THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Fridav F hrienru, 121 ,171
4 - y, 1 Vf u1y I L, 1 J I 1
music
1970
plus
improvement
-Da1y-David Wender
Ann Arbor Drama Festival:
A great way to pass time
By DONALD SOSIN
Jerome Jelinek, cellist of the
Stanley Quartet, gave a recital
with pianist Rhea Kish in Rack-
ham last night that, if it was
worthwhile, the worthiness was
due to his fine playing m-o r e
than his partner's efforts.
It was somewhat disappoint-
ing, to hear in Kish the s a m e
type of playing that one heard
last year when the two per-
formed the Beethoven sonatas.
At that time, despite some faul-
ty intonation in the cello, there
was no question as to who was
the better musician. Last night,
the intonation had improved
considerably, b u t Kish's play-
ing remained unsatisfying. Her
touch is rather uneven, and has
a tendency to be brittle, espec-
ially in the left hand. Further-
more, one does not get the feel-
ing that she is a performer as
one does with Jelinek. Her man-
ner at the keyboard can be dis-
tracting in its tentativeness, and
a sense that she is worrying
about notes rather than music.
Jelinek has a rich tone, which
has sounded larger on other ac-
casions (then, too, he was some-
times overpowered by the
piano). His technique is solid
and impressive and his musical
decisions were generally valid.
His playing would have bee n
more effective, though, if the
works performed were not so
dependent on the piano, for the
sense bf true balance was lack-
ing, and the two performers
were not always in agreement
about some questions of color
and dynamics.
The program opened with the
Bach Sonata No. 3 in g minor,
originally written for viola da
gamba, and now played either on
cello or viola. The first move-
ment, is somewhat of a perpet-
ual motion, yet even in such mo-
tion there must be nuances of
tempo change rather than the
often mechanical rhythm o n e
heard. Better can be said of
the warm Adagio and the Alle-
gro, a fugue which was played
with certainty to the finish.
The Sonata (1948) by Poulenc
followed. The composer very as-
tutely admitted that it was not
one of his better works. While
the style reveals it to be noth-
ing but Poulenc, there is fre-
quent doubt about what particu-
lar style he is using. His themes
come from the music hall; one
hears echoes of pure romanti-
cism in other places. But in his
desire to write some warm, ex-
pressive music, he has gone over-
board and does not seem fully at
ease with his material. The open-
ing march is followed by a lyri-
cal Cavatine, which was on the
heavy side as far as perform-
ance goes. The third movement,
a bubbly Ballabile, has a marve-
lous ending but does not offer
much up to that point. One gets
the feeling that Poulenc was out
of his milieu in writing string
music, and the frequent pizzica-
tos and other effects tend to
sound as token stringism instead
of contributing to the overall idea
of the music. The Finale begins
with a schmaltzy Largo which re-
appears at the conclusion, brack-
eting some awfully mediocre
writing, some of which did not
sound like Poulenc at all.
The most interesting part of the
program was Leslie Bassett's
Music for Cello and Piano (1966).
Music is an apt title, for it con-
tained more real musical value
than the Poulenc or -the Chopin
Sonata which followed. The first
movement presents a long line
in the cello with a pointillistic
accompaniment. The Invention
and Variation are refreshing,
with the exception of frequent
trilling, which can quickly be-
come a cliche. The last move-
ment ends quite poignantly after
some effects on the piano strings
which seemed a' bit out of place.
The Chopin Sonata Op. 65, lay
dormant for a long time, and was
finally brought out in 1845-6.
Like the Poulenc, it is not very
inspired, and its performance
lacked the grandeur that would
have made it worthwhile listen-
ing to at all.
ALICE'S
PRESENTS
the horrendously
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Fall of the
House of Usher
starring VINCENT PRICE
FRIDAY: 8, 10, 12 p.m.
50c or 2 99c
ALICE LLOYD-763-0795
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serial-Wednesday nights
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Saturday:
GERMAN NIGHT
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14
3-5 p.m
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ANDY
Folk Singer DICK JENNINGS
from Hamiltcn Road Alpine Club
Friday at RIVE GAUCHE
il;
COHEN
By JAQUES
Well, the thaw has finally
come -- that excuse is gone.
You can go farther out at night
now than just around the corner
for coffee or down to the end
of the block for a pizza de-
livery. Thatkpaper you've been
putting off will wait another
couple of days and there aren't
any mid-terms on Saturday. It's
time you broke out of your us-
ual mid-winter rut and made
the scene at Canterbury House.
What it's all about is the Ann
Arbor Drama Festival. Yeah, I
know festivals, stuffy smokers
for culture vultures, s t r a i g h t
trumpets and all that rot. Well,
it's not. The Festival is refresh-
ingly at the other end of the
scale. Greg Jarboe and many,
many others have pulled to-
gether a large collection of peo-
ple who work in the theatre out-
side the established groups. This
is the third'of four weeks and
the weekend will have two dif-
ferent programs. The one I saw
'last evening will be repeated,
tonight. Saturday and Sunday
will'offer a Mime by Clive Syk-
es and the Improvisation Group.
The first half of the double
bill for tonight is the Pioneer
Laboratory Theater. Seventeen
students from Pioneer High un-
der the direction of A 11 a n
Schreiber present a collection
of vignettes improvised from out
of their current "educational"
experience. The format consists
of an opening mime of an exam,
complete with coded answer-
passing and loud yawns. T h e
post mortem in the hallway out-
side sets up the major frame-
work' for 'the sketches, a very
clever action-mime of an edu-
cation machine. The title: Ma-
chine Tooled and Precision
Crafted. After the mime pat-
tern is established across t h e
back wall, the actors break off
from it in twos and threes to
play short scenes on the fore-
stage. Several of the scenes con-
sist of reading from v a r i o u s
school publications, verbatim
we are led to believe. This is at
once funny and horrifying -
they really do say that! But
unfortunatelyitdoesn't always
sustain. Too many of the read-
ings are just readings with no
clear attitude. Are we watching
the reader or the person w h o
wrote' them? This could be
even better, given the material
if a more definite position had
been taken. Much better are the
scenes taken around the school
offices, classrooms, and bath-
rooms. They should be required
viewing for all members of this
or any other faculty. There is
the poor girl trying to work a
schedule change through a lech-
erous counsellor and her friend
who has finally given up try-
ing to follow the run around
over scheduling out of "Mrs.
Kookoochi's" English c l a s s.
She just won't go and a "little
problem" develops. Another as-
sistant principal can't handle
the complaint from a girl w h o
has had a quarter taken from
her in the john, because the
assailant is black.
The performances are a little
uneven, but some are excellent,
especially a few of the men. I
could have wished that the too
frequent distraction of removing
hair from the face had been elim-
inated, and it might have been
more effective if the machine had
frozen in place during the skits.
But the general level is high and
the performance sustains itself
as a whole throughout.
The Cry of Vietnam is quite a
different form with quite a dif-
ferent intent. The title itself
sounds overworked, but when it
is written across a wall in orien-
tal callography, it's much better.
The program consists of a collec-
tion of poems by Thich Nat
Hanh, a Vietnamese monk. Read
singly and antiphonally by mem-
bers of the Weststock group, they
move to a deeper, more com-
passionate viewpoint of the war
as it is seen by the people them-
selves. More than just a reading.
the staging by Le Anh Tuan ef-
ATIONA
fectively reinforces the verbal
writing." The cast of seven is
dressed in loose black coats and
pants suggesting the garb of a
Vietnamese monastery. They
cover the bodies completeiy, so
one's attention is: continually
brought back to the faces of the
speakers and the poetry itself.
We hear the fragments of a life
where agony and joy live side by
side; the agony is inescapable so
the joy must be there if life itself
is to be maintained.
The evening closes with three
songs which the audience is in-
vited to join in singing. This ret-
resents a Vietnamese tradition--
to close a poetry reading with
songs of joy. This contradiction
will allow man to go on in life
which is itself a contradiction in
Vietnam. For me, themost effec-
tive aspect of the evening was
that it was not a political but a
human statement. As such it goes
well with the plea. from the Pio-
neer students to be educated like
humans not tooled like macnines.
Ragtime
Barrelhouse
Blues
CINEMA IH
A VALENTINE SPECIAL
"KING OF HEARTS"
with Alan Bates, Genevieve Bujold
FRIDAY & SATURDAY 7 & 9:05 p.m.
PLUS
"A TASTE OF HONEY"
with Rita Tushingham
FRIDAY & SATURDAY-1I p.m.
SUNDAY--1 & 3 p.m.
February 1 2, 13, 14
Auditorium A, Angell Hall--75e
SEPARATE ADMISSION FOR EACH SHOWING
NEXT WEEK: "Birthday Party"
Screenplay by Harold Pinter
f
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accompanied by
ANDY ROGERS,
Fiddle
University of ic
MV
hinan Film Soe*tefv (ARM), nresQnts
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THE LAST HURRAH
Spq
encer Tracy
Pat O'Brien
7 &9p.m.--FRI., FEB.12
Room 100, LAW SCHOOL
Admission 50c
another fantastic dollar double bill
THE ROARING 20"is
Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney
in a mannered classic of
bootlegging, violence and romance
9:00 p.m.
VILLAGE of the DAMNED
British thriller: children
freak out on nuclear family
7:30, 10:45 p.m.
FRIDAY, FEB. 12
1st Presbyterian Church
WASHTENAW AVE. NEAR S. UN IV.
arr. courtesy Ecumenical Campus Center
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RC PLAYERS presents
THE FROGS
an original play for children
SAT., Feb. 13-10 A.M. & 2 P.M.
SUN., Feb. 14-2 P.M.
East Quad Aud.
Admission 50c
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