Word: virtuoso
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There are several great musicians in Boston, people as good as any in the country: Mike Tschudin and Walter Powers of Listening, both among the top in their instruments; Peter Ivers, Harvard graduate and harp virtuoso, if he'd ever get out of the Chinese Anal-Retentive New Orleans Do-Dah Band bag; Richard Shamach of Eden's Children, matched in guitar speed only by Danny Kalb and in virtuosity by Mike Bloomfield; Peter Wolf and J. Geils, who between them have kept blues alive in Boston since Al Wilson left; the old rhythm section of the Bead Game, Lassic...
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ: A CONCERT AT CARNEGIE HALL (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). A Christmas gift of 50 uninterrupted minutes of a virtuoso piano recital. Repeat...
Everything, that is, except the music, which looms far larger today than it did in Bach's own time. In 18th century Germany, Bach had a national reputation as a virtuoso organist. Yet as a composer, he attracted mostly condescending notice-even his son Johann Christian, one of the four Bach children who distinguished themselves as composers, referred to him as "the Old Wig." Today, of course, Bach is universally ranked among the transcendent creators of Western civilization. Choral works that he turned out for rowdy schoolboys to sing in drafty provincial churches are cherished by the world...
...Panorama. In a way, though, The Beatles is too much a virtuoso display of the quartet's versatility. From the ricky-tick Honey Pie to the West Indian Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da to the schmaltzy Good Night, a sweeping panorama of pop genres unfolds in parodies, pastiches, takeoffs and put-ons. The boys even spoof themselves. George Harrison's Savoy Truffle contains a cross reference to Lennon and Mc Cartney's Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. In Rocky Raccoon, Paul McCartney imitates successfully and amusingly the nasal delivery of Bob Dylan. The lyric...
...sneaking suspicion that the Beatles stayed away from the blues for so long because they were incapable of it disappears after "Yer Blues." Lacking a guitar virtuoso like Jeff Beck or Clapton, the Beatles have fashioned their own version of the medium, a kind of pop-blues that is faithful to the spirit and style of the real blues. It is so exciting to hear the Beatles play the blues that one is tempted to wish that they might fully commit themselves...