Word: violiniste
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...Violinist Alexander Schneider is no dazzling virtuoso. "After I first heard Heifetz, I cried for a week," he says. Nor, when he conducts an orchestra, is he a prima donna of the podium. Frequently, in fact, he is not even on the podium, preferring to lead unobtrusively from within the ranks with a toss of his head and a wave of his bow. Nor, as an intermittent member of the Budapest Quartet for more than 35 years, has he ever sawed away on anything but the No. 2 violin part. In short, he has made a career of playing second...
...offbeat chamber series at Manhattan's New School. A restless exponent of widening the repertory, he once formed a Schneider String Quartet expressly to perform all 83 of Haydn's quartets. He has been musical godfather to numerous younger musicians, among them Pianist Peter Serkin, Violinist Jaime Laredo, and the Guarneri Quartet...
Oskar Werner is the Him-a famous symphony orchestra conductor (instead of a violinist when Leslie Howard played Him in Intermezzo 29 years ago). Egocentric, arrogant and glamorously rich, he purrs out to his country estate in a brown Bentley convertible for impeccably served alfresco lunches between rehearsals. Sprightly, blonde Barbara Ferris is the lissome young newspaper reporter sent to interview the great conductor. From then on, it seems, neither of them gets any work done, but they have a lot of fun twirling about in the vortex of a Technicolor London-little restaurants, antique shops, bed, concert halls...
Although during the Hayden piece the second violinist appeared to provide background for Schneider's brilliant performance, the quartet nonetheless played as one--with perfect balance, coordinated variation, and excellent timing...
...Mozart piece got off to a rather weak start when the cellist's music dropped to the floor. With great aplomb, Schneider leaned down to pick it up, commenting, "Well done." During the first movement, Allegro, certain motifs played by the violinist were to be echoed by the violist, who, in contrast, failed to match the agility and lightness of Schneider's playing. The group did, however, make very effective transitions and tempo changes. Played with apparent quickness and ease, the Menuetto Allegretto had an incomparable dance-like quality. The final Allegro moved well and provided an excellent ending...