THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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am pal, V eyron-Lacroix: the nes
Ineffectual togetherness

- theatre'.


By JIM PETERS
I believe it was Igor Kipnis
who called Jean-Pierre Rampal
"the ubiquitous flutist;" and in
Thursday night's concert at
ckham,he displayed all the
_Precision and style which earn-
ed him that epithet. But the
recital itself was not so inspir-
ing; Rampal and Robert Vey-
ron-Lacroix, at the keyboard,
seemed to be responding to the
music separately. To be sure,
the duo had ensemble, but it
was a mere physical together-
ness of timing and tempi. Their
music was far apart.
A musical performance is a
combination of many things,
and I think any listener expects
more than technical proficiency.
For what, say, is the difference
between an E. Power Biggs and
a Marcel Dupre, if not the
knowledge of the music one can
feel In Dupre's playing, an
awareness, of which technique
is not a basic? The Rampal/
Veyron-Lacroix recital was mar-
red by this superficiality;
though Rampal's sensitive play-
ing was as magic as ever, the
sonatas lacked totality in terms
of flute and keyboard.
Instrumental balance was per-
haps the most obvious flaw. In a
recording studio it is very easy
to mike the flute very close and
keep its phantom timbre strong;
but in a concert hall, the artists
must be very careful. Veyron-
Lacroix seemed not to know the
harpsichord he was playing. His
registrations were loud and
overbearing. Although it was an
instrument furnished by the
University, one that he had not
had time to learn, I would have
expected more timbre fluency
from a man so familiar with
Baroque music. The harps!-'
chord's many pedals offered a
wider range of sound.
Beginning with the French
court music of J. M. Leclair,
Rampal was able to evoke the
tiny subtleties so cherished dur-
ing this Age of Reason. The sus-
tained melodies of the andante
contrasted well with the quick
levels of tone in the following
allegro. But there was no subtle-
ness in the keyboard line. The
spoor balance and some tech-
nical flaws showed Veyron-Lac-
roix as some loud, obtrusive ac-
companist, content to merely
move through the chunks of
chords. But in these sonatas, he
is not playing a continuo part;
his line is equal. Thursday,
however, he could not find life
in his keyboard, a thing which
produced the broken texture of
the performance.
I also objected to the choice
of program. Vivaldi's "Sonata in
G minor,fl Pastor Fdo" did
little to differentiate the three
pieces of the first half, leaving
the Bach, which followed, still
carrying the connotations of the
court music which opened the
concert.
B u t here Veyron-Lacroix's
registration improved, and in
the opening vivace he gave
more support to Rampal's as-
tonishing speed which never
lacked feeling. It was not until
the largo that the harpsichord
seemed to awaken, and the lute
stop's warm gentleness mirrored
Rampal's grace a n d sensitive
phrasing. His cadences are sus-
tained relaxations of energy,
strong through the final breath.
In h is short "Sonata in B
minor" Bach seemi to rely on
the flute's sound qualities for
the effect. And, through Vey-
ron-Lacroix's sensitivity was not
there, the fantastic dynamic

control of Rampal brought the
second movement, marked largo
e dolce, to its fullest potential.
It was specifically here that the
cover of the harpsichord should
have been closed if 'no possible
alternative registration would
come from the keyboard artist.
Even the style of Rampal can
be shadowed by pure noise.
Beethoven's "Serenade in D
major, opus 41" is unpretentious
Mozart with little personal har-
monic color until t h e presto
movement. On piano Veyron-
Lacroix seemed more at ease
and a little more attuned to dy-
namics. Despite difficulties in
the opening section, t h e an-
dante con variazione movement
found Rampal and his partner'
suddenly together in stylistics
and attitude. The concert should
have begun again right from
there because the final piece
was probably the best.
T h e "Suite Paysanne Hon-

groise" opens with Bartok's soft
atonal impressionism accented
with strenuous flute activity in
a setting of melancholic chants
populaires. The sherzo which
follows is purely intermezzo ma-
terial leading to t h e ancient
dances in which Rampal showed
us his brilliance. The melody of
the second dance with its brood-
ing opens into joyous peasant
stompings flavored w i t h Bar-
tok's urbanity.
It was surprising to me to
find these men, who have been
together and renowned for so
long, so uncomfortable with one
another. I cannot doubt Vey-
ron Lacroix's ability because I
have heard his expert stylistics
too often in recordings. But ev-
en in terms of stage presence
the two gave little to the au-
dience Thursday night other
than well-ordered sound; and in
terms of music, I'm afraid they
gave one another hardly more.

Civic
By JOHN ALLEN
To begin at the beginning: I
am always happy for the chance
to see a play by Edward Albee,
and I am consequently grateful
to Ann Arbor Civic Theatre for
producing A Delicate Balance
this week. Albee's weaknesses
are almost as interesting as his
strengths, and even mediocre
Albee is theatre to reckon with.
However: this present produc-
tion tends to exaggerate the
.weaknesses r a t h e r than the
strengths; the favor done in
this case is all for the audi-
ence, not for the playwright.
First of all, A Delicate Bal-
ance is not an easy play to be-
lieve in. Its crises are artifical,
its motivations hazy if not
downright implausible. Its char-
acters are called upon to fill
What time
the show

goes

Theatre off 'Balance

on

Campus - A Streetcar Named
Desire - A reissue of the:Ten-
nessee Williams' 'classic w i t h
Marlon Brando and Vivien
Leigh. 7 and 9 p.m.
Fifth Forum - Fanny Hill -
From the country but not the
director, who brought you I, A
Woman and I Am Curious (Yel-
low). 5:30, 7:15, 9:00 and 10:45
p.m.
Michigan - The Rievers -
A film "in which an innocent
young lad gets initiated i n t o
the sins of manhood, sort of a
cinematic Bar Mitzvah." (N.G.)
1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 p.m.
State - Topaz - An Alfred
Hitchcock misadventure into
the Cuban Crisis. 1, 3:05, 5:10,
7:15 and 9:20jp.m.
CHEAPIES
Canterbury House - Free
flicks of Laurel and H a r d y,
Chaplin and some others. Con-
tinuous from 8 p.m.
Cinema II-- The Misfits - A
Marilyn Monroe - Clark Gable
heart thumper. 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Cinema Guild - China Gate
- "I am alone in liking t h I s
film." (Samuel Fuller). 7 and
9 p.m.

sup e r h u m a n categories of
mythic dimension - and they
aren't quite big enough to be-
come credible people, much less
'Symbols of Humanity.'
It is difficult to say at what
point one's disbelief becomes a
permanent handicap to one's
enjoyment of the play: is it the
moment when Harry and Edna
explain their presence in the liv-
ing room of Agnes and Tobias
by saying they were sitting home
alone and were suddenly over-
come with fear? One could be-
lieve it if one or the other of
them had shown up. But for two
people who no longer sleep in
the same bed to be overcome, at
the same moment, with the urge
to move in with their best
friends-?
Or is it the moment when
Agnes and Tobias's daughter
Julia goes into her first temper
tantrum upon discovering that
Harry and Edna have moved
into her room? (Julia is 36 years
old, and has just flown home
after the break-up of her fourth
marriage. . .).
Or is it even earlier, when
calm statuesque mama Agnes
toys intellectually with the no-
tion of going out of her mind-
apparently for the hell of it, for
the sake of getting even with
everybody else - including her
alcoholic sister Claire? Claire
can hold her liquor (as can
everyone else in an Albee play,
at least for a while) but the
play itself doesn't hold water.
One even wonders, during the
umpteenth round of martinis
and squabbles, if the entire play
isn't a ghastly pun on the idea
that blood is thicker than water
and liquor is thicker than either
of them. (Study-Question No.
1: What is the symbolic sig-
nificance of the fact that Albee
characters consume more booze
per line than any literary figure
since Falstaff? Give examples.)
As to the AACT production...
Given the difficulties of credi-
bility inherent in the play, it
does not help for the performers
to indulge in 'Significant
Pauses,' to give one another
'Long MeaningfulLooks,' to turn
the volume up periodically when
the real need is to tune in the
signal more sharply. Nor does
it help for every line to have

the credibility squeezed out of
it in a stranglehold of over-
nice but stagey diction. Donna
Haley especially, who , plays
Agnes and is a PTP Fellow
working on a Master's Degree,
ought to know better. Or per-
haps she is simply good at fol-
lowing Michael Spingler's di-
rections and he mistakenly
chose to overemphasize such
things.
The same ambiguity is in-
volved in Liz Jelinek's over-
wrought histrionics as Julia:
me thinks the daughter doth
project too much. Performance
or direction-which is at fault?
Given a certain consistency in
the overstatement the blame
would seem to lie in a funda-
mental directional misreading
of Albee, in the fundamental
failure to compensate for the
playwright's indulgences through
a taunt underplaying of the
emotions.
Carol Duffy as Edna and
Charles Stallman as Harry are
perhaps no harder to believe in
than the roles Albee gives them;
SATURDAY and SUNDAY
MATINEES-ONE SHOW ONLY
BEGINS 2:00-OVER 5:00
® mo_

but they are no easier to believe
in, either.
Dale and Chelly Bellaire as
Tobias and Claire give to the
production its redeeming
strength--perhaps because their
roles are the most fully realized
in the writing and hence the
most easily recreated in the
playing. Chelly Bellaire: espe-
cially, as the gin-soaked Fool
who asks the embarrassing
questions and provides the em-
barrassing answers is worth the
trip to Trueblood.
To end at the beginning: I am
always happy for the chance to
see a play by Edward Albee--
and AACT's strength is summed
up in a line from the play which
someone suggests ought to be in
Latin on a crest oven the fire-
place: "We do what we can."

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'W .ich One
irs he
'Ri ulis?
It's easy to tell a Paulist. Just
talk with him.
The first thing you notice is
that he's contemporary. He
lives today, but plans tomorrow
with the experience and knowl-
edge of yesterday. That's a
Paulist characteristic: the abil-
ity to move with the times and
to meet the challenges of each
era.
A Paulist is also the medialor
of his age: he tries to bring to-
gether the extremesin today's
world and the Church, the lib-
erals and the moderates, the
eternal and the temporal.
Next, he is very much an ind-
vidual. It sets him apart imme-
diately. He has his owg partic-
ular talents and abilities - and
he is given freedom to use them.
If you are interested in finding
out more about the Paulist dif-
ference in the priesthood, ask
for our brochure and a copy of
our recent Renewal Chapter
Guidelines.
Write to:

I

*0f fT
Rkrtmewton Shide*aI~n
TncMcO o.r

BILL ROBERTSON
regrets having to inform his
friends that he will not be
having a "birthday party" as
scheduled on Feb. 7, at his
place.
Instead, he will be celebrating
Sunday afternoon (and/or eve-
ning) at Ward 7 West, Uni-
versity Hospital (in a some-
what less subcultural manner,
unfortunately) and his friends
are encouraged to come up and
see him sometime.

Vocation Director
Taulist
Ta-'-Itheig'
Room 300
415 West 59th Street
New York. N.Y. 10019

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not continuous with
"FANNY HILL"
1. fIPAV1N{ - AT{,OfMY w +f)

*2
PRESENTS
TONIGHT & SATURDAY -8 P.M. ON
FREE FLCKS
Buffalo Bill, Chaplin (2); Laurel & Hardy; Indy '
Race of 1911; Great Train Robbery; Our Gong.'
OUTLANDISH MUSIC &SOME SILENCE
330 MAYNARD ST. PHONE: 665-0606

1

DIAL
8-6416


F -


.MMOMM.M.

rA Great Screen Classic Returns
Jr and MARION BRANDO
in TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'
" "A STREETCAR
NAMED DESIRE"
Screen Play by TENNESSEE WILLIAMS . Based upon the Original Play"A Streetcar Named Desire"by TENNESSEE WIWAMS
A, Presented en the Stage by Irene Mayer Selanick . Directed b ELI A KAZAN Re-released thru
Unded Aptils18

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The Free University Has Over Enrolled!
WE NEED ASSISTANT TEACHERS IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

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Jewelry Making-Natalie: 761-0915
Woodworking & Carpentry-Lance:
769-4298
Communes-Bernie: 761-2846
Beginning Guitar-David: 769-0861
Modeling-Liz: 764-8865

Modern Dance-Floyd:
764-2062
Yoga-Pete: 764-1107
Lea thercraft-Marty:
761-9746
Blues Harp-Mark: 769-7296

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IntdArit

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HE IS COMING SOON!
The Kingdom of TIM BUCKLEY is at hand .
a 0 TONIGHT *
at $:30--inand arour'd Hill Auditorium
Tickets on sole now in Union Lobby-
and tonight at the door
DON'T MISS IT IF YOU CAN ...
S ~- -

We also need apartments, basements, churches, or any room
where a class could meet. If you can d o n a t e time, space,
equipment, help or would just like some information, please
call our office between 1-5 weekdays at 763-2130. A final
class list has been posted in the UAC offices--second floor of
the Union.

111

in Classifieds
JOE
HEANY

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EUROPE
AND THE


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FAR

EAST

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STUDENTS INTERNATIONAL
A Non-Profit Organization for Students
Sponsoring University Charter's 6th Annual Charter Series
ROUND TRIP JETS

41

is

without a doubt,
the greatest living
singer from Ireland
TUES.-Baroque
Chamber Music
THURS.-T-Lab
t.. - L

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1970 PROGRAM
DETROIT METRO DEPARTURES
To Depart Weeks. Return Cost
London 2 May 4 5 June 9 $189
London 3 May 5 7 June 25 199
London 4 May 15 12 Aug. 20 219
London 5 June 21 10 Sept. 2 229
London 6 June 26 8 Auq. 26 229
London 10 July 5 8 Aug. 30 239
Paris May 6 7 June 23 169
Japan July 16 6 Aug. 31 419
NEW YORK DEPARTURES

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