Page 6-Saturday, August 5, 1978--The Michigan Daily
Sterling Mahler eclipses

By OWN GLEIBERMAN
Henryk Szeryng is ... well, shall we
say, flamboyant. Last week, when he
performed the complete Beethoven
violin and piano sonatas with Gyorgy
Detroit Symphony orchestra
henrykSzeryng, violinist
Oleg Kovanenko, conductor
MeadowBrook Music Festival
Concerto For 2 Violins
in A minor ..........................vivaldi
Concerotor Violin in
D major, Op. 35 ............... Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. I in Dmajor..............Mahler
Sandor, the composer's classical sen-
sibility placed a restraining discipline
of Szeryng's fiery virtuosity. This
Thursday he performed the Tchaikov-
sky Violin Concerto with the Detroit
Symphony at Meadow Brook, but it was
a different Szeryng, one who wantonly
milked the piece for all the roman-
ticism and technical dazzle he could.
I've always thought Tchaikovsky is

an underrated composer, only because
even many of those who love his music
tend to chalk him up as another great,
gushy romantic. "Rachmoninoff'and 
Tchaikovsky," goes the word, "they
sure could pen the schmaltz, couldn't
they?" Well, yes, they could, but unlike
Rachmoninoff, Tchaikovsky's
gorgeously gushy melodies are chan-
nelled through a rigorous framework of
formal complexity. Szeryng's hyper-
romantic spirit is fine in its place-he
can ooze syrupy slides and fields of
rubato with as much unabashed
hedonism as anybody-but his Thur-
sday performance was light on the
discipline so essential.bThe climactic
solo passages soared, but the perfor-
mance had no continuity; it was merely
an intermittently brilliant collection of
mismatched sections, with little regard
for the transitions and thematic
development that make the piece a
masterwork, and not simply a
showcase for highbrow schmalt.
IN A SECTION with riveting sixteen-

THIRD WEEK
Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri. 7:30-9:45
Sot., Sun., Wed. 1:20-3:25-5:30-7:35-9:45
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th-note triplets Szeryng was a bundle of
technical fire, but he threw the oveerall
flow pf the piece out of wack. He and the
orchestra remained a little untogether
throughout, despite conductor Oleg
Kovalenko's valient attempts to gear
the ensemble to the erratic rhythms of
Szeryng's performance.
Still, I can't complain that much
because, taken individually, many of
those solo passages blazed brilliantly.
He might have been a trifle overen-
thusiastic, but he never genuinely
overplayed anything. The second
movement, with its Slavic overtones
and warmly muted melody, was
beautifully balanced and exhibited fine
control. Szeryng and the orchestra both
handled the last movement, a
pyrotechnical showpiece, with supreme
confidence and ended in a convincing
flurry of activity. This virtuoso violinist
may have gotten carried away once or
twice, but with a piece as gorgeous as
this one, it's hard to blame him.
Accidents claim the lives of more
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with auto accidents accounting for
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In 1978, more than four million
Americans will observe their 21st bir-
thday.
Statisics show married people live
several years. longer than individuals
without mates, according to the
American Council of Life Insurance.
MICHAEL CURTIz' 1942
CASABLANCA-
HUMPHREY BOGART plays chess with
himself-and then others such as
INGRID BERGMAN, CLAUDE RAINS,
PETER LORRE, NAZIS and SIDNEY
GREENSTREET-as Rick, the American
with a past and a cafe in North
Africa. Romance, adventure and an
exotic foreign setting made this the
best movie made in WWII. "The
fundamental things apply .. .
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Szeryng
THE REST OF the program included
a rather shaky readingaof Vivaldi's
Concerto for 2 Violins, and Mahler's
sublime Symphony No. 1. I hadn't seen
the Detroit Symphony for quite some
time prior to this concert, and I must
say they've been rehearsing. Possibly it
as Kovalenko's splendid reading of the
Mahler that made the work so
satisfying, but the orchestra displayed
a mature comphrehension of the piece's
overall design and the technical ability
to communicate this musical under-
standing. The brass, especially in their
rapud-fire fanfares in the fourth
movement, were uniformly splendid,
blaring out recurrent motifs trium-
phantly, then fading back into the
work's voluptuous orchestral texture.
The ironically morbid third movement,
built upon the melody of "Frere
Jacques" in a minor key, was gorgeous,
its brooding counter-melodies slowly
building then dying away on a note of
quiet despair.
The Mahler had what the violin con-
certo-beautiful as much of it was-did
not: a comprehensive vision, such that
no section of the work was regarded as
a separate entity. And in the end, isn't
that what really counts?
Summer Arts
Staffl
OWEN GLEIBERMAN
Arts Editor
STAFF WRITERS: Michael Baadke, Karen
Bornstein, Peter Manis, Stephen Pickover,
Christopher Potter, Eric Smith, R. J. Smith,
KerryThompson,Tim Yagle.
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The Ann Arhor Film Cooperat ve
SATURDAY, AUGUST 5

presents at MLB 3

CHINATOWN
(Roman Polonski, 1974) 7 only-MLB 3
A moody and ominous tale of values corrupted by greed and the lust for
power. JACK NICHOLSON is a detective in seedy Southern California during
the '30's. FAYE DUNAWAY is his mysterious client, and eventually his lover.
Moving and brilliant modern mystery. Screenplay by Robert Towne. With
JOHN HUSTON.
CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
(Mike Nichols, 1971 9only--MLB3
An intriguing but tragic examination of the problematic morality of the mod-
ern male. We follow the sexual escapades of two unlikely friends from their
college days to middle age. Beginning as two obsessed post adolescents,
their tangled sex loves leave one apathetic and the other impotent. Perhaps
Jack Nicholson's seediest role, the film also proves ANN MARGARET a com-
petent oetress. Screenplay by Jules Feiffer. ART GARFUNKEL, CANDICE BER-