Cuesday, November 5, 1974
THE MtC;HIt AN DAILY
Page Seven
F
ruesday, November 5, 1974 T'oge seven
Irish and Scottish
tradition
with The Boy
By JOAN BORUS Irish reel, Lough being the Ir
If you haven't heard the Boys spelling of the Scottish wc
of the Lough yet, try and hear Loch.
them the next time they play This in itself is indicative
at the Ark. Hearing them play the similar nature of Irish a
the traditional dance music of Scottish music. The group ten
Ireland and Scotland is an ex-
citing experience not to be
m issed . .......................
The group consists of four n Ieland there is n
musicians-Aly Bain from Shet- I.r
land, Dick Gaughan from Scot- '... TO hear traditioi
land, Cathal McConnell and Ro-
bin Morton, both from Ireland. to be willing to seek
Although they have known each on Street corners at
other for many years and play-
ed together as duos, it was not...............................
until 1971 that the group under
the name of The Boys of the to emphasize this similarity,
Lough was established, nor un- though there are some slif
til 1972 that all four musicians distinctions.
were playing together in that The Scottish music tends
group. The name itself comes emphasize the fiddle a
from the title of a well-known doesn't have the same flute a
Loussier Trio ties
baroque and jazz
By IRA MONDY The bassist, Pierre Michel
Jazz interpretations of Bach should be given special recog
have been attempted in the past tion as he shone througho
by such outstanding artists as His long solo on Prelude No. 2
the Modern Jazz Quartet and C minor was beautifully son
Bill Evans. Last Saturday, how- ous. Playing pizzicato and
ever, a full house at the Power accomnanied, he performed 1
Center experienced probably the fast, difficult melody with di
most successful and highly en- terity and his improvisat
tertaining fusion of the two with great feeling.
diverse idioms by the Jacques An interesting and humor
Loussier Trio. aspect of the performance cal
during the finale of the C
Most of their pieces followed certo in D minor when the p
a similar pattern. The piano no and drums were playing p
wo'ild state the theme straight, cussively together. Garros v
with the rhythm section merely attempting to leave L~oussier
playing syncopation. Then t hind, but playing the piano a
bass and drums would begin to h ind intheia a
play a jazz rhythm, pulling the ke t perfectly in time.
piano in with them. Loussier, on T
piano, would next do an impro- The a iticis o
visation ntetee al n sier as a jazz pianist wo
viainon the theme, usually in have to be that he is too dei
a blues mode. Eventually, the ative. Jazz is such a perso
group would return and play the atve. atasucapem
them staigh one agin. art form that a musician m
theme straight once again, develop his own sound in
There were many highlights der to be truly great. Louss
in the two hour program. Lous- sounds like many other piani
sier's slow blues solo on Fugue and lacks a unique phrasi
No. S in D Major was very beau- This has been the problem
tiful and Christian Garros on almost all European jazz r
drums had a fine polyrhythmic sicians and he is no exceptic
solo in the piece as well. The concert, however, wa
Perhaps Loussier's finest jazz definite success and the at
playing was on Suite No. 2 ence really loved the mu;
("Air on a G string"). He kept bringing the group back for 1
changing the tempo and inten- encores with standing ovatic
sity and did a magnificent, al- It would appear, therefore, t
most boppish, improvisation there is an audience for a r
which was reminiscent of Bud sic which fuses baroque
Powell with his quick, darting jazz, something which
right hand with the left keep- Jacques Loussier Trio does v
ing time and placing accents. well.
s of the Lough
ish nennywhistle tradition found in
ord Ireland. Nor does it feature jigs
j as a musical form the way Ire-
of ' land does. Conversely, the bag-
nd l pipes are largely associated with
ads ! Scottish music, whereas Irish
w music business as such
nal Irish music you have
it out in private homes,
id in pubs.
died in Ireland. The group re-
fetes this claim; rather, Robin
maintains, the music is indeed
there, but it is of an under-
ground nature. To hear tradi-
tional Irish music he says you
have to be willing to seek it out
in private homes, on street cor-
ners and in pubs.
One important thing ought to
be mentioned in commenting
about the group's musical bias
and that is that they view them-
selves primarily as playing mu-
sic for listening rather than for
misem~samimasasiamistiism~ittusadancing. v
... ... ......*.........:: ...........:. .. .dancing...., ;:cr.....
Although, if you heard them
al-; music features an altogether last weekend, you might have
ght different kind of pipe. felt like getting up to dance, in
The music of Scotland and reality, an accomplished coun-
to Ireland has a long and rich his- try dancer would not want to
nd tory. According to Robin, many dance to it. This is because
nd forerunners of the instruments much of the music the group
- used in Ireland today can be plays has been composed as
traced to prehistoric times. tunes - dance music would be
Traditional Irish music fea- simpler in structure. A dancer
tares stringed instruments, in- would want less emphasis on
cluding the four-stringed banjo, the technics, not so many tempo
the pennywhistle and flute, andI variations and less ornamenta-
the bodhran, a single headed tion.
drum that is directly descend- Despite this orientation, how-
ed from the primitive tabour. ever, the traditional intent re-
Of the various musical tradi- mains. As Robin expressed it,
ot, tions, fiddle playing is a par- "Perhaps the idea is to make
ni- ticiilarly strong one, both in people who can't dance want to
)t. Ireland and Scotland. dance."
in Each country had its own vir-
or- tuoso fiddler that to a large de- " "eeoe." e *"se
un- gree influenced the style of the "There 4;
the music that each country main- , ..a
ex- tains. The leading fiddler of: difference!f!f!
ion Scotland was Scott Skinner, who 5
concentrated primarily upon PREPARE FOR: 0
Vladimir Horowitz
Horowitz:
Piano
trooper'
By MARY CAMPBELL
NEW YORK (P)-"I'm an old
trooper," says Vladimir Horo-
witz, the classical pianist us-
ually described in far more'
reverent phrases. "I know the
more you practice, sometimes,
the worse von getj
"Those people who think they
snoulct repeat the same passage
105 times, when they're oh the
stage, they repeat it the 106th
time..You have to take a chance4
sometimes; you may hit wrong
notes but we're all human. If
you repeat it too much, it goes
mechanical.
"I pracice in general not
more than one hour to 11 hours1
every day. I don't miss. Those
pianists who travel very much,;
they have no opportunity to do'
it. Sometimes they don't have
an instrument to use. Violinists}
are more lucky. Then traveling
pianists come back home and3
play five hours a day."
Horowitz, 70, can practice
every day and take a daily:
two-mile walk near his Con-
necticut home because he trav-
els so little that when he does
each concert is a real "occa-
sion." Earlier .this year, Hloro-
witz played in Cleveland, and
smilingly says that ClevelandI
thought it was seeing a ghost.I
He also played at Kennedy
Center.
For the fall he scheduled two
dates in Chicago and one at the
Metropolitan Opera House here
on Nov. 17. It will be his first
New York concert in six years
and the first at the Met by a
solo classical artist.-j
"I read so much in the paper
that the Met is in red ink,"
said Horowitz. "I think it is our1
duty to do something for suchI
institutions like opera. I hope'
other artists will do it, too. Theya
should."
All proceeds will go to thel
opera.
"When I was 18-19 years old
and studying at the Kiev Con-r
servatory my teacher was giv-
ing me such lectures because
instead of learning Prelude and
Fugue of Bach, I was learning
the opera scores of Gotterdam-
erung and Die Meistersinger byj
heart," Horowitz says. "I was
interested in general in goodk
music. Symphony or opera-it.
is good music which brings
culture to the country."
Horowitz retired from play-
ing in public in 1953 and made
a "comeback" in 1965 at Car-
negie Hall. Since 1965 his few
appearances have been solo
recitals; none as soloist with a
symphony. Maybe he'll play
with a symphony again in the
spring, he says. Later in the
interview he speculates about
doing a few concerts on college'
campuses or going to California.
He hasn't been there in 28'
years.
"The trouble with playing with
orchestra is rehearsal and repe-
toire. I don't rehearse too early
in the day and I don't play at'
night. It has to be afternoon,
when my concentration and,
strength are at their peak. If
it is a special opportunity or:
special concert, I would do it."1
Horowitz, unlike most of to-
day's concert pianists, likes toj
play short pieces as well as .
long ones.
"The long-playing r e c o r d
brought that snobbism to play
those long pieces of music-20
minutes," he says. "They put
a long piece on an LP, then
they do it in recitals. The piano
literature is as great on small
pieces as on large pieces.
"If you play something only
three pages long, you have to
have your own fantasy and
your own feeling. Believe, me it
is easier to play a long piece.
It makes a good impression;
people think you're a good mu-
sician."
at the Met, just this summer.
He says with a twinkle (taking
20 years off his age:) "I am
very proud that being 50 I
could learn it." -
Horowitz will play two con-
certs in London in June. He
doesn't know yet whether he'll
play in other European cities
which have requested concerts.
"And in Japan, you can't be-
lieve how much money they are
offering me to come. For years
I sit at home and I don't make
one cent. I am a very strange
fellow."
ous , composing. In Ireland, it was
me Michael Coleman, who was pri-
on- marily a performer.
pia- Because Skinner wrote songs,
er- the fiddle playing in Scotland
was; has tended to become more regi-
be- mented - as musicians gained
s a access to his recordings they
ier strove to duplicate what they
heard. Because Coleman was
us- not primarilyaa composer, mu-
uild sicians in Ireland didn't feel the
riv- I necessity to be tied down to a
nal certain style; they could add
ust and borrow freely. As a result,
or- no two fiddlers in Ireland really
ier play alike.
gsts With its prominent position in
ng. Irish culture, it is not surprising
kof that the traditional forms of mu-
Ssic are still carried on in Ire-
n land today. This is also true of
s a Scotland, although Aly main-
udi- tains that the higher standard
sic, of living there has tended to
two produce a much more commer-
ons. cial attitude towards the music.
hat In Ireland, however, there is
mu- no music business as such,
and which has lead to professional
the musicians to looking for work
ery elsewhere, and given rise to the
idea that traditional music has
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Traveling is no fun, Horowitz ::k:a>'*'**.l'.. ..........................
says. "That's why I sat home'
five years and don't travel. y
Frankly, I'm afraid to fly, but
I can do it. When it goes up, I
have to touch the hand of my
wife and hold it. Then, after s:s2:.::::: :: :: : ..................
that, it is fine.
"z nave ry own diet; I don't
eat meat, I don't believe that
meat is good for you. It's my
own conviction, not on doctor's
orders. I feel fine, very fine.
I eat a lot of gray sole and red
snapper and chicken, but oily
fish no, for about the last tour
years."
Ms. Horowitz, daughter of
Arturo Toscanini, around genius
musicians all her life, says:
"When we're traveling it's like
old Russia, taking everything
but the mattress."
Horowitz has left Columbia
Records because "If a record
comes out, it must not be kept
like a military secret. In Amer-
ica you must advertise." He is
"flirting" with a couple of
European companies.
Horowitz learned Scriabin's
Sonata No. 5, which he will play
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