/ Branden b urgs given quality performance By JEFFREY QUICK rHE THIRTEEN-MEMBER Ars Musica Baroque Orchestra aims to I present the second American performance of all Bach's Brandenburg Concerti on original instruments. Their concert Monday night at Rackham was a good beginning. No, not perfect. But it is rare enough to hear Baroque music pjayed with both spirit and taste that technical lapses can be for- given. The first work on the program, Handel's Concerto Grosso in B-flat major, Op. 3, No. 1, received the roughest performance. Violin soloist Shigetoshi Yamada rushed the tempo and neglected the intonation in the rapid passages of the first movement, and the effect of Michael Lynn's out- of-tune recorder entrance in the second is best left undescribed. But Grant Moore's oboe ornamentation was luscious, and the ensemble as a whole played with rhythmic drive and graceful phrasing, traits which held con- stant for the entire evening. For those of us who think of Vivaldi as the man who wrote one concerto Ars Musica Baroque Orchestra Rackhakn Auditorium Monday, January 16 Concerto Grosso in B-flat major, Op.3. No. 1.................. ......... Handel -Concerto in G minor for recorder and strings, Op. 10, No. 2 ...........vivaldi Brandenburg Concerto No.6............... Bach Concerto in F major for 2 oboes and strings, Op. 9, No. 3 ......... ...... Albioni Brandenburg Concerto No.3................. Bach Lyndon Lawless, Conductor hundreds of times, the Concerto in G minor for recorder and strings ("La Notte" - the night) was a revelation. This is a program piece (though no specific plot has come down to us) in which spooky Largo movements alter- nate with Prestos reminiscent of silent-movie chase music. Here Lynn fully redeemed himself with fancy fingerwork in the fast movements and supreme control of the first-movement trills and quiet "II Sonno" (Sleep) transverse flute solo, supported by the gentle sound of the gut-strung Baroque violins. THEN FOLLOWED a vigorous performance of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto. Scored for low strings, this work in particular requires the clarity that only the viola da gamba, Baroque viola, and cello can provide. That clarity was marred by faulty viola intonation. Many sins are hidden by the constant vibrato of modern string players, and when this is stripped away (as it must be in authentic iaroque performance style), playing in tune becomes difficult. It is remarkable that in the seven years of the group's existence these musicians have learned the accuracy they have, but the modern ear demands perfection. The second portion of the concert was more even in quality. It began with the Concerto in F major for 2 oboes and strings, Op. 9, No. 3 by Tomaso Albinoni, a contemporary of Vivaldi. This merry work showed off the rich sound of the Baroque three-key oboes, played by Moore and Susan Kieren. It was followed by the Third Brandenburg Concerto. This was one of the best performances I have ever heard of this work, which is often ruined by frenetic tempi (as did the University Chamber Orchestra performance sev- eral years ago). Warm but clear timbre, well-marked rhythm, and well-delineated nuan- ce made the piece shine. I was not totally satisfied with director Lawless' answer to the second-movement problem. For this section Bach left two chords, and many modern scholars believe that he improvised a solo movement which the orchestra closed. In this performance the chords were prefaced by a short and rather trite two-violin cadenza, giving the impres- sion of interruption, not transition. This is a common and defensible proce- dure, but to my ears it just doesn't work. ,USICOLOGV AND ARS MUSICA hive progressed far in seven years. This series uses not only original instruments (or copies) and Dlavin style. but also .a., facsimile of the Dedication Copy of these pre-existing concerti, which Bach copied out for the Margrave of Brandenburg in hope of receiving a job. The next concert on Feb. 9 features natural trumpeter Friedemann Immer, replacing British virtuoso Don Smithers, who is seriously ill. The house was packed last night, and unless you hurry to Jacobson's ticket booth, you won't hear the next concert. That, I guarantee, could be a great disappointment. Fall, COURSE MART winter 1978 DEADLINES 1979 For consideration as 1978-79 offerings, Course Mart proposals for Fall 1978 AND Winter 1979 must be completed and submitted by the deadline: FEBRUARY 6, 1978. To; COURSE MART COMMITTEE 2501 LS&A Building 764-6465 (Info and applications available now) HOMEWORK GETTING The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, January 18, 1978-Page 5 parody scores Eastwood's self- By MICHAEL BROIDY BEN SHOCKLEY (Clint Eastwood) is a loser. He's a cop who spends more time drinking than nabbing crooks, and he isn't exactly an intel- lectual giant. But at last, Shockleps been given a chance to break the "big" case - or so he thinks. Shockley is sent to Las Vegas to pick up trial witness Gus Maley and bring him back to Phoenix to testify. Gus, however, turns out to be beautiful Sondra Locke, a college-educated hook- er with evidence linking the mob to the Phoenix police. The Vegas oddsmakers are laying 50 to 1 that she and her cop escort won't make it to Phoenix. The odds get even worse, for it turns out that Shockley has been set-up by his commissioner; no one would miss Shockley if he. met with an unfortunate demise. Up against the combined for- ces of the police and the underworld, Shockley and Gus set out on their death- defying and bullet-strewn trek across the Nevada and Arizona deserts, ending with a run through a gauntlet of hun- dreds of Phoenix cops and millions of rounds of ammunition. THE GAUNTLET marks Clint East- wood's sixth outing as a director, and by now he's become quite a stylist. He's playing a cop, but this ain't Dirty Harry. Shockley is Eastwood's attempt to have fun with the mythic heroes he's played in the past; The Gauntlet be- comes in effect a stylish self-parody. Though he ultimately becomes a super- hero, Shockley must continually rely on his companion's superior intellect to get him out of the various scrapes he falls into during the course of the film. Even the violence is stylized in The Gauntlet. The movie sees more rounds of gunfire and explosives than perhaps any other film in cinema history. In one scene, a house is ripped with an endless outpouring of bullets until it finally collapses. Yet all this explosive mayhem is ren- dered as harmless as a Keystone Kops comedy - it's impossible to take seri- ously.. It's easy to poke fun at the numerous holes in the plot. While Eastwood and Locke ride through the gauntlet set up in the Phoenix streets - all the while being riddled with bullets - the audience can be heard- murmuring, "Why don't they shoot out the tires of the bus?" Such attempts at injecting logic into the film are as futile as hoping to see another Eastwood mythic per- formance, EVEN SUCH SCENES as when East- wood frightens off a band of motorcycle tough-guys reflect the comic nature of The Gauntlet's incredible'plot:' there's as much laughter as there are 'Go get'em Clint's." True, we stilVget those classic Eastwood touches such as our hero muttering "asshole" under his breath when he finds himself the object of a stupid joke, and the nonsense atti- tude that Shockley displays when he comes to extradite Gus. It's not an easy job balancing the mythic and the mock- mythic, yet Eastwood carries it off- beautifully. The tone of the film re- mains light thoughout, and while you don't take it seriously for a second, you can't avoid ending up cheering. Credit must also be given to Sondra Locke as the schoolgirlish whore Gus Malley. Never has there been a female character in an Eastwood film who matches the star scene for scene and line for line; Locke does so, and East- wood wisely gives her full reign. The Gauntlet is that much richer for it. PARTICULARLY MEMORABLE is a scene where Locke, after being on the receiving end of a verbal barrage of crude and lacivious jokes from a hick cop (Bill McKinney), launches a coun- ter-attack that is a tour-de-force of act- ing. Locke never looses track of an smr almost impossible character. * Eastwood's directoral talen~ts are in full force in The Gauntlet. Swift and flowing aerial shots, characleristical- ly tight compositions, and no-frills edit- ing propel the film with a ferocity mat- ching that of its various scenes of car- nage and mayhem. A stylish exercise in self-parody with incredible scenes demonstrating the destructive poWer of gunfire, The Gauntlet repi esents a breakthrough for Eastwood as both director and performer. Join te' Arts Staff:1 NIGHr MIXED DRINKS, HALF PRICE! South University near Washtenaw " 769-1744 Clint Eastwood The University of Michigan Professional Theatre Program presents from Detroit greektown attic theatre STRE AMERS N.Y DRAMA CRITICS AWARD BY DAVIT) RABE Jan.19, 20 8pm, Jan.21 2&8pm Rsidential Colleg Theatre PTP Ticket Office. Mendelssohn Theatre Lobby Mon - Fri 10am-ip m. 2-5 m For information, call 313-764 0450 All seats s3.50 1 ll'rp W ' rpqi A t . y y~y11