THE MICHIGAN DAILY Arts & Entertainm ent Wednesday, October 6, 1 976 Page Five WELL I DECLARE ________Ken Parsigian "YOU KNOW," my friend Phil said to me the other day, "I am generally considered the worst player in the club, while you are thought to be one of the best. Yet," he continued, "in the long run I win more money than you do. Do you know why that is?" he asked. "It is just one of the many great injustices of life," I answer- ed. "My mother always told me that this was a cruel world, and she was right!" "No, no, no," said Phil shaking his head patronizingly. "That's not the case at all. It's just that too many people play too well these days. If everyone plays well, theneveryone else knows what's going on. For every brilliant stroke there is a bril- liant counter stroke. "BUT LOOK at me. I have never claimed to be a master of technique, only a master of confusion. I believe that it is best to keep one's opponents off guard, and I always do. How can they possibly know what I'm up to when I rarely know myself? Since no one is sure of what is going on, luck becomes an all important factor. And even you must admit that I am very lucky. So you see, it is actually easier for a poor player to win than for an expert one." Now, this was a difficult argument to refute, and while I was desperately trying to think of a retort, Margie, who had been sitting at the table next to us, joined the discussion. "He is right, you know," she said. "Why just let me tell you about a hand he played against me the other day."j So, grabbing a bit of paper, and borrowing my pencil, she wrote:: North V Q 10 x 43 * A K Q J 10 9 xx x x A2 Symphony: .ln rtiftr. in ' 1 FLUNKS ON MOZART: U' S-Ymphony shows promise NE- / I f, By KAREN PAUL TN POWER CENTER on Sun- day, the Ann Arbor Sympho- ny's lack of professionalism was obvious even before the con- cert began - a musician walk- ed onto the stage munching an apple. The musicians themselves were not totally at fault. No one could be expected to fol- low the meaningless arm wav- ing of the conductor, Dr. Ed- ward Szabo. The string players' tried hard. They managed to stick together most of the time, were usually in tune, and play- ed with a sensitivity which must have come from themselves since Szabo's direction lacked musicality. The program began with the "Suite" from Water Music of Handel (arranged by Hamilton Harty). The niece was original-! ly written for a festival in! which the nsicians played while floating down the Thames. The nine horns of the Ann Ar- bor Symphony would certainly' have sunk the barge with their; stuffy, heavy sound and miss- ed notes. THIS BAROQUE music should be played with a clear, light horn tone. However, in the fast movements, Szabo failed to keep' a steady tempo; the strings struggled to stay together, but the bassoon and flute were ac- curate and musical. THE EIGHTH SYMPHONY of Beethoven proved to be too much for the Ann Arbor mu- sicians. The performance was belabored with ragged phrases. Szabo's conducting style re- mained the same whether the character of the themes was playful, dancelike or somber. { c ', +7 ; 't ' '{ !] i t ;l j I' , t '1 c 17 , By KAREN PAUL frHE UNIVERSITY Sympho- ny Orchestra showed pro-' Though I was relieved to see mise under their new conduct- only four horns on stage, the or, Gustav Meier, in a diver- section tried to play too loud sified program last Friday at without supporting their thin Hill Auditorium. tones in the first and third The orchestra displayed com- movements, resulting in a slur- petence with the works of Hay- red blast - the individual notes dn, Berlioz, Mozart and Ives, al- lost. The strings and woodwinds though its performance was held the symphony together. somewhat unpolished. Some After a welcome intermission, credit is due Meier and the Szabo proved to be a little more orchestra for attempting the deft in conducting Samuel Bar- complex Ives Symphony No. 4 ber's Adagio for Strings. The sc their first concert of the piece was pretty with nice, bigs year. crescendos. The good balance Under Meier's baton, the and rich tone of the Ann Arbor Haydn Symphony No. 100 took strings enriched Barber's har- on a likeable personality. The monies, but releases of chords musicians created delicate not lwas toethr. passages, fine dynamic contras- were not always together. Ia a danceable minuet, and A SATISFYING performance fitting, though exaggerated, of the Brahms Double Concerto character changes. for Violin, Cello and Orchestra THE VIOLINISTS ere obid ally, in A Minor, performed by Gor- but each seemed to be trying don Staples and Italo Babini, to play a solo rather than listen- followed. Staples and Babini, ing to each other and playing concertmaster and principal cel- as a unit. This was especially list, respectively, of the Detroit apparent in the last movement, Symphony Orchestra, played where the resto temo made beautifully in spite of the slop- the pe orsem-othe py acompnimnt o th or-theproblem worse --- the vio- py accompaniment of the or- lins kept running away from chetra(musin honhav eaael) each other and the rest of the clear, singing tones and played orchestra. eve th mot echica pas- Throughout the symphony, ae the msttechnical ps probablybecause of the large ages wvith ease. size of the string sections (in In an encore, the Handel-Hal- Haydn's time, this would not vorsen Passacaglia for Violin have been the case) the winds and Cello, Staples and Babini were hidden by the dominating displayed flashy technique. strings. In woodwind interludes Playing amazingly fast, yet with though, those instruments, es- clarity, the duo deserved the pecially oboes and flutes, held standing ovation of the nearly their own with a delightful full house. sound. The horns played well on the few occasions when they The Ann Arbor Symphony could be heard, but the trum- concerts are free and many pets generally missed notes and of the musicians are not paid. the cymbals were often too blat- Thus, perhaps, truly profession- ant. al playing cannot be expected, The opening of the Berlioz . Overture to Benvenuto Cellini" although professional manner is was all but ruined by the glar- important in any public perform- ing, band-like blast of the trum- ance. pets (where is that Bud Her- seth sound?) Cello, trombonet and tuba highlighted this per- formance of Berlioz' relativelyt uneventful overture.t IVES finished his Fourth1 Symphony in 1916, but thez mighty work was not premier-t ed until 1965. The symphony is3 scored for a huge orchestra,I chorus, "distant choir" of! strings and harps and a special1 "battery unit" of percussion.i Four conductors assisted Meier1 for this concert.- Ives, who once said, "My{ God, what has sound got to do1 with music?" composed a finet combination of nostalgic, comic and intense sounds in this sym-t phony. He loved the spontaneityI of live performance, even the mistakes, and therefore would have approved of the University Symphony's performance. Be- cause of the difficulty in per- forming (interpretation and technique) and the nature of the work, the Symphony's mis- takes are forgivable; their per- formance did justice to it. The symphony opens in a mood of inquiry with the chorus singing, "Watchman tell us of the night' What the signs of promise are." The University Chamber Choir under Thomas Hilbish captured the searching spirit of this prelude, but the' strings and harps couldn't be heard. THE SECOND movement is intended to make the audience laugh -- its nostalgic songs are interrupted by marches, rags' and even "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean." These melodies were not always brought out enough by the orchestra; be- cause they are often played si- multaneously, it is difficult to make the layers distinguish- able. But the audience was laughing or at least smiling, so Meier's interpretation success- fully rendered Ives' intent. The third movement is a peaceful, majestic moving fugue. The cellos began the movement with a warm, sonor- ous tone, but the violins played rather unemotionally. Had the tempo been slower and the vio- lins emoted more, the move- ment could have been divinely tranquil. Ives called the fourth move- ment "an apothesis of the pre- ceding content, in terms that have something to do with the reality of existence and its re- ligious experience." The move- ment begins with quiet percus- sion and evolves into a com- plexity of layers in the orches- tra and wordless voices of the choir. With a transcendental quality, it grows, subsides and finally fades the way it began.; The orchestra had some diffi- culty in synchronizing the di- verse sections, but the overall effect was satisfying. UNFORTUNATE- LY, the orchestra began the Mozart "Overture to the Mar- riage of Figaro" as soon as the last note of the Ives was sound- ed. I couldn't help feeling rob- bed of the tranquility instilled by the Ives, although some seemed pleased by the imme- diate lightness of the overture- perhaps for them Ives was too heavy to go home with. However, it is doubtful many really listened to the overture; the orchestra played it quickly with little care. A JOIN OUR HAPPY HOUR!! Sunday thru Thursday 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Cottage INN 663-3379 12 EAST WILLIAMS r 0 West J x x A J 10 x x Q 10 9 x x 4 East K x x x 42 xx v V South A x x K Q x x x x 4 A K J x "I WAS sitting East, and Bruce was my partner," Margie continued. "Phil sat South, and his partner was Kevin (but we all call him Ricco) who plays bridge with the same irrational flair as Phil. The bidding was absurd and totally unpustifiable. Phil and Rico finally called it quits when the auction had reached 7 no trumps, which Bruce promptly doubled. With nowhere else to go, everyone passed, and Phil became declarer at 7 no trumps, while Bruce pondered his opening lead. It was a more difficult problem than you'd expect.There was, of course,tnodoubt that the contract was going down. It was s -oly a matter of how much, and Bruce was determined to sc'e e this hand for every- thing it was worth. A diamond would be too passive, and a heart was impossible since that would help set up Phil's long suit. (Phil had bid hearts 3 times during the auction). So he was left with a choice, between clubs and spades. I had doubled 6 spades during the bidding so Bruce decided on a small spade. Phil, who always plays quickly because given a chance to think about the hand he invariably makes the wrong play, put in dummy's 10, which I covered with my king. "Phil won the Ace, and counted his tricks. He counted 11, so things would not be as bad as they had first appeared. The hand would cost at most 500. Crossing to dummy with a spade, Bruce carefully throwing his Jack, to deceive, Phil started to run the diamonds. On the first five, Phil threw little hearts while Bruce pitched the Jack then the 9 of hearts, giving me a count, followed by the 3 and the 10 of clubs. Well I figured that if he was going to go out of his way to give me a count on the hand, I ought to do the same for him, so I threw my 4 of hearts, as the begin- ning of an echo, on the next to last diamond. On the lasttdiamond, I completed the signal by discarding the heart 2, while Phil pitched his next to last spade. But what was Bruce to do? He was down to the spade 9, the heart Ace, and Q x x of clubs. If he threw the spade, Phil's 8 would be good, and if he threwthe heart Ace, dummy's 3 would be good, thanks to my discard of the 4. Clubs were no better; for then his Queen would fall under the Ace and King, setting up Phil's last two clubs. "FINALLY, Bruce decided on the heart Ace, feeling confi- dent that Phil would not remember that the 3 was now good. Well, Phil didn't remember, but an idea, a brilliant idea sudden- See A, Page 8 TONIGHT! THE ANN ARBOR PREMIERE OF A ROMAN POLANSKI FILM. Soon to be re-released with a new title, we are showing the original. 7 only 1974 WHAT? It's hard to tell which is weirder, this film's plot or its history. Immediately rated "X" and condemned by the Catholic Church, WHAT?opened in New York to love/hate reviews, then seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, a rare fate for a film by a director as popular and as im- portant as Polanski iCHINATOWN, REPULSION and ROSE- MARY'S BABY). A Surrealist's dream. John; Simon hated it, Polanski loves it. "Sadly underrated film . . . in his FEAR- LESS VAMPIRE KILLERS mood with a modern Alice trying to retain her modesty (if not her virtue) in a wonderland of crazy perverts, it also juggles a graceful series of paradoxes about the sad perception that art and life so seldom coincide." --Sight &Sound. Sydne Rome, Marcello Mastroianni and Ro- man Polanski. JAMES BOND'S BEST 9 only DR. NO TERRENCE YOUNG 1962 The very first of the James Bond adventures, DR. NO marked a new advance in sex and violence and started an internaa tional 007 craze. Never intended as the start of a series, this film was so successful that one Bond led to another, making Sean Connery a superstar. Even more fun today than it was back then! With Ursula Andress. $1.25, Double Feature $2.00 AUD. A ANGELL HALL Organ concert proves charismatic By SCOTT EYERLY STRAVINSKY rarely used it, explaining, "the monster: never breathes." But Mozart crowned it "the King of instru- ments." Both musicians were speak- ing of the organ; an instru- ment so venerable, so rich, yet so rarely heard in concert. It was this rarity that made Ann Arbor appreciate last Sun- day night's organ recital by Marilyn Mason - her first of the school year. Mason, who played the new Schantz pipe organ at the First Church of ChristyScientist, carries a per- sonality as impressive as her credentials. Chairwoman of the University's Organ Department, a student of Nadia Boulanger and the first woman to playmin Westminster Abbey, this smil- ing organ impresario prov'ed charismatic even when con- cealed in the loft. Not long af- ter one piece had ended, for' example, and the audience was slow to applaud, a distant. im- patient throat - clearing stirred from the organist's invisible; perch. Laughter and applause were immediate. THE PROGRAM was divided into European and American sections, beginning with Buxte- hude's Toccata in D minor. This masterwork was conceiv- ed in the vast stone space of a German cathedral, and thus lost a certain command when played in the small space avail- able for Sunday's program. Still, the 1,234 pipes. projected4 Buxtehude's immense energy, which a young J. S. Bach once walked 200 miles to hear. Bach himself was only brief- ly represented in an obscure work. More interesting were the Five Pieces for a Musical Clock by C. P. E. Bach, each a tiny charm which Mason color- ed with light, plunky registra- tions. One problematic piece was Martini's Sonata sui Flauti, where hesitant trills impaired the delicate flow. Andrew Rai- son's Kyrie, involving a chant- ing male sextet between organ passages, suffered as well, mostly from the singers' lack of experience. "Variations on Adeste Fidelis, by early Amer- ican Ravnor Taylor, brought giggles for chirpy grace but lacked distinction wise. notes other- AS EXPECTED, it was with the grandiose that this organist fared best. Mason was truly{ superb in David Johnson's Fugue a la Gigue (1966), a cli-' mactic test of skill propelled by strong reedy bass. To conclude, Prof. Mason chose Paine's showy Concert Variations upon Old Hundred, which sparked a great ovation before the piece had even fin- ished. 24. vryENDS TOMORROW TODAY at 1:30-3:45- 6:00-8:45 Open 1:15 All Seats $1.25 till 5:00 THE Stanley Kubrick * INGMAR BERGMAN'S 1959 WI L D TRAWE RIE A compelling dream begins an aged professor's (played by silent movie director, Victor Sea- strom) day. He eventually confronts his past as he wanders through his memories on the way to pick up an academic award. One critic called this film "as close to paradise as anything Berg- a man has created." With Bibi Anderson. THURS: WAR OF THE WORLDS CINEMA GUILD TONIGHT:AT OLD ARC H.$A 7:0&905 Amsio 12 Will S11 1081n - UAC'S CHILDREN'S THEATRE presents: THE DISAPPEARING GOOBIES Bring your children for a Halloween Treat, .. Film Festival r '' R TODAY at 1 -3-5-7-9 OPEN 12:45 All Seats $1.25 till 5:00 Oct. 29 Oct. 30 Oct. 31 . 4:30 and 7:30 1 :00/2:00 7:30 1 :00/2:00/7:30 homecoming '76 Maior Events and UAC are proud to present 0 IUCJ'V, coll*ms $1.00 Children Residential Coll Theatre $1.50 Adults East Quad Tickets on sale now at Michigan Union Ticket Desk 11:00-5:30 FOR MORE INFO-763-1107 GROUP RATES AVAILABLE - AO SHOOTERH "Is Gangster Rock" -PLUS- Student Night Can r LAST TWO DAYS Paramount Pctures Presents STARTS FRIDAY- _ _ _ _ "FANTASIA" .c NOW SHOWING COMPLETE SHOWINGS TODAY at 1:00-3:00- 5:30-7:30 Open 12:45 All Seats $1.25 till 5:00 Jo S, Produced by SAM SHAW W','len and Directed by JOHN CASSAVETES "BEST ACTRESS OF THE YEAR" Hollywood Foreign Press Golden Globe U_ _: ; :? .. w :.