I Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, bctober 20, 1968 records Some new additions to Schwann cinema The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter By R. A. Perry Although most record compa- nies seem eager to release the forty-fifth recorded Pathetique and other war horses at the drop of a baton, they are usual- ly Just as eager to market com- positions unique to the Schwann catalog. Several of these record- ed "firsts" have recently ap- peared on various labels, and they bear mention. Undoubtedly detective honors must be awarded to that ever- enterprising offshoot of Electra r e c o r d s, the bargain-label Nonesuch line. They have not' only come up with a disc (H- 71195) of previously unrecorded .pieces but a "new'' composer as well: John Field. Field was born in Ireland in 1782 and died in Moscow in 1837; during those years and distances he concert-1 ized, as a protege of Clementi first and then on his own right. throughout Europe and the .Slavic countries. His composi- tions and performance style were heard by Chopin in War- saw and Liszt in France. The era was that of burgeon- ing Romanticism, the years of Wordsworth and Sermontov, the post-Werther years. Field's mu- sic, as evidenced by the twelve "Nocturnes" issued by None- - .uch, did npt advance mighty themes of heroic proportion: it explored the new freedom of musical forms' and the emotions of the sentimental heart. Whether or not Field invented the Nocturne as a form or merely gave the name to a pre- vailing improvisatory musical mood is uncertain, but it is in- teresting to learn of antecedents to the piano music of Chopin, Mendelsohn, and Schubert other than merely those works which carried on the traditions of Mo- zart and Haydn. And so you can play the game of "Who-do- you-hear".in Field's music: for me these Nocturnes are .sim- ilar to Mendelsohn's "Songs without Words" except that they are looser in structure. Pianist Noel Lee does not seem to know quite what to make of these pieces either. His right hand yeans to be more impe- tuous, but it is tempered by the melancholic inclinations of his left hand. In any case, all twelve pieces are played beauti- fully, if not definitely, and they are recorded clearly by the Nonesuch engineers. This1 disc should interest not only ,the musiciologist, but anyone fond' of limpid and lyric piano music. Another surprise from None- such also stems from traditional sources: the cantatas of Bach. Anyone whose conception of Bach holds that the great com- poser had his eyes only to Heav- en should listen to his Drama per musica (BMW 215) Preise dein Glucke. In this work, new. to the Schwann catalog, Bach threw together for the Univer- sity of Leipzig a musical tri- bute to the visiting King of Po- land, August III. You might as- sume that the commission would draw a perfunctory col- lection of pre iously composed movements patched together, into some coherency-not an unusual practice-but such is not the case. To- an occasionally amusing text ("Rage then, presumptu- ous svarm, in your own en- trails") by Leipzig schoolteach- er J. C. Clauder, Bach wrote a musical drama of fierce polit- ical fervor: The extensive hymn of praise to August III, a tenor aria that fills almost the whole side of a disc, may be equal in length, which is some sign of sincerity, to anything Bach wrote to his Lord. In a bass aria vehement against political rebellion Bach achieved a dra- matic credibility perhaps equal, to some of Handel's bass arias in the Messiah. Werner Krenn, tenor, and Erich Wenk, bass, really get in- to the festive spirit, and the floating soprano of E r n a Spoorenberg is an asset to the performance. The conductor Helmuth Rilling keeps every- thing moving briskly, even, through extensive repeats, and although the recorded sound is a bit diffuse, it furthers the impact of the work. Speaking of impact, if you wish to give your stereo, a real workout and impress your friends or drive your neighbors mad, you should purchase and play very loudly Handels's Stu- sic for the Royal Fireworks on. the Vanguard budget-priced Everyman label. (SRV-289SD) When this performance, led by Charles MacKerras, first ap- peared on the full-priced Van- guard line, it received rave re- views for its sonic reproduction and vigorous rendition; it has lost nothing but price in its switch to the bargain racks. Although other versions of the worK exist in tne benwann cata- log, this is the only perform- ance which follows the original scoring: 26 oboes, 14 bassoons, 4 contrabassoons, 9 trumpets, - 9 horns, 3 kettledrums, 6 side- drums, and 3 serpents (a form of cornet). While I find 'some of MacKerras's tempos a bit over-stately (preferring Pail- lard's tempos on MHS, but he uses a much reduced band) the performance and sound of this gathering of celebrants is ter- rifically exciting. A concerto for two wind bands and strings completes the disc. Don't for- get to turn up the volume. Columbia has come up with two first on one disc: -a suit from Rachmanioff's opera Aleko and Ukiyo by the American composer Alan Hovhaness (MS 7162). The Rachmanioff work is not much to speak about; it was written for a Moscow Conser- vatory graduation exercise, and the nineteen year old composer whiped up the opera-based on Pushkin's "the Gypsies"-in a month, winning raised eye- brows and a gold medal. Four orchestral portions and one bass Cavatina has been put arbi- trarily together for (and no doubt by) Columbia for this disc. The music is darkly melo- dic in the simplest way, pleas- ant, but lacking the emotional force and personal commitment inherent in the composer's later works. At best the music pays tribute to Russia's great- est orchestral colorist, Peter Il- lyitch Tchaikovsky, who died a year after Aleko was written. The Cavatina-a short aria in only one section-is sung by Simon Estes, silver medal win- ner in the 1966 'Tchaikovsky Vocal Contest in Moscow. I found the brief vocal excerpt musically unremarkable,. and Estes voice, while obviously rich and dark (you will un- doubtedly someday hear a Boris from him) is not shown to its best advantage in Columbia's overly close microphone techni- ques. In general, the whole piece suffers from the invisible hand of the sound engineer, boosting his controls with no sense of musical quality at all. The second "first" on the record is Ukiyo (Floating world) by Alan Hovhaness. Hovhaness has always been his own man musically, not a follower of Schoenberg nor Stochhausen, not enmeshed in serialism, twelve tonalism, or any other isms. Rather he has used the freedom of form and sound values in today's musical world to create works true to his own artistic and spiritual inclina- tions. He has always inclined -both artistically and spiritual- ly-to the Orient, and Asia. either in theme or in specific sound patterns, usually appears in his works. Povhaness has been very sketchily represented' in the catalog and a new entry for him is always welcome. Ukiyo is a Japaense word usually translated as "floating world," descriptive of the gay and often salacious living style of the pleasure quarters in 17th and 18th century Japan; the word has its distinct Buddhist implications, as well, in its de- piction of the evanescence of' material forms and sensual pleasures. Hovhaness's music strives for "an abstraction of these thoughts" and is speci- fically inspired by the plays of Chikamatsu. A spurious mish-mash of sources, affected for the West- erner? Perhaps, and whether the music works will depend very much on the listener's tastes. I found the ghostly pro- cession of bells, and the sliding trombone themes highly effec- tive and suggestive, remin- iscent of the soundtrack of Kwaidan. Hovhaness's music does not depend upon thematic development but more upon the changing forms of sound masses and the swirling or clearing of these sonic mists. Andre Kostelanetz, to whom the work was dedicated, has somie trouble managing the "controlled chaos" of the loud- er, tuttipassages, but in gen- eral he effects a' stirring and charged performance. By PHIL BALLA Some people stay away from movies and books by women be- cause the theme is often sadness pure and simple and the ending can vary from walking into the ocean to whining away in a rocking chair. Love seems to. exist at the mercy of a cosmos which overpowers all that is good and turns life into pathos.. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter has much of the sad and pathe- tic, but since Carson McCullers was only twenty-two when she, wrote it, a youthful hope is born into the' lives of two of the main characters by the man whose grave they visit in final reverence. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is really three stories, and a lot of local color. The scene is small-town Georgia. Alan Arkin is a deaf mute whose closest kin in literature is the wandering saint in Gorky's Lower Depths whose quiet, radiant generosity brings out the humanity in all he approaches. Arkin's per- formance is wonderful in the sense of the kind of listener who causes people to, come out and be what they really are. He moves to a small town in order Ito be near his friend, another deaf mute whose strong points are his sweet tooth, innocence. and teddy bear. These qualities and mindlessness are enough to get him committeed to a mental hospital as well as win the af- fection of both Arkin and the audience. Some movies, like Bonnie and Clyde bring local color alive and spinning into the story line and human fabric. Local color re- mains in the background of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter be- cause it is not so mnuch a lyrical mo ie as one of three s i m p l e stories. Minor characters keep the movie from becoming t o o dramatic: these include the wandering bum .that Arkin be- friends and the little boys who ruin big sister's party with fire- works: The girl. played by new- comer Sandra Locke, is a gang- ling and flat-chested ,youth, Alan Arkin is too good. to be true, the silent one that in- spires meaning and beauty in American regionalism. MON. -FRI.-7 :15-9 :15' SUN.-1 :15-3:15-5:15 7:15-9:15 SAT.-3:15-5:15-7:15-915 FOX EASTER RT - 76-1RE 3 FOX V IL La Hi 35 No. MAPLE RD. 769-1300 I I I Pu SE RS NOW IN"I EEVSHWN SH OWING ._ --- 'You see, I Was supposed to be plying Innocence' HELD OVER 4th and Final Week MADISON, Wis. (A) --- A Uni- versity coed, accused of dancing in the nude in "Peter Pan," was arraigned Friday after authorities said she appeared voluntarily to face charges., Miss Carolyn Ann Purdy, 21, of Janesville was identified as (one of the two dancers for whom author- ities had been searching since Oct. 1, when students held two per- formances of the musical despite Dist. Atty. James Boll's ruling that he considered the show obscene. S h e pleaded innocent to a charge of taking part in a lewd, obscene and indecent performance. She was freed on $500 bond. A -court hearing was scheduled for Oct. 17. Boll, prior to the Oct. 1 per- formances, w a s among officials who saw'a private screening. In the student version of the musical, policemen replace pirates, Tinker Bell dies and Peter Pan becomes an adult. The nude dancers portrayed in- nocence. There had been six nude dancers originally, but f o u r of them quit the show as a result of the publicity. Members of the cast had voted against going on with the per- formances after university offi- cials warned t h a t police might make arrests. Stuart Gordon, director of the musical, said the cast had hoped to perform before University Pires- ident Fred Harvey Harrington and other people "who are respected by the straight world."' **** HIGHEST RATING! "AN ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT!" - N.Y. Daily News roche rachel., rachel is a double-barreled triumph! Joanne Wood- ward is extraordinary-Paul Newman's direction is excellent. This is Joanne Woodward's triumph and should make her a prime contender for an Academy Award." -David Goldman, WCBS Radio in the PAUL NEWMAN pmducbof rachel. TECHMICOLORFuWlAIyIERIROS.-SEVENRARTSE Program Information 5-6290 Ton.gWt. GIRS " F F i T HE -'-w f4 mSUNDA ' 70( & 9'05Afer finishing "Is"'t Life Wanderful" in 1924, D. W. Griffith left' United Artists for Paramount -yStudios, where ht worked until 1931. "Isn't Lifer c Wonderful" is the last movie Griffith made as on ARCHITCTUREindependlent film- maker, and it marks the end of ARC ITCT R Ethe "Griffith Era.''It's subject is the horror of AUDITORIUm, pst World War IGermany. 62-884 =a n '" T ' v.r.._. .--.-. .4--+-_.«e......._..._ _ ._.. _.._..__ 'Co FRIDAY, October 25 IN THE IM BUILDING I FEATURING "Music you can dance to" 1* 1 I0 TICKETS GO ON SALE TOMORROW On the Diag at 9:00 A.M. Price: 50c CI IDD V C I IAAITIfn f I.