the quartet's many personalities. Somewhere between the pauses and rests, between the crescendos and dimenuendos, the players...
Many of these moments emerged in their first piece, Haydn's Quartet in D Major, Opus 20. The second movement, Un poco adagio affectuoso brought a confluence of musical constraint and emotional effervescence. In giving the upper melody to the cello, the bass line to the viola and a flirtation of rising and falling scale passages to the first and second violins, Haydn's piece created a mood that the quartet conveyed as sad, thoughtful and full of wonder. While the fourth movement, Presto e scherzando presented a direct contrast--with its expulsions of happiness in the form of harmonic...