Word: virtuoso
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Harry Smith's Puck, by contrast, is a curiously dour figure. An extremely active and athletic Puck, he nonetheless refuses to enjoy himself; "Lord, what fools these mortals be" comes out as a hoarse shrick of despair. He is a virtuoso, but he as not Puck. Yet with the help of Barbara Channing's costume (all her costumes are delightful) and Gregory Levin's music he performs some bewitching dances. I wish I could say as much of the fairies (one of them, oddly enough, is missing), who dance capably enough but who sadly jar the harmony of court-yard...
...over the Victor Company of Japan, which did the recording. Listen to the record a few times to become familiar with all the well-known folksongs; it's almost as good as a live Glee Club performance. On its own musical terms, the Harvard Glee Club is really a virtuoso group...
...addition to her ability to punch out octave scales, her technical stamina made it happily evident that she was no namby-pamby dilletance of the piano. Only a slight sloppiness at the end of the first movement and a bit too much pedal at times detracted from the virtuoso level of the performance. Miss Oppens, who performed this concerto also at the Aspen Music Festival, will be around for four years; she has won an audience which will follow her development with interest...
Time was when violin playing delighted the eye as well as the ear. According to an awed contemporary, the great Italian Virtuoso Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) startled his audiences with eyes "as red as fire" and eyeballs that rolled in agony. The legendary Paganini (1782-1840) was accused of deliberately playing on frayed strings so that when one snapped he could display his virtuosity on three. But times have changed. Last week, in Manhattan's Carnegie Hall, one of the world's great violinists walked to the center of the stage, took measure of the audience...
...success in Russia, Milstein left for Paris in 1925, gave concerts with an old Russian friend, Pianist Vladimir Horowitz. It was not until after World War II, when he married and settled down in Manhattan, that he began to build a reputation as something more than an extraordinarily gifted virtuoso. Milstein is still a master of the bravura composers-Max Bruch, Sarasate-but he has found new and interesting things to say about Brahms, Beethoven, Bach. The keynotes of great Milstein performances are their flash and fire. Milstein is willing to take chances-on trip-hammer tempos, flashing colors, amazing...