THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, January 27, 1971 ,o music- An audience with Rubinstein theatre Male chauvinism- Going down one By A. R. KEILER Last Friday evening, under the, auspices of the University Musical Society, Artur Rubin- stein played an all-Chopin re- cital. I have already reported on that event and, for those who did not attend, will say only that Rubinstein's playing on that occasion could very well be summed up in Chopin's own words, which the composer used to describe the correct perform- ance of his own works: "a con- trolled spontaneity, a direct can- tilena, a variety of coloring, pedaling and rhythmic accen- tuation, an elegance of orna- mentation which have all but vanished from the concert plat- form." I was able to chat with Rubinstein on the morning fol- lowing his concert, which oc- casion I find as stimulating to report on as that of the prev- ious evening. This very quotation illumin- ates, as a matter of fact, some of Rubinstein's thoughts about those pianists who especially in- fluenced him as a young virt- uoso, particularly Busoni and d'Albert. What Rubinstein ad- mired in these artists was their attention to formal continuity and the. shape and line of the musical phrase within the larger design of a work. What he dis- likes is any use of the music to show only what can be done with the piano. The idiosyn- crasies and mannered excesses of the generation of pianists fol- lowing Busoni and d'Albert, which .were supposed to pass as representative of an authentic Romantic style of playing, were apparently as rare in Chopin's day as in the early years of Rubinstein's career. Rubinstein's own terms for the kind of interpretative, approach he tries to cultivate, whatever the composer, were, simply enough, "honest" and "f r o m the heart". From this humble beginning, he went on to crit- icize those pianists who played with their noses tosthe keyboard for fear of playing a wrong note (Godowsky, e.g., the tech- nical paragon of an earlier era of virtuosi, who "played like a mouse"), and present day pian- ists who try to play as well as their recordings, with all the mistakes filled in, each like a new tooth stuck in the r i g h t ' place. What is apparent about such criticisms from Rubinstein is not that they are unkindly or The Michigan Daily, edited and man- aged by students at the University of Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich- igan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues- day through Sunday morning Univer- sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by carrier, $10 by mail. Summer Session published Tuesday through Saturday morning. Subscrip- tion rates: $5 by carrier, $5 by mail. At State & Liberty Sts DIAL 662- 1 yF 6264 )' f rI s . ' .' y"' JACK NICHOLSON "YEAR'S BEST" -N.Y. Film Critics OPEN 1 P.M. SHOWS: 1:20, 3:10. 5 P.M., 7 P.M., 9 P.M. 11 Chicago III DOUBLE ALBUM $5.77 A HI-FI BUYS RECORD SPECIAL HI-Fl BUYS Ann Arbor-East Lansing 618 S. Main 769-4700 Ouolity Sound Through Cuolity Equipment" JUDITH CRIST, New York Magazine says: "The tickle-and-tease involves the brain as well as the pelvis, putting the psychological thriller, 'le Viol,' (the Rape) into the category of grown-up fun and games." Diol 5-6290 rcAMIHIGA mhs wife was 'driven to find out ! Does her anger at a domineering husband justify a wife's taking a lover? il For the student body: FLARES by SLevi A~ Farah A 'rigIht Tads Sebring VCHIECKMATE State Street at Liberty .4 4t By JIM HENNERTY The School for Wives is a marvelous tragedy, as well as being one of Moliere's superb comedies. It is a play in which Arnolphe, the aging, jealous guardian of a lovely young thing he intends to marry, tries but fails to escape from the de- crees of an implacable Fate. Arnolphe is foolish enough to believe that he can force his ward Agnes to marry him, and live up to his ideal of the virtu- ous wife, an ideal dear to the hearts of the most hard core male chauvinists. Moliere makes ingenious use of some stock situations and characters. He gives the jealous guardian access to the secret plans of the lover from the young man's own mouth. Ar- nolphe also tries to keep Agnes in blissful ignorance, hoping that a more or less permanent tabula rasa will easily conform to his ideas about marriage. Both courses of action backfire, of course. Agnes' simple ideas are also true to the essential im- pulses of the human heart. And fate puts on a doggedly success- ful campaign to nullify all the advantages Arnolphe possesses, culminating with a monstrously unfair long-lost-child ploy. Moliere amply demonstrates that such narrow-minded, arti- ficial ideas as Arnolphe's are contrary to the reality of human nature. As such, they are bound to fall apart under the stress of the unavoidable, yet thankfully benevolent, \ forces of destiny which hover over the doings of mankind. The structure of the dramatic incidents and the superb use of irony put the idea across with an ample amount of pleasure for the audience. Stephen Porter's direction of the Phoenix Thea- tre production lets the excel- lent quality of the play speak for itself, without a massive in- jection of gimmickry. He could, perhaps, put more emphasis on the farcical aspects, which came across a bit too calmly last eve- ning. And the pace is sometimes trifle too slow, despite the rela- tive brevity of the play. Not k n o w i n g the original French, I cannot say whether Richard Wilbur's verse transla- tion is true to Moliere, but the effect of his couplets is properly amusing and pleasingly precise. Couplets do, of course, present a problem for the actors, who must avoid the natural tendency to fall into sing-song, while not overcompensating to the extent of losing all sense of, linguistic structure. The cast followed a happy medium most of the time. Brian Bedford's performance as Arnolphe is a skillful and .carefully executed one. He man- ages to balance the sincerity and foolishness of the character; while focusing our attention on his physical and mental ma- chinations. Bedford, makes the most of the couplets to reflect the kind of man he is portray- ing and manages to blend into the ensemble without trouble. In short, his performance is both disciplined and persuasive. The other members of the cast manage their smaller roles with dexterity. The Horace of David Dukes, decked out in a marvelously Baroque costume, and the Crysalde of Paul Bal- lantine were particularly good. Joan van Ark's Agnes was ad- mirable, but it is a surprisingly insubstantial role for a main character, and the actress has very little to work with. Nancy .Potts' costumes deserve a word of commendation for their ef- fectiveness. The production is not quite as compelling as that of The Mis- anthrope of a year or two ago. The play itself lacks some of the theatricality of the latter, and the sparkle of wit is consequent- ly dulled. But it is never less than a most entertaining eve- ning in the theater. intolerant, but rather that they are the result of an intense de- votion to the composer as an artist. He made this touchingly clear when he mimicked a quar- tet's (I will not say which one) performance of the slow move- ment of a Schubert piece, alter- natingly singing the theme as it should go, and asking in all innocence how these musicians could possibly abuse the music of Scubert in such ignorance. His energy and enthusiasm are boundless. Before coming back to the United States this season, he played 30 concerts in Europe, and is scheduled to play some 40 more in this country in the coming months. The reper- toire he is planning to release on records inclules solo works of Brahms, Debussy and Schubert, and chamber works, all with the Guarneri Quartet, with whom he loves to perform, of Faure, Dvorak and Mozart. He is too old, he says, to learn any new repertoire, but he has already performed most of the piano literature at some point of his career. In the 1930's, e.g., a typical program for Rubin- stein might include any of the following: the Dukas Sonata in E Flat Minor, the Sodades do Brasil of Milhaud, or piano pieces of Poulenc, Scriabin or Mompou. There was the Ham- merklavier year, in which he performed only that sonata of Beethoven. He is afraid that See THROUGH, Page 8 Freena F*ns inaed rese ts l v o starring (The Rope) BIBI ANDERSSON BRUNO CREMER EAaTMANCOLOR DIAL 8-6416 .' I diary of a maI s _..__ _ _ . _ __ _ ....... _. . . . ...-- . _ _ ._ M . ._ . _. _ __ He Iz *Komi~ng Soon* (Al Kooper) (and so are they) I ESCAPE INTERNATIONAL Presents IACAPULCO MASS MEETING THURSDAY, JAN. 23 at the VILLAGE INN FREE BEER from 8 to 9 ESCAPE INTERNATIONAL P.O. Box 492 971-0979 971-3656 Subscribe to TheMichigan Daily ,} H .. I I A RARE OPPORU N ITY. Shakespeare s TIMON OF ATHENS 4 t. 4 at 8 p.m.-Wednesday-Saturday, January 27-30 TRUEBLOOD THEATRE--Box Office Opens 12:30, 764-5387 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PLAYERS OPENS WEDNESDAY-TICKETS NOW! * RADICAL FILM SERIES presents Kon Ichikawo's FIRES ON THE PLAIN TONIGHT I TONIGHT AT 8:00! I SPECIAL STUDENT DISCOUNT! CANTERBURY HOUSE 330 Maynard Admission 75c 7, 9, & 11 P.M. MAGIC HOUSE FAMILY i 4. I-amp WEDNESDAY, JAN. 27 ,Y. I I