Page Six Friday, July 30, 1976 rs n ruine nsTHE MICHIGAN DAILY 'U' Wind Quintet does admirabl By TOM GODELL and Klughardt Wednesday eve- ning at the School of Music Re-. THROUGHOUT the past week, cital Hall. the sound of wind instru- No chamber ensemble can be ments has been emanating from as delightful as a wind quintet. North Campus, a result of the True, the string quartet can 28th Annual National Band Con- combine intimacy with great ductors' and Wind Percussion expression, and the piano trio Teachers' Conference, centering cannot be matched in strength at the School of Music. As a or clarity. Yet neither has the part of this, the University warmth or communicative abil- Woodwind Q u i n t e t (flautist ity of an ensemble of five wood- Keith Bryan, oboist Arno Ma- winds. This is due, in the main, riotti, clarinetist John Mohler, to the crisp attacks and bril- bassoonist L. Hugh Cooper, and liant colors of the instruments.- Harry Berv, horn) presented a Thus, when Schoenberg de- concert of music by Vivaldi, cided to write his first major Hovhaness, Bassett, Szalowski, work utilizing the twelve-tone Jeffrey Selbst 'Fantaices: An imperishable show at the Institute rpIAT 0Ll) perennial, The Fantasticks, favorite of the dinner theater circuit, has been resurrected once more. The Detroit Institute of Arts, the city of Detroit's most important cultural in- stitution, has decided to revive its practice of producing theater in the Kresge Court by preventing this old favorite as a dinner theater offering. I wonder why that should be, that The Fantasticks remains as imperishable a work as it is. Certainly if you're looking for romance, it's there-the two young kids, the "feuding" fathers, everything that Rodgers and Hammerstein would need to make garbage of an evening-and yet this piece is far from garbage. Dinner, by the way, was lovely. Spinach salad, quiche lorraine and chocolate mousse served with an excellent cider and coffee. Also, the Kresge Court is a charming place to serve a meal. The production was spotty, though on the whole reasonably well done. El Gallo (Timothy Schoch) had a rather weak voice, but Luisa and Matt (K. K. Harper and Edward Coulter) were certainly good, with Harper particularly fine. The fathers (Mark Atchisonand Peter Psalm) were comic, though inhibited, butathe bit players, Henry and Mortimer (Paul Petruccione and Martin McCall) were sheer deight. THE ACOUSTICS in the Kresge Court are pathetic. On top of that, the night I went to see it, the rain was pouring down and making a cacaphony on the canvas roof of the courtyard, and for a few minutes we could hear almost nothing at all. The roof, by the way, was leaking, and rain was pouring down on the stage, as well as just to the left of my foot. Oh, well. All that aside, only speculation remains. The Fantasticks re- cently concluded a 17-year run at the Sullivan St. Playhouse in New York City, and has run at numerous thousands of community productions, high schools, dinner theaters and the like during that time, and it would seem, will do so for years. It seems to me that The Fantasticks is one play that manages to be touching without making you want to throw up. Not that this is any mean feat, for consider the numbers of musicals that try to touch one-from Fiddler on the Roof to Oklahoma!, they take in and mutilate all eras and forms of music. Only The Fantasticks gives any kind of stability to the period. John Simon, noted film and drama critic, has said that musicals present lies, whether modern ones, like Sondheim's Company and Follies, or the antiquated varieties seen in anything Rodgers and Hammerstein did. But I think there is one musical that doesn't present lies, and it is-oh, you guessed it-The Fantasticks. A MISTAKE IN OBSERVATION would be to say that Luisa and Matt's story is supposed to be anything but universal-symbolic. My lovely escort mentioned that she couldn't see the show done with any more elaboration than we saw at the Institute. Which is precisely the point-the show is presented with a baby simplicity, so that it can relate to anyone. Neither is their relationship programmatic of relationships nor their archetype, but instead a sort of loose description of how human relationships do work. And yes, the show is redolent with goo, but-dare I say it?- necessary goo, and goo for which we've been prepared by the text. Certainly there has to be an emotion if there is to be its opposite; to be effective, love must precede disgust, and how better to show love than through goo. Granted, it is not really goo, for a working definition might be "dramatically unnecessary sweetening" or the like. And this is dramatically necessary. The fact is, this show is a model of its kind. The later shows put together by the talented duo of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt have been somewhat more forgettable, but this one-at least--will stand as a monument to the great god Taste. system, he chose the wind quin- tet to give his mathematically- derived music a personality. Naturally the medium is no im- mediate ticket to succes. The composer must constantly keep in mind the sound and capabili- ties of each instrument, and combine this with a liberal dose of inspiration. OPENING the concert was Vivaldi's Concerto in G minor for flute, oboe, and bassoon. Although the performers chose a brisk tempo, something was lacking. Oh, all of the notes were played, but they were de- livered without emotion. This music is jaunty and high-spir- ited, but somehow our perform- ers missed that. Further, bal- ance between the booming bas- soon and the others was sadly lacking. While the slow move- ment was given a more pene- trating reading, there was ab- solutely no sense of ensemble in the finale. This work was followed by the Divertimento for oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn by Alan Hovhaness. The work con- sists of five extremely short movements. This invites com- parison between Hohaness and the ultra-compact music of An- ton Webern. However, while Webern may say a great deal in a mere two bars, Hovhaness has nothing whatsoever to say. The prelude is richly colored, and the result is serene and majestic. In fact, it sounds strangely like the rest of this composer's music. The five sec- tions are like fragments torn from a sketchbook, and they are as unrelated as they are un- original. The performance, though, was very fine indeed. With the bal- ance between the instruments restored, a sensitive approach was revealed. This easily suc- ceeded in conveying the simple emotions expressed by the com- poser-serenity, humor, seren- ity, and serenity. MUSIC BY the University's own Leslie Bassett concluded the concert's first half. The music was dissonant, complex, and not terribly enjoyable. All manner of harsh sounds issued from the instruments, particu- larly ton gand repeated trills, almost as if the composer were trying to caricature Hindemith. And a fatal flaw-the writing was not well suited to the me- dium of the quintet. After a while, it began to sound like mere note-spinning. Opening the second half was a Trio for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon, by Antoni Szalowski. This was, without a doubt, the high point of the evening. Szalowski's perfectly delightful writing for woodwinds is char- acterized by brilliance and hu- mor. This kork is a joy for both performer and listener. The opening allegro concludes with a delightful violation of ex- pectations-building to a final cadence, the final chord ap- pears one beat late. The slow movement, a kind of waltz with facetious wrong notes, followed, as did the Gavotte with its bit- ing sarcasm that may remind the lsitener of Prokofiev's Clas- sical Symphony. A good-natured allegro brings the piece to its conclusion. THE FINAL work, August Klughardt's Quintet, is most definitely a product of the late romantic era. The music is not at all bad, simply written for the wrong combination of in- struments. As a symphony (I found myself mentally tran- scribing-strings here, a drum roll there) it might have been a success, but it is simply too involved for a light-weight en- semble like a wind quintet. Indeed it was in the lighter moments (such as the transi- tion between the main and sub- ordinate themes in the exposi- tion of the opening movement as well as the scherzo) that were most successful. The music was not well play- ed. Perhaps this was due to the complexity of the material, but more than likely was the result of insufficient rehearsal time. Berv's horn was particularly rough and overly loud. Broo 'Silent Movie': A pleasant diversion By CARA PRIESKORN THE MEL BROOKS School of Take-Offs has increased its enrollment and this semester has added Silent Movie to its schedule. The film deals with three moviemakers trying to make a comeback and save Big Pictures Studio from being bought out by the evil Engulf and Devour V.% ("Our fingers are in everything.") But the onv ay that the studio can be saved is with a hit picture and the only way Mel Funn (Brooks) will be allowed to make his movie and insure its success is if he gets the biggest stars in Hollywood. And such notables as Anne Ban- croft, Liza Minelli, Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman and Marcel Marceau have cameo appearances. Anyway, Funn goes through various methods of trying to gain stars with his sidekicks, Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom DeLouise). They are forced to pose as Flamenco dancers to get the attention of Bancroft at a nightclub. They entice her into their act, and as she gets caught up in its fervor, she cries, "I'll do it!" meaning the movie. TO APPROACH Burt Reynolds they must do it in an underhanded way.(literally). Reynolds is showering and we watch him caress his body with soap and suddenly hands appear from below and the trio pops up with their offer. How could Burt possibly refuse? The "current studio chief" (Sid Caesar) suffers a heart attack and a memorable visit to the hospital ensues. As they enter, they pass the "Geriatric Lounge-No one under 75 admitted" and its occupants are in a rhumba line, keeping time with their walkers. The nurse at the Intensive Care desk is read- ing My Filthy Dreams while we see all her patients over the monitors suffering various catastrophes. After they get in to see Caesar,- Eggs and Bell manage to turn his monitor into an electronic Pong game. Meanwhile Engulf and Devour ("Our toilets are nicer than most people's homes") is frothing at the mouth. No, really. There is a scene where the chairman is barking at the board of directors and actually does froth. You get to see it all. They plan to buy that studio and the last resort is sex. They employ Miss Vilma Kaplan (Berna- dette Peters) to pretend she is in love with Funn. Vilma first entices him at a nightclub where she appears in a banana and as her male chorus peels her, she sings "BaBa Loo." Funn falls for her and several choice scenes follow-frolicking in the park in white outfits, riding a merry-go-round together (but this horse excretes wooden blocks during the ride) and meaningful gazes at a wedding cake in a bakery window. BUT EGGS and Bell have discovered that Vilma i sa fraud and they tell Funn who in turn goes back to the bottle, which ruined his first career. Meanwhile, Vilma has called Engulf and Devour to tell them that she quits because she really is in love with the "little lug." They go on a frantic search for Funn, dry him out, and the movie is made-in record time. But the bad guys do not quit easily and they steal the film on the night of the preview. The trio takes off to recapture it, as Vilma entertains the audience. They get the film before it is burned, but are caught. A traditional chase scene ensues and Funn and friends win by using Coke cans as grenades. The movie is screened and hailed a success, and now Funn and Vilma can make everything legal. The film is a nice d iversion for the evening, but not as creative or clever as most of Brooks' previous works. His genius is in his dialogue and a silent movie makes it rather difficult to employ quick and witty exchanges. I enjoyed the film, and it is much better than the other parodies out now (The Big Bus) but Brooks can do better. Next I would like to see him try a Tarzan film.