THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Thursday, February 13, 1969

THIIHGNDIYTusdy eray1,16

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records


potentially explosive

MC5

-SEE-
J0HN HAMMOND

By W. REXFORD BENOIT
T e n minutes by taxi from
Arborland lives the country's
most potentially explosive group
of musicians-the MhS n
The 5 proves that the best in-
dicator of high-energy musical
joms is bodily hair, antennae
leading directly tothe viscera,
and not the intellect..
It's the viscera that moves
when the 5 begins the onslaught
with "Kick Out the Jams." I
don't mean just foot-tapping. I
mean exchange of pure ener-
gy - visceral and psychic joy
(it might make you want to do
it in the road) - that leads to
gut communication.
The simple difference be-
tween, say, most of the Doors
and the 5 is the difference be-
tween setting just earwax in
motion and causing the bowels
to do cartwheels.f
Much of that is answerable
to the 5's acknowledged debt to
musicians Sun Ra and the
late John Coltrane, among a
few others, who have trans-
cended the sterile technical
brilliance of jazz forms to be-
come creative energized gen-
iuses.
What am 'I talking about?
So far, what can happen
when the 5 does it good. When
they do, at some critical junc-

cure, you will stand up yelling
and waving fingers in the air.
Because the 5 is so good.
In person. Live. In concert.
A more hazardous subject is
the 5's first album.
The Stones, like the 5, have
never given a bad concert. Un-
like the 5 the Stones have never
made a disappointing album.
The Velvet Underground, whose
music is so inimical to wax,
were unable to make a disap-
pointing recording.
However, the 5's album is not
all that I hoped it would be,
despite optimal recording con-
ditions at their h'ome base, the
Grande in Detroit, a receptive
crowd, and some of the best
equipment and personnel Elek-
tra could offer.
The difference is very subtle
between concert and recording.
Though it is significant. May-
be there's too much of the op-
timist - mentality in the 5's re-
cord.
"I wanna hear a little' revo-
lution out there," someone on
the record shouts, "It's time to
stop being problems and start
becoming solutions."
It sounds hollow between the
covers of an album jacket. It
pales beside the Doors' f i n e s t
moment: "We want the world
and we want it now!"
And I have never enjoyed the

A ptourri of piano

By R. A. PERRY
Alexander Scriabin is a com-
poser whose life has received
more attention than his music,
aid Scriabin's self-styled solar
mysticism and sexual libertar-
ianism have been found, by im-
aginative musicologists, mirror-
ed in the composer's works.
Arthur Cohn, for instance, in
his- liner notes to Mercury's
fascinating recording (SR 90-
500) of Scriabin piano pieces,
points to the "languid, chroma-
ticized eroticism of Scriabin's
music." Indeed, the composer,
interested in the tensions be-
tween yin and yang as well as
in producing musical syntl aes-
thesia, claimed to have dis Ov-
ered the "'mystic chord," which,
was simply, in Cohn's wgrgis,
"an arrangement in fourths ra-
the' than thirds, with the over-
tones stated rather than i m -
plied." ,
Nevertheless, granting Scria-t
bin's intellectual and emotional
sincerity, we must remember
that if the music (not the in-
spiration!) is to be "mystical"'
it must emerge from the music
itself. My feeling in the case of
Scriabin's piano pieces is sim-
ilar to George Steiner's view of
Hesse: "this isn't mysticism,
it's incense."
Certainly .if the music shall
evoke the total effect desired
by the composer, superlative
performances are necessary.
Prokofiev relates (in his auto-
biography) of hearing Scria-
bin's "Fifth Sonata" played by
the composer himself: "his mu-
sic soared into ethereal realms."
But, Prokofiev continues, when
Rachmaninoff'played the work,
-the piece "remained entirely
earthbound.".
It is not surprising then that
Mercury's artist, HeildedSomer,
who has lately premiered many
piano concerti, especially of
South American composers,
possesses the dexterity and acu-
men to bring off Scriabin's ear-
ly Chopinesque pieces with
some success, but 'for the later
opus numbers (unfortunately
mixed randomly with the early,
ones) she lacks both the man-
ual suppleness and the spiritual
identification to kindle t h e
heavenly fires. The Sonata No.
4, Op. 30 emerges especially
wooden.1
Still, this Mercury disc, well
annotated and engineered, must
be recommended since most of
the pieces are otherwise unre-
presented in Schwann and are
of importance to the develop-}
ment of atonality, as well as be-
ing musically fascinating them-
selves.
Camille Saint-Satns is ano-
ther composer whose works are'
insufficiently performed t h-e s e
days. A new Angel release (SR-
40074) featuring the young
Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov
of Saint-Saens Second P i an o
Concerto should help put at

least this work back into the
repertoire. Written in seventeen
days and premiered by Anton
Rubinstein, the G minor con-
certo contains a gamut of lyri-
cal themes and virtuosic embel-
lishments. If the melodies are of
less grandeur than those in
the Fourth Concerto (which,
idiotically enough, often remind
me of Copland) they are in-
herently more bright and in-
teresting.
Sokolov, 1st prize winner of
the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competi-
tion in Moscow, is perfect for
the performing role - he exults
in the viril, technically point-
ed, impetuous pianism t h a t
typifies modern performance
style. (His compatriot Petrov
plays with similar glassy bril-
liance.) in Schumann's "Car-
naval" on the reverse of An-
gel's recording, I prefer a more
moderate, romantic approach
- less concerned with touch it-
self and more involved in feel-
ing;' Nevertheless, Sokolov's
"Carnaval" is exciting and im-
maculately played.
Columbia has' released a re-
cital by Philippe Enltremont of
the complete Chopin Waltzes
(MS 7196). This fact is some-
what odd, since Columbia al-
ready has in its catalog -- on
the budget-priced Odyssey label
-- the most "perfect" perform-
ance of these works: that by
Dinu Lipatti. From the begin-
ning of the E-flat major waltz,
Entremont is more pointed

where Lipatti is subtle. Entre-
mont accentuates and drama-
tizes every change of key and
every change of tempo; Lipatti
modulates these changes into a
balanced whole. If you like your
Chopin a la Brailowsky (and
in many cases, who doesn't?)
then you should enjoy Entre-
mont's way with these waltzes
very much, but certainly y o u
should hear Lipatti's supreme
control as well. The Columbia
sound is excellent.
Certainly much more esoteric
than Chopin's Waltzes are the
piano works of the Hungarian
Zoltan Kodaly. A beautiful and
somewhat restrained recital by
Kornel Zempleni on the import-
ed Qualiton label (LPX 1260)
contains a fine cross-section of
Kodaly's writings for the piano.
Represented are the lively and
expertly written "Marossek
Dances" (1927) that deal with
folk idioms of Transylvania;
anyone annoyed with Ormandy's
recent, sloppy recording of the
orchestral versions' of t h e s e
Dances should even more ap-
preciate Kodaly's skill in these
original piano versions.
The 1945 "Children's Dances"
are charming and witty, but the
"Valsette" (1907), "Meditation"
(1907) and "Seven Pieces"
(1910 - 18) reveal Kodaly's suc-
cessful emulation of Debussy.
The Qualiton recording sound is
quite decent and the disc runs
just short of an hour.

I

MARK'S COFFEE HOUSE

605 E. WILLIAM

769-1593

Doors, but probably will never
stop enjoying the 5. sing dirty, heavy blues at
The 5's high point is on John
Lee Hooker's "The Motor City's
Burning." 'Let it all burn.
Let i l un"te re t7ll !EEI{B Y iouSBr
it a l b r , h y u g .( y JTh a t's th e tip o f th e iceb erg .- " "P
The plain fact is that the 5
have a better trip to offer than
Jerome P. Cavanaugh, John THIS WEEKEND FREE EATS
Conyers, the University, or low-
energy dope and lower-energy Admission $200 Doors Open 8.00 P.M.
jams just like those generally
put out by the Doors.
Let's see the whole iceberg
on record - for mass consump-
tion.
Probably the 5 will have oth-
er albums, and in many ways
we need them. I needed this al-
bum, and it wasn't really a fail-f Subscribe T o
ure.
Just an approximation; a sign
of better things to come. HE M CHGA D IL
In the meantime, buy the al-
bum, dig the cover photo; and
above all catch the 5 live. - -- -
A DISCUSSION BYI
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UNO BALBM ;ISINF1
LTRPROVE, EXndREATINSIP
NOCAISPRVDDBIN ILO ASA
SYMPOSIUM '69 CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSION
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-N' C:BB'.. :2~'1
u 4

JERRY WILR

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Classical guitarist
Feb. 14, 15, Fri., Sot.
9:30, 10;30, 11:15 p.m.

$1.50


"DISHONORED"

40

i.1

JOSEF VON STEINBERG, dir.
with
MARLENE DEITRICH, VICTOR McL A

Feb. 13,8 & 10 p.m.
Feb.1415,1 a.m.

, i .I I V T1- -

GLEN
75c
downstairs
- 4 - -

4

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m.iiiiiinuut.uumum

. . .

THE RHYTHM METHOD
hard rock and blues
For TO's, mixers, formals, etc.
CALL: 764-1133
764-8932
769-1875

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TONIGHT
REQUIRED???

1421 Hill St.
8:30 P.M.


SEANCE ON A WET
,AFTERNOON
Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough
Written and Directed by
BRIAN FORBES (L-shaped Room)
"A throat-drying thriller!"-LIFE
FEBRUARY 14-15

*1

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LANG AGE

FRENCH DEPARTMENT
TEACHING FELLOWS

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NATIONAL 6ENERAL CORPOftATi
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375 No. MAPLE RD.-"76941300

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HELD OVER
2nd WEEK

,FRIDAY & SATURDAY:
MICHAEL COONEY
"He proceeded to omoze the audience with his versatility, virtuosity,
personality, and originality. In other words, one doesn't talk about
Michael Cooney. One listens to him."---Michigan Daily

"DAZZLING! once you see it, you'll never again picture
Romeo & Juliet' quite the way you did before!" - LIFE

---ill

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"THE SWEET BEAST"
a tribute in lights and music to
the sacred name of
VALENTINE
,presented by
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TONIGHT
LITTLE CAESAR.
Directed by Mervyn Leroy, 1930
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S6T PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND0/ 2 :: w .""
Produced by Directed by From an original story y Based upon a song by
AL BRODAX GEORGE DUNNING LEEbIN F ALPIANN a r
Screenplay by
IC 11fil~lfl Al P0fl A Y .IAf IOCI QflJNI CDPll QCf AIl

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