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March 20, 1975 - Image 5

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Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1975-03-20

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Thursday, March 20, 1975

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Five

Thursday, March 20, 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Fiye

Ashkenazy s

By CHARLES SMITH
A charming little man with scruffy
hair and a disarming grin did some
amazing things with a piano last night.
Vladimir Ashkenazy has a well-de-
served reputation as a fine pianist-
the audience at his Hill Auditorium re-
cital in the University Musical Society
Great Performers Series seemed also
to enjoy him as a person.
Ashkenazy is not the perfect pianist,
of course-he does have weaknesses.
But his strengths lie in some especially
valuable aspects of his playing.
His sense of timing and pacing is
superb, as is the way that the larger
shape of a piece is compelled to appear
through his careful manipulation of
smaller detailed relationships, and his
rhythmic sense is usually precise.
In short, he has an excellent ear,
and is clearly always listening to and
aware of what he is playing.
Even more impressive was the clear
evidence t h a t Ashkenazy approaches
music with an open intelligent mind.
Everything which he did was precisely
calculated to achieve some definite
effect. And yet he is also deeply in-
volved emotionally with whatever he

is playing, and often he managed
project that involvement onto his au
ence last night.
Most pianists would be fools to op
a program with the Mozart A min
Rondo, one of the most treacherou
deceptively simple pieces around.,
played by Ashkenazy the piece emerg

piano
to clarity than is usual in performances
di- of Schubert.
This Schubert Sonata in particular
en can often sound tedious-the long re.
or jected sections can be just that, an-
us, other time through something which
As no one was very interested in the first
ed time.

On VlIdimir Ashkenazy:
"His sense of timing and pacing is superb . . . and is
clearly always listening to and aware of what he is play-
ing. Ashkenazy approaches music with an open intelli-
gent mind. Everything he did was precisely calculated
to (Ichieve some definite effect."

lazzles
Rachmaninoff Preludes, taken from Op.
23 and Op. 32. Rachmaninoff's music is
regarded these days with a mixture of
sentimental affection and suspicion.
No one trusts a composer who could
write such unabashedly beautiful music
in the middle of the 2tOh century. Yet
there is no denying the outstanding
musicianship of Rachmaninoff as evi-
denced in most of his music.
It is all difficult music, and not only
in terms of technique. Ashkenazy dealt
well with most of the ten pieces which
he played. He is perhaps less well
suited, either tempermentally or in
terms of musical skills, to deal with
Rachmaninoff than, say, with Mozart.
There were problems with some of
the Preludes, problems which I felt
were mainly a matter of technique-
not being able to quite manage what
' his head told him to do. The G minor
Prelude in particular was sloppy, as if
Ashkenazy were taking it at a faster
speed than he was used to.
But, by and large, he is such a su-
perb musician that any piece which he
plays is worth listening to and these
Rachmaninoff pieces were no excep-
tion.

as surprisingly compelling - everyone
in the hall fell under its spell.
The Schubert D major Sonata was
also precisely calculated for just the
right effect. However the effect in this
case was one of attacking the piece
head on, so that the larger-scale rela-
tionships emerged with much greater

Ashkenazy avoided this tedium com-
pletely. Through an emphasis on brisk
tempos and a crisp sound, and a clear
understanding of just how he piece
works, repeats and all, he managed to
make this piece emerge as a new
musical experience.
Ashkenazy also played a set of ten

Daily Photo by KEN FINK

Viadirim A shkencazy

catnpu4 (1ick4
'Carnal Knowledge:
Nichols looks at sex
By JAMES VALK j
WITH CALCULABLE PREDICTABILITY, Mike Nichols' Carnal;
Knowledge fits neatly into his continuing encycopedia of the
social nightmare.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a hellish jungle that took
the form of a middle-aged couples aphasic relationship. The
Graduate was Nichols' ode to youth-in-stupor, with the deflating
realization that life was more than the yellow brick road that
became the symbolic pot-of-gold at the end of the path.
Catch-22 reduced the humanistic spirit when needed most
to little more than tormented lunacy. Now Carnal Knowledge
surfaces as a cold installment of human sexual mores.
WORKING FROM A SCREENPLAY by Jules Feiffer, Nichols
S weavesa chronology of the friendships of two roomates at
Amherst in the late 40's: Jonathan, the bawdy machismo of sexual
virility, and Sandy, the naive, impressionable innocent a la
Summer of '42.

Milton Glaser: Graphic genius

..~ S.
$4pt4

By ARLENE WANETICK Medal awards.
An enormous sense of growrh, The two days that Mr. Glaser
excitement, and inspiration was in Ann Arbor were spent
swept through the University's largely in seminars with a r t
School of Art on March 17 and students, critiquing their wcrk,
18 with the presence of Milzon explaining his own, and discus-
Glaser, the New York graphic sing on a small, informal basis
designer internationally known the dynamics of the artist' s role

ly not in the ousiness f'r the aailable to the artist in a most
cash. He says, "It is mniportan, personal sense is wnat we all

Veterans Add $100 to
Your GI Benefits
Call ROTC, 764-2401

as a leader in the field.
Presently, Mr. Glaser is on
the faculty at the School of Vis-
ual Arts, co-founder of Push Pin
Studios, Design Director and
Chairman of the Board of New
York magazine, and Vice Presi-
dent of the Village Voice. His
work has been exhibited
throughout the world, and has
bestowed him with several Gold'

in the world today.
At these times he stressed
the importance of individual re-
sponsibility for the dire,: i one'
takes and the amount of energy1
the work itself reflec s as a
criterion for success.
Although Mr. Glaser's work
has soared to such popUla'iUy
that he is free to refuse aninter-
esting projects, he is de'init'-

to be aware of your owe needs
and your own particular percep-
tion of the world and deal with
it accordingly.
"If you don't care o work
for someone else and be ac,?g
in a big machine, d.1I do it.
Stick with your convictions. But
if you do go in that direc~'.i:>, it
is willed by vou. Don thi ime
disappointments on .ecaomiC
demands or any of various oth-
er excuses.
"It involves the issue of prior-
ities and it involves taking
risks. But the constant change,
growth and development tha* is

strive for anyway . . . is.il' it?"
On Monday evening he gave a
public lecture entitled "Time
and Graphics," drawing t h e
largest crowd of any guest his
year. Here he used slides :>f his
work, largely pasters, illustra-
tions, book and recrd iackets
to show how 'le ;sals w i r h
the problem of exoressiag I h 2
passage of time -n visual teriws.
In this environment, as in the
more intimate workshops, he
maintained a relaxed, easygo-
ing rapport with his listeners as
evidenced by their overwhelm-
ing response. lie spoke freely,
articulately, and candidly.
Mr. Glaser's work clearly re-
flects his personality- imagina-
tive, alive, witty, intelligent, and
exploding with ene::gr. Yet per-
haps his greatest qUty is the

Arts Institute show sheds
ioht nn. French. nnliticni art

But
protege
disciple

from the master learns the youngster,and Sandy, now
of the conveniently influential Jonathan, becomes a
of the cold intimacy of mechanical sexuality.

9/w z - 7 0 W qu

Years later, with Jonathan a tax lawyer and Sandy a doctor,
the collegiate scenario has become a cancerous way of life,
simply accepted without consideration. Sex is the only viable3
asset to a continuum of lifestyles-perpetrating the warped fal-
lacies of youth to their disintegration of human concern.
JONATHAN'S FIXATION WITH the female breast is temporarily
fullfilled with the presence of a TV starlet, only to have the,
feeble relationship deteriorate further with oncoming impotence,
the ultimate in mental castration to his persona.
Sandy has divorced his Amherst "sweetheart," manipulated
his way through an affair and finally ends up with a spaced-out1
girl half his age. Any intellectual idealism once possessed has1
left him. He has become an entity unto himself.
The film is classically what one might expect from a mix of
Nichols and Feiffer: a pentratingly naked film that exposes{
satirical truths through long, dialectic sequences.
BUT NICHOLS' WORK REMAINS bleak throughout, ultimately
failing to resolve itself as his past films have done, even on the
strictly superficial level as Yossarian's catharsism in Catch-22.
It is a film that refuses to compromise its ideals, allowing its
disconsolated pathos the final, victory. -Jonathan and Sandy are
victims of their own carnal knowledge, and remain captives of
their own persistence.
Carnal Knowledge is not a commentary on society and its
mores, but one of personal attitudes-ideological worlds unique toI
themselves, isolated from the relevance needed to allow them the
chance for alteration.
fFEIFFER'S CHARACTERS ARE mere cardboard cutouts that
live for physical fullfillment, recalling fond memories of past
affairs through slide shows in sterile living rooms.
In a particularly affective sequence, Nichols pits both
Jonathan and Sandy, once adolescents of the '40s, against the '
towering flourescent skyscrapers of the city night, now matura-
tions of the '70s. Yet little has changed. If anything their lives
have stagnated-decaying from the lack of any mutual progres-
sion.
What started out as youthful inquisitiveness and agression has
grown into a debacle of waste, yielding little more than a franticI
attempt to regain sexual prowess; a search that Nichols proves
has no resolution,

By JOAN RUHELA 1 ing his arim on a cloud.
The current exhibit at the De- Richard Swain, who is tea rn-
troit Institute of Arts proves ing a one-credit course on
that French art from 1774 to French art of this time, says
1830 does much more than glor- that since government and l(y-
ify fat old monarchs with white alties were changing so quick-
faces in fancy clothes. ly, it was sometimes hard to
Many art historians think the paint political paintings because
exhibition, sponsored by the De- their heroes might soon be un-
troit Institute of Arts in con- derdogs.
MctionwithMuseuNew o r Therefore, when David was
and the French Reunion des the director of the French art
Musees Nationaux, shows that academy, he urged variety and
there are flaws in the way weeveryday subject matter, Swain
have categorized the art of this.I says. Many paintings of this
sort, which haven't attracted as
time. s t much attention as the political
Perhaps political paintings
have been emphasized because
they most easily fit into cate-
gories. Most neo-classical paint-
ings portray scenes from antiq- -h liliflE
uity and are said to be rational
and controlled.
In Jacques-Louis David's PRE
"Death of Socrates," which
warns us against a society that uW E D D
condemns a man like Socrates,
the characters seem posed, for
exmatic art, in contrast, is B LC
considered emotional and spon-
taneous. Liberty, in Delacroix' Dir CLAUDE C
"Liberty Leading the People,"
seems to have spontaneously Two lovers kill off thei
nicked uip a flag from her dead ehr upneu!I
comrade to lead the people dur- other Suspenseful! In
ing an uprising.
Non - political paintings are{TON1CGHT, T
harder to categorize, though 7 & 9 Ad. A
Thetis, like most neo-classical
nudes, turns her back to us in
Ingres' "Jupiter and Thetis.' --
But her clothes are falling off
erotically as she leans against
Also, the painting almost looks M U S K I
like modern art because of its
unearthly setting.J upiter de-
fies the laws of nature by rest-

i
I
,i

and modesty, recogniinI his suc-
cessful designs while confessing
ones, had until now been stored the weaker ones. For most stu-
away for over 100 years. dents, this had a verv reassar-
"Minor" paintings in the ex- ing kind of significance, as it
hibit include such commonplace brought their vision of "one
subject matter as young men who has made it" into a more
playing cricket, a highway be- realistic, human p3rsp.active.
ing built of large bricks, and In each of his designs, Mi.
brightly - dressed pilgrims com- as iacutely e ofts
ing hm rmafatdyi Glaser is acutely aware of h
ighome from a feast day in a audience he is designin o.-,
bull cart. and emphasizes thi; as a c: ti-
Another painting gives us an cal consideration. "I couldn't
idea of the philosophy of the possibly use the same design
time by showing intellectual concept for the cover of an art
man studying experiments, phy- schoolcatalog, geared to stu-
samanudighexperments ,phy dents who think visually, as Is
sical man with a woman, and would if my intat were selling
moral man with his family. gas, which would be ouite a
different approac;.
k 'Never during Nis slay did Mr.
Glaser feel bored, pressured, or
disappointed. He was warm and
E charismatic at all times, and
U well-received by the many stu-

CI

SENTIS
ING IN
)OD
HABROL, 1973
r spouses to marry each
French.
hurs., Mar. 20
Angell Hall 1.25

dents who met him.

The University of Michigan Professional Theatre Program

INGMAR BERGMAN'S 1956
THE SEVENTH SEAL
This serious Swedish film is well known for its metaphysical overtones
underlying a medieval knight's journey home from the Crusades, but its
best feature is, as in a film like CITIZEN KANE, that it is a very effec-
tively made movie. As a result, the atmosphere of the Black Plague, the
game of chess with Death, and the fine acting by Max von Sydow and Bibi
Anderson are images as powerful as the work as a whole, which is about the
end of the world as the Dark Ages knew it.
FRI.: Filmmaker Sylvia Spring Will Appear at Showings of
the Feminist MADELEINE EST ...
TONIGHT AT OLD ARCH. AUD.
CINEMA GUILD 7 & 9:05 ADM. ONLY $1.00
March
20 & 21
EMUs
.Pease Aud.
8 p.m.
$3.00
6. _ general

t ;: ';r" : ','" :;ti:. f fp"r r{ r x.:;r.; ;, :. "., .... ;. -r,;,r:5 , .:. 'r: .:rs.';" l ; !:k
..... ;:

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