Disunity By JOSHUA M. PECK Like so many Pavlov puppies, classical music lovers the world over have learned to salivate at the very sound of Jean-Pierre Rampal's name. The Frenchman has recorded virtually the entire flute repertory, some of it, with more style and loveliness than any other members of the tooting breed. His treatment of Bach's Brandenburg Con- certi, released some years ago, was a glorious interpretation of the works, and shed a new and vibrant light on music that was fabulous to begin with. His original best-selling works blend baroque and jazz influences in a refreshing, even stirring fashion, and have brought a whole new attention to all classically-trained musicians, as well as to himself. Such a reputation clearly has its murder disadvantages. Though the most loyal of the artist's followers will surely like his performances, however mediocre they may be, the more discerning listeners are bound to be disappointed if. a given performance is anything less than perfectly pristine and divir.ely in- spired. Sad to say, neither Mr. Ram- pal's performance, that of his accom- panist Alexandre Lagoya, his selection of pieces, nor (resultantly) his Monday night concert overall, qualified for any such exultant adjectives. The Hill Auditorium performance was too often ordinary and mundane, with un- professional touches evident at every' swoop of Rampal's gleaming flute.. Only on rare occasions was the expec- ted spectacular musicianship to be heard. THE FLAUTIST, portly and decked out in a tux with violet trim, dragged his shy guitarist friend for an opening offering that, disappointing as the evening was as a whole, unfairly gave rise to fear of terribly lackadaisical ef- fort throughout. The Sonata in D major by Scheidler happily turned out to have more performance problems than juste about any other selection the duo played all night. It was instantly clear that disunity and lack of confidence in each other was stifling the creativity and expression of which each musician is putatively capable. The trepidation with which both per- formers approached the score might be explained by their having just started out on their national tour, and perhaps not having settled into each other's par- ticular musical quiddities and quirks. Rampal was reluctant to swing free, to extend a fermata an extra beat or two, or to speed a passage up when it suited him. He seemed to be worried that he would lose Lagoya (or vice versa). Fur- thermore, neither gentleman seemed as conversant with the music as he ought to have been. Rampal's tone and style especially seemed more relaxed and sweeter in the later pieces with which he was better acquainted. Rampal also shocked his audience by botching a few bits in the Sonata, the first a relatively simple run early on, and the second a series of thirty-second notes that, admittedly, a lesser artist. might not even have attempted. THE HIGHLIGHTS of the evening, such as they were, all were to be found in the work of each artist on his own. Rampal's glorious work on Te emann's Fantasies for solo flute was at times quite astonishing. The particular selec- tions from the work he played made for a pleasantly diverse triptych, with an easily accessible assortment of moods blending for remarkable emotional ef- fect. No. 12, the first played, drew a haunting and marvelously memorable ambience out of melodies that jumped madly about. No. 6, characterized by rapid and utterly seamless trills, and No. 2, modeled around incredibly fast runs, with Rampal, at last, bringing his heart and soul very much into the pic- ture, added to the piece's marvelously rich patterns. The tension he built with his deft manipulation of the "devil's in- terval" made the piece all the more emotionally swaying. Lagoya, too, became far more im- pressive when his colleague graciously slipped backstage. In Sanz' Pavana and Canarios for solo guitar, Lagoya showed off a clipped and precise sound when he wanted one, and a sound as lazy and sunny as a Madrid afternoon when that was called for. The maagic sonority he can wield is the guitarist's The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, February 20, 1980-Page 7 Rampal special province, and Lagoya is very much at home there. WHEN RAMPAL rejoined his par- tner to conclude the program's first half with Paganini's Sonata a Concer- tante, the wobbly attitude that had been momentarily dormant returned. The piece was dry and virtually emotionless, and suffered all the more for the restraint with which the musicians handled it. One selection that stood out from the generally inadequate level of the evening was Ravi Shankar's The En- chanted Morning. It was even worse. The piece evoked no such thing as its lofty title would suggest. Repetitious and endlessly anti-harmonic, it is the most unpleasant composition this critic See CLASSICAL, Page 6 Mon, Tues, Thurs $1.50 #i) 6:00 Wed 1:00, 3:$0,5:30, 7:40, 9:50 1 Wed $1 .50 Iil 6:00 i GET HAPPY SAVE $$$ at i+ :;- OPEN 7 DAYS for Lunch & Dinner Sun & Mon 'til 9 PM Tues-Thurs 'til 11 PM Fri & Sat 'til 1 AM N.. 1301 S. University 665-2650 Rampal and Lagoya R E C O R D S HAPPY HOUR MON.-THURS. 8 PM'til Closea Hamburgers $1.69...............,-..SAVE French Fees 254............ ......SAVE Local Draft Beer Mug504d.............. .SAVE Pitcher $2.25... ...SAVE House Cocktails 99<4..... ............SAVE 51C 55C 20C 75C 26C BY MARK VAITKUS Several years ago I was having din- ener with a friend of mine from the Music School when the subject of favorite composers arose. I told her that while I enjoyed Bartok (her preference), I have always had a special predilection for Strauss. "That's nice," she said. Almost as an afterthought .she chuckled, "You do mean Richard, don't ou?" I hesitated. Her eyes widened. "Come on, you've got to be kidding," ,she pleaded, her voice becoming in- creasingly agitated, "You miur mean Richard." But my silence had already betrayed me, "I'm sorry," she said, then hastily gathered her things to leave. I never heard from her again. For those of us who know and love the work of Johann Strauss, Jr., such tragic prejudice from the "serious" music world is recognized almost as a matter- of-course. I long ago realized the futiity of convincing highbrows that a Strauss waltz or polka could be anything more than irrelevant schmaltz. It runs far too great a risk of embarrassment for any Schoenberg and one each by his studen- ts Alban Berg and Anton Webern. With the exception of the Emperor Waltz, they were produced in 1921 to benefit - Schoenberg's own "Association for. Private Musical Performances." YOU ARE forewarned that these are transcriptions, not variations, so that while the instrumentation belongs to Schoenberg and his disciples, the music is unabashedly Strauss. Of course, there are a good number of solo flourishes which would certainly sur- prise Strauss, but the basic structure of the original waltzes is adhered to rather strictly. In fact, without prior knowledge I doubt whether the bulk of Schoenberg aficionados would correc- tly attribute these pieces. Schoenberg and company have faith- fully captured the essence and at- mosphere of the turn-of-the-century salon orchestra, with all of the charm and none of the insipidness. Lyrical and spirited, these arrangements will tran- sport your imagination to a wonderfully chic garden party on some baron's estate or, just as easily, to a picnic near the Vienna Woods. At any moment you expect Lilli Palmer to come knocking on your door hugging a fifth of cham- pagne. In short, the senses are strongly affected as they typically are by the music of Strauss, but in a genuinely refreshing way. _ NOT QNLY do the transcriptions give chamber lovers the opportunity to en- joy Strauss without guilt, they provide an innocuous avenue to the world of chamber music for those who otherwise regard it as soporific. Theinstrumental coloring of the themes, driving accents, and generaous use of staccato will hold ,the interest of even the most restless of listeners. The scoring is well-balanced for two violins, viola, cello, harmonium, piano, flute, and clarinet, the blend working best perhaps for the Roses from the South. The complementation is con- sistently good though, and the cat-and- mouse play of violin and piano during the Treasure Waltz will surely win your fancy. Some may find the unconven- tional sound of the harmonium distrac- ting at times, but its presence overall is highly subdued. The performance by the Boston group is not particularly distinguished, mainly as a result of overflowing en- thusiasm. The delicate grace of the waltzes is precarious despite just the eight instruments and one longs for a lighter touch and softer pianissimos than are achieved here. The wind in- struments have a tendency to heave too much air even while playing forte, though the decided blare of the flute is limited to the Emperor Waltz. Ever since Stravinsky it seems, chamber players have worn their reeds on their sleeves. NEVERTHELESS, the crisp beauty and singing tone of the instruments is conveyed well enough to warrant the inclusion of these unusual pieces in youf collection, especially since it is the composition and not the players that provides the major interest here. As usual, the DG pressing itself is a quality investment. If the traditional orchestration of Strauss is more your style, I recom- mend the latest from Willi Boskovsky and the Vienna Philharmonic on Lon- don records (LDR 10001). The two- record set features the annual New Year's Eve concert in Vienna, with music by several members of the Strauss family as well as Suppe and Ziehrer. Old favorites like the "Piz- zicato Polka," "Tik-Tak Polka," and "Wine, Women, and Song" are included between less familiar, but no less delightful, musical confections such as the "Music of the Spheres Waltz" and selections from Cagliostro in Wien. The ubiquitous "Blue Danube" and "Radet- zky March" fittingly conclude the evening's festivities. For those of you unacquainted with Boskovsky, the listening experience will be all the more pleasantly sur- prising if you are generally accustomed to Strauss under the bulldozing batons of Bernstein, Ormandy, or Kostelanetz. The latter are notorious for blasting light romantic music of the late nineteenth century way out of propor- tion to its simple requirements, thus rendering it shallow and even pompous. By contrast, Boskovsky does not place pretentious demands on the music it cannot meet. He succeeds in eliminating all trace -of strain on the melody line, a commodity admittedly as fragile as fine porcelain in the case of Strauss. Given the almost total ab- sence of counterpoint in Straussian composition, Boskovsky has accom- plished no small conducting feat, even if the orchestra happens to be the talen- ted and' well-motivated Vienna PhilhTarronic: You should try restraining a bevy of German-speaking violinists. With this album London introduces its "digital recording" series, adver- tised as the firm's answer to direct-to- disc. Happily, the engineers have com- impressively close to DTD and produced a sparkling recording well worth the normal import price. Fur- thermore, though I am not in favor of live classical recordings in principle, the usual background disturbances are negligible here and the applause ac- tually adds to the gaiety of the event. It all adds up to an irresistible package. HOW EASY it is sometimes to forget how Mantovani, Liberace, the ' 101 Strings (in conjunction with hundreds of "beautiful music" stations across the nation) deform rathei than perform Strauss. Once we concede, however, that popular dance music can be art, it seems to me we must also admit (as Schoenberg did) that the music of the Johann Strauss is truly a superior example of that art. If your tastes should dictate that you can only ap- preciate that art by way of Schoenberg, so be it. But at any rate, don't deny yourself its pleasure. I P. self-inflating musical connoisseur to dare appreciate opuses so simply con- structed and purely melodic. Now consider Arnold Schoenberg, a composer of critically unquestionable stature. With the same mass appeal as Heideggerian philosophy, Schoenberg's music is enigmatic enough to merit deference from the most supercilious of musical authorities. You would think that Schoenberg would share the generally low estimation accorded a * crowd-pleaser like the Viennese Strauss.. ACTUALLY nothing could be further from the truth. Although it is known that Schoenberg could not tolerate composers whose primary motivation was writing music simple enough for the universal public to consume, he believed Johann Strauss was a "genuine" artist whose work naturally happened to coincide with popular sen- timents in an easily accessible way. If all this sounds slightly far-fetched, one should definitely investigate the new recording of Strauss Waltz tran- scriptions by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, available on Deut- sche Grammophon. The album con- tains four transcriptions for chamber group, two of which were written by Join The Daily I1 YOU'RE GRADUATING... 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