Word: virtuoso
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...second biennial Arctic Winter Games got under way this month in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, it became painfully clear that the organization of the event left something to be desired. Take the case of Simon Tookoome, the Northwest Territories' leading ipirautaqturniq (precision whip flicking) virtuoso. Not only did Too-koome have no competition in his specialty, but the games committee was not even certain that another whip maestro had been invited. For his part, Tookoome left his sealskin whip at home in Baker Lake. But resourcefulness, as much as ipirautaqturniq, is the name of the game. Improvising a whip from...
Organist David Smith presented five works by Jan Sweelinck in two interludes during the program. The Fantasia Chromatica was the standout with its nearbaroque intensity and artifice finishing with an explosion of virtuoso figures. All five pieces were played with intelligence and imaginative registrations. Once again John Adams has provided an outstanding program, bringing together two of the area's very finest choral groups in a sensitive, thoughtful presentation. He did as much with sacred music as is possible in a distinctly secular...
Retiring after no less than 46 years with the New York Philharmonic, the world's top virtuoso on the kettledrums, Saul Goodman, let fall some acerbic sidelights on conductors he has known. Willem Mengelberg: "A very arrogant man. I think he was sure he looked like Beethoven." Artur Rodzinski: "The kind of fellow who made the musicians give him a birthday party at his own house." Seiji Ozawa: "An audience eye-catcher. More than that I can't say about him." Well, one thing more: "He's an egomaniac." Tympanist Goodman's own weakness-or perhaps...
Producing Moliere is always a hazardous adventure. He originally wrote his plays for the Hollywood aristocracy at Versailles which demanded a more ethereal and intellectual theater than a modern audience is apt to prefer. The language carries the entire weight of the play, and the actors must do a virtuoso job of speaking the couples so that they do not lapse into a sing-song monotony. The current Lowell House production of Le Misanthrope overcomes most of these difficulties with a competence which occasionally turns into a braven assurance, and lets some of the funniest lines ever written break through...
Died. Michael Rabin, 35, virtuoso violinist who dazzled millions of concertgoers on six continents; of a skull fracture from a fall in his Manhattan apartment. At the age of three, Rabin demonstrated that he had perfect pitch by plinking notes on the piano to correspond to any sound he heard. At 14, he made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall, launching his professional career with a flawless rendition of Wieniawski's Concerto No. 1. The next year came the first of his 84 appearances with the New York Philharmonic. The pressures of being a prodigy took their toll...