Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, March 16, 1968 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, March 16, 1968 music Cliburn, the Manager's Dream, Earns His Billing I volt . , . 1 By R. A. PERRY The Power of the Press does more than win votes, accuse the suspect, and sell tuna fish; it. creates our various culture-heroes. Not surprising therefore, people who would never come to another concert this year swarmed through heavy rains to fill Hill Aud. in order to hear and see Van Cliburn, the young pianist who showed the Russians. Van Cliburn is a concert-man- ager's dream, for he allows, by the assured security of his box-office sellout, other concerts to take place at inevitable financial loss. The regular concertgoer thus may be a bit annoyed by the constant passing back and forth of binoc- ulars or the strange man dozing down the row at this Special Oc- casion, but he must silently say thanks, along with musical society director Gale Rector, who is mak- ing up for previous deficits. The question, of course, re- mains: did success spoil Van Cli- burn; the answer is not a simple one. He openly will have little of the precipient adoration, and in his own way, is rude to the audi- ence. He wants no fuss, and before the crowd is hushed, or even seat- ed, he has begun the piece at hand, has begun sometimes, before his own posterior is on the bench. Between pieces, he takes no walk- offs or three ovations, but with a smile and a nod, begins the next piece. He has clearly come to make music. One wonders though if this no- nonsense, non-sentimental ap- proach has not taken its ironic toll. Van Cliburn is a mighty pianist with a thoroughly mascu- line approach; his technique is polished and graceful and he uses it not really to shape the music but to strongly declare the music's rhetoric and poetry. He might I played the Sonata Opus 26 by I plays not as if he himself is cre- 4 Micallef: A Buckley with Blues By BOB FRANKE Professional singer-songwriters have few places in which to start out nowadays. The small clubs are being froten out of business; established performers prefer to give concerts - they're more lu- crative and less physically taxing. So when singers like John Mic- allef (who? you've spilled your orange juice, Edna) plays a, well- known club like the Canterbury House, you go see him initially with the words "support your local poet" bouncing around in your mind, and a sense of cur- iosity. But Micallef deserves more than that' He's not only worth seeing, but worth paying to see. His songs are a sensitive outgrowth of the contemporary blues-derived music scene, and he is more than a good enough singer and guitarist to bring them off without any pretension. John's high, well-controlled tenor voice, the subject matter of his songs (the man-woman re- lationship, mostly), and occasion- ally his guitar style make it a great temptation to compare him with Tim Buckley. He is as good a singer as Buckley, certainly. As a guitarist, he is technically better. Buckley strums with en- ergy, finesse, and a cerain in- ventiveness; Micallef does this and plays a fine, clean blues guitar. John's songs are closer to the blues than Buckley's; then again, some of them are harmon- ically reminiscent of Tim Hardin. The lyrics of his songs, like those of Buckley's (and a lot of people's, these days), abound in descriptive similes of the "can- yons of my mind" type, some of which work well, but most of which are hard to get into simply because there are so many of them so close together. There are some fine touches of irony in Micallef's songs, and now and then a particularly good insight ("she doesn't want to have, she wants to be"). But, like many of Buckley's songs, Micallef's tend to trap themselves below the level of art because they show more of what's going on in Micallef than what's going on in all of us, making in- rospection and self-expression ends rather than means to the creation of beautiful things that are universally human. In this, it's a matter of degree, and Mical- lef is a little farther back along the line than Buckley. Regarding the performance it- self, the comparison fails. Buck- ley's got a band, and can oper- ate on a much higher level of excitement; sometimes you won- der when he's going to go into a James Browncape routine. Mical- lef doesn't have one and, instead he puts his own personality across with a pleasant kind of low-key humor that doesn't al- ways sustain the attention that he deserves. His thing without a band is good enough to make you hope that he makes it to the point where he can afford one. well compare to Alfred Brendel in these respects, in the virile ap- proach, but for all his ability to excite aurally, he lacks a certain tenderness that can move one deeply. The varied attributes were pos- sibly most apparent in Cliburn's performance of Beethoven's Opus 31, No. 3 sonata, a work that starts out in the realm of Mozart and at its conclusion, reveals the sonic massiveness and daring of the major Beethoven. The opening Allegro was all sweetness and light, exquisitely played with manual dexterity, clarity, and finesse. In the inner movements, however, one became aware of the pianist's reluctance to linger over and love the music, and even if one found in this an admirable intellectual dignity, one might stilltdesire a greater use of rubato to create a tension in the musical line. Two Brahms rhapsodies were given forth with wonderful energy and authority. Cliburn's propen- sity for the big poetic exclamation found just cause here, and he re- vitalized pieces that so often sound like a warmed over Romantic mul- ligatawny. So great was his driv- ing home the major episodes that bridge passages and quieter mo- ments somehow seemed to exist only to anticipate the returning themes. For the third major work, he . . 3020 Washtenaw Ph. 434-1782 Between Ann Arbor & Ypsilanti WINNER OF 6 ACADEMY AWARDS! Shows Wed., Sat., Sun. 1:00-4:25-8:00 Mon., Tues.-Thurs., Fri. 1 Show only-8:00 I;;-_ - = .-. Samuel Barber, a composer of much wit and lyric inventiveness. This sonata, presenting a perfect tableau for Cliburn's inclinations, held much rhetoric whose portents I did not always understand, but it also contained much melody in the sparkling facets of chromatic' coloration, gems encrusted in the larger masses of sounds. The three final Chopin works illustrated again that Van Cliburn DELI * HOUSE Resumes I ating the music, but rather as if he is stating the given in a bold poetic manner. He neither plastic- ally shapes the flow of phrasing to any remarkable degree, nor does he pay great heed to a structural overview; straightforwardly but strongly he articulates the phrase at hand, almost as if the music were film pulled beneath his fin- gers, film to which he must give sound. IVl-V-O Sat. 11:00-1 :00, $un. 1:00 SUNDAY at 5:30 P.M. I JurLus Th AMIY PLAYS 7 WACKY YOUTH MATINEE RL ES ALL SEATS 75c GODARD CANCELLED His recent film "La Chinoise" will be shown sponsored by CINEMA GUIILD-Mon 7-9 "CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS" resumes Tues. 7-9:15 Sat.-3-5-7-9:15-11:20 Sun ,-3-5-7 -9:15 $1.00 members 1429 HILL STREET $1.50 Qthers ALL WELCOME N $1.69 Diep n Chicken Country Fried Chicken with FOUR SECRET RECIPE SAUCES dip the chicken in Pricilla sauce, Barbeque, Italian-Romano, & Frichossee sauce Aun Jmimal's KIT C HE Junction U.S. 23 & 12 0 I. Try Daily Classifieds I TODAY from 1 P.M. AMM "Exquisite is only the first word that surges in my appropriate description of this exceptional film. absolutely gorgeous. The use of music and, equally eloquent, of silences and sounds is beyond ver- John Micallef FOURTH BIG WEEK! bal description. performances perfect-that is only word."-B Crowther, New1 Times. ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS ... SWn en by igDNEWW and RDBER EdIN Produced b WARREN8 EAlY- Oiwctedry ARTHUR PNN TECHNICOLORO PROM WARNER PROS.-SEVEN ARTS See Feature at 1:00-3:00-5:00-7:05-9:10 The are 2 the York sometimes truth is r t ,more exrcitingq i Written and directed by Bo Widerberg. With Thommy Berggren and Pia Degermark. Winner, Best Actress.1967 Cannes Festival. A Bo Widerherg-Europa Film Production. -, SUNDAY Matinees are not continuous I Next: "COP-OUT" Dial NO 2-6264 ( I r 'INEMA I11 RICHARD HARRIS RACHEL ROBERTS in "THIS SPORTING LIFE" Internatonal Film Critics Prize & Richard Harris, Best Actor, Cannes Film Festival, 1963 ALSO: Chapter 10 1AWARD NOM11NATICONS! - BEST PICTURE " BEST ACTOR DUSTIN HOFFMAN " BEST ACTRESS ANNE BANCROFT JOSEPH E.LEVINE s BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS MIKE NICHOLS KATHERINE ROSS LAWRENCE TURMAN ., *BEST DIRECTOR * MIKE NICHOLS - BEST SCREEN // /\~,,PLAY ,rf . BEST CINEMA- TOGRAPHY GRADUATE ANNE BANCROFT.NDUSTIN HOFFMAN - KATHARINE ROSS . ....... .-, . fx m ll 1ik n~ AiI llAnn i I If C i --tire magazine