The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, March 14,. 1978-Page 7

Poor performance

by de Peyer

By DAVID VICTOR
rHE SERAPHIM recording of
Brahms' "Opus 120, The Two
Clainet Sonatas, performed by Ger-
vast de Peyer on clarinet and Daniel
Barnboim on piano, brings attention to
an infortunately overlooked opus by

The Two Clarinet Sonatas
Qrvase de Peyer and Daniel Barenboim
Sera'phuuSN0 302

the great Romantic composer.
HoweTer, if one were to depend only on
the por quality of the performance on
de Peyer's recording of the piece, it
might continue to be overlooked with
good reason.
The first movement of the Sonata in F
Minor, the Allegro appassionato, shows
the clarinet .at its best for the entire
record.. After the opening piano in-
troduction, de Peyer enters smoothly
enough and throughout the twenty-four
bar clarinet introduction shows a sur-
prisingly smooth tone in light of the
bloated quality he exposes later on. In
the lyrical portions of the movement,
the clarinet never quite seems to em-
body the power of the movement's
three surging climaxes. This was ex-
tremely evident in the second
movement (Andante un poco adagio)
where the simplicity of the clarinet line
is meant to showcase the tone and
delicacy of the instrument. The lower
register is bothersome, over and again
lacking i firmness and rendering a
bloated sound. One's attention is

repeatedly drawn to the tender accom-
paniment of Daniel Barenboim on piano
which, though certainly a worthy point
of praise, should not be the point of at-
tention during a clarinet solo. The
playful Allegretto graziosa third
movement is .perhaps one of the most
enjoyable pieces in the entire clarinet
repetoire. Dancing with its memorable
arpeggios and twisting through a con-
tinually shifting dynamic temperat-
ment, the movement is alive with
gaiety. Here de Peyer reveals a high
degree of artistry as he subtly works up
the crescendos or just as imperceptibly
brings the movement down to its quiet
moments, a feat of no small import.
The weak embouchure of the earlier
movements' low register passages was
also notably lacking here.
Still several of his entries were
marked by tonguing on the verge of
sloppiness, a fault that de Peyer carries
into the beginning of the Vivace finale
where the staccato passages make this
fault strikingly more evident. Fur-
thermore, the sudden drop from high to
middle octave repeated throughout the
movement lacks the sensitivity of a
master, always harsh open entry and
often bloated upon its resolution.
DE PEYER carries his performance
of the Sonata in E-flat with a bit more
verve. A less intense work than its
sister Sonata, the clarinet sounds con-
siderably less strained. The breath
support is so much stronger that it is
almost hard to believe that it is the
same clarinetist who butchered the
previous piece. With the added breath

support comes a fuller, more resonant
tonal quality particularly noticeable in
the improved strength of de Peyer's
lower register passages.
The opening Allegro amabile
movement immediately displays this
change of quality. Throughout the
lengthy movement, the casual fluidity
only hinted at in the opening of the
Sonata in F-Minor is realized com-
pletely. Without question the central

heard again. The piece is spattered
with several inexcusably poor entries
(particularly towards the conclusion)
more out of the lipped-reed jazz of
Woody Herman or Benny Goodman
than the precise demands of classical
Brahms.
The finale was surprisingly well done
on the more quick-paced of the five
variations on the Andante con moto
theme. The opening variations were
sensitive enough but the quiet pianis-
simo sect1fins of the fourth variatinn

were virtually hooted. The flamboyant
final movement held considerably
more panache than might have been
expected by this point. The- building
bursts of movement were relaxed and
bright, and the sonata closed effec-
tively.
Overall, this record is not poorly
done, it is just not well done. One is
hard-pressed to decide whether de
Peyer's performance should rank him
as a masterful amateur or an
amateurish master. In any case, the
clarinetist hardly proved himself wor-
thy of his previous acclaim. Though
- nnOnnnafnnn:n nnrnhn:


THINS WEEK

portion of this movement shows, if only
briefly, Gervase de Peyer as the
clarinetist of acclaim he has somehow
been heralded as.
Unfortunately, this musical poetry
hardly carries tn through the rest of the
work. As the mood shifts toward the
more intense Appassionato second
movement, de Peyer fails to muster the
necessary dash. 'The now-familiar
strained sensation of holding back is

piano accompanist lianiei barenooim
was consistently quite good, the soloist
he accompanied was insupportable. It
is a shame that two such fine Brahms
pieces so often overlooked must ,con-
tinue to remain so.
Since cockroaches tend to be wan-
derers, they can be disease-carriers,
says National Geographic. They are,
however, among the cleanest insects.
If a roach happens to touch a human,
its priority is to clean itself after
scurrying off to safety.

Union Programming
ST. PATRICK'S DAY DANCE
Beer, Mixed Drinks, Rock'n Roll Band, & Lots of Green
Friday, March 17, 9:00 pm, in the Union Ballroom.
Admission: $1.25
Viewpoint Lectures
BILL MAULDIN
Illustrated Lecture. Pulitizer prize-winning political cartoonist.
Thursday, March 16, 8:00 pm, in Rackham Auditorium.
Tickets: $1.50; available at Ticket Central and at the dodr.
MUSKET presents:
WEST SIDE STORY
Street gangs rumble to ballet, theatre and music
Power Center, Thursday-Sunday, March 16-19, 8 pm
Sunday, March 19, 2 pm
$3.50, $4.00,$4.50 Tickets available at Ticket Central
Eclipse Jazz
ARCHIE SHEPP QUARTET *1th
BARRY HARRIS TRIO
An exquisite performance on tenor and soprano saxophones and piano. f
Friday & Saturday, March 17 & 18 at 7:30 and 10:30 pm
Tickets: $3.50 & $4.50 available at Ticket Central
Workshop details to be announced.
ANN ARBOR JAZZ WORKSHOP
Weekly sessions in jazz improvisation facilitated by Andy Drelles.
Room 24 / 26 East Quad
Sundays-1:00-3:00 pm. (novice sessions,)
3:00-5:00 pm. (advanced sessions)
Supported by your donations.
Mediatrics
YELLOW SUBMARINE
Drive out the Blue Meanies with this Beatles anitnotion.
Friday, March 17, at 7:00, 8.30, & 10:30 pm.
Tickets: $1.50, special $1.00 for children .
BOBBY DEERFIELD'
See Al Pacino as a race car champion.
Saturday, March 18, 7:00 & 9:30 pm.
Tickets: $1.50
TICKET CENTRAL handles ticket sales for all UAC events. Located in the
lobby of the Michigan Union, business hours are 10:00 am-5:00 pm., Monday,
through Friday. For additional information, call 763-1453.
ECLIPSE JAZZ is an all-volunteer, non-profit collective whose goof is to
agpand the jazz audience. Volunteers are always welcome, call 763-1107. ,
UNIVERSITY ACTIVITIES CENTER is a totally'student-run organization.
If you are interested in finding out how you can participate in the many facets of
UAC, call 763-110B or stop by our offices on the 2nd floor of the Michigan Union.

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Meatloaf & Boomtown Rats
offer interesting debut albums

By ANNE SHARP
U NTIL RECENTLY, Meat Loaf's,
chief claim to fame was his por-
trayal of Eddie, a degenerate, sax-
playing motorcyclist in the screen ver-
sion of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
a few years ago. Now, this strange
singer with the voice of Cat Stevens and

Todd Rundgren produced, engineered,
mixed, and arranged Bat, and Edgar
Winter plays saxophone in several
numbers, notably "All Revved Up With
No Place To Go".
Steinman's most precious song,
"Paradise By the Dashboard Light",
reminiscent of "Don't Touch Me
There" by the Tubes, has the
adolescent Meat Loaf frantically trying
to seduce his girlfriend. Ellen Foley,
featured in the girl's part, provides a
dramatic complement to Meat Loaf's
Broadway vocal style. "Paradise"
starts out in a bouncy 50's jukebox
style, then, when the boy in the song
grapples amorously with his friend, it
switches to disco as a tongue-in-cheek
,baseball announcer calls the "plays"
(He's rounding first and really turning
it on now, he's not letting up at all, he's
gonna try for second").
With its lurid lyrics and histronic
musical score, Bat Out of Hell promises
to delight the adolescent at heart. Ap-
parently, for Meat Loaf and Steinman,
there is not life after high school.
THE NEW ALBUM by a British New
Wave ensemble, called The Boomtown

Rats is proof that pogo music can be
truly listenable. With their, imaginative
use of orchestration, arrangements and
recording studio facilitied, the Rats
may bring punk into the living rooms of
Middle America.
Unfortunately, the album cover,
which shows the band suffocating in
huge plastic bags, leaves the musicians
unidentified. Though .the Rats bear all
the earmarks of punk - jackhammer
guitars, indistinct vocals, and lyrics
depicting selfishness, misogyny, and
the joys of being young and delinquent
- they bear more resemblance to the
early Who than to the Sex Pistols.
Unlike many New Wave bands, they
dare to vary their musical repetoire.
"Kicks", about an adolescent's
frustration with age of majority laws,
breaks its tight rhythms midway for a
short, dreamy snythesizer fugue. The
album even features a slow, pleasant
song about a mature male-female
relationship "I Can Make It If You
Can," although it can't resist a cynical
dig at romantic convention:
The Rats also possess a lead singer
who, unlike Johnny Rotten or Niagara,
can actually sing.

BARRY
AVEDON,
DRAWINGS
MARCH 1-31

RECEPTION
MARCH 3
7:00 - 9: 00 pm

Tuea - Fri. 10 - 6
Sat, Sun. 12- 5
764-3234

6NLM
FIRST FLOOR MICHIGAN UNION

CLIP AND SAVE


Jerry Weintraub and Concerts West present

Bat Out of Hell
Meat Loaf
#p,.PE 497


LIVE


the body of Babar the Elephant (Meat
Loaf weighs nearly 300 lbs.) has recor-
ded a new solo effort. Bat Out of Hell,
which may be one of the weirdest
albums of 1978.
The most amazing thing about "Bat
Out of Hell" is its lyrics. Jim Steinman,
who wrote "Bat's" words and music,
has created a sort of plotless rock opera
6 ibout adolescent fantasies of love and
a uasi-erotic violence. Meat Loaf is the
..aro, an obese, turgid teenager singing
passionately to his lady love in a non-
sensical cliche borrowed from popular
songs of the last twenty years:
Give me all of your prayers to send
And I'll turn the night into-the skylight of day
I got a taste of paradise
I'm never gonna let it slip away ...
It's all I really need to make me stay-
Just like a child again
In another instnce, he affirms that
"with every other beat I got left in my
heart", if he is doomed to damnation,
he wants to be damned "dancing
through the night with you". This is
from the title song, an aria sung by a
phantom biker who, while dying after a
nasty crash, watches his heart fly from
his breast up to Heaven "like a bat out
of hell".
MEAT LOAF has a strong voice, and his
inflection and phrasing blend well with
the thundering piano and orchestra that
back him up throughout the album.

VIETNAM AND AMERICA -University Course 314
17 MARCH-4 APRIL 1978
An undergraduate mini-course on the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement,
and the implications of both for American society past and present. Offered
in conjunction with the Teach-In "What War? What Now?" March 20-24, fea-
turing such speakers as David Dellinger (of the Chicago 7), Eqbal Ahmed,
Ngo Vinh Long and original members of SDS at the University of Michigan;
also the film HEARTS AND MINDS. Instructors: Profs. Buzz Alexander, Liam

Hunt, and Norman Owen.
First Class Meeting
Friday, 17 March 1978
4-6 p.m.,11429 Mason Hall

Further Information
History Dept., 3609 Haven Hall

ONEEMOW

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THE
BLUEFROGGE
and SCC present ..
C0
P
TONIGHT
Reduced Cower-Reduced Beer Prices
611 CHURCH 995-5955
XX X.

IN CENTER STAGE IN THE ROUND
a
Sat., Vri 000 .
CrislerArenal
-Tickets on sale
at TheMichigan
Union Box Office
11:30-5:30M-F
y
l '
AlI seats reserved. $10.00, 7.50 & 5.00.
r Tickets available Huckleberry Party
t Store (Ypsilanti) and Hudson's
(Briarwood). First come, First Served.
Or, send certifed check or money
order to "John Denver," Michigan
V Y Union Box Office, 530 S. State, Ann
. :.f: Arbor, Mich. 48109. Enclose self-
addressed, stamped return envelope.
Sorry, no personal checks.
For further information call 7fi3-2071.

I


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Interested Students and Faculty Invited. .. "
PROFESSIONAL
HEALTH CAREERS "
DAY
Ti iccrlnv Mnrrh 9 1 e+-1(1 D M _d P M