University of Virginia Library

MUSIC

Splendid Dance & Crashing Bore

By TERI TOWE

Every now and again, I
review a concert of music
which I have not heard before.
I relish and dread these
occasions. There is a greater
element of adventure and
anticipation about these affairs,
since I must judge the music
itself as well as the
performances, but I am always
a touch uneasy about reviewing
new compositions since I really
don't know that much about
contemporary serious music.
"Fools rush in where angels
fear to tread....."

On Tuesday evening, the
McIntire Department of Music
presented a concert of
Sablinsky and Linda Hunt gave
a remarkable performance of
Robert Palmer's Sonata for
Piano, Four Hands, a craggy,
difficult work, curiously
eclectic in style, and chock
full of forceful rhythmic
effects.

Three faculty members were
represented on the program.
Miss Sablinsky returned to play
Donald MacInnis's Toccata for
Piano and Two-Channel Tape,
a rather "feline" work, to use
twentieth century music in
Cabell Hall Auditorium, and,
with one exception, I hadn't
heard any of the compositions
before. As a matter of fact,
from what I understand there
were several premieres on the
program.

The concert opened with
Alban Berg's Four Pieces for
Clarinet and Piano, somber,
moody vignettes which were
splendidly played by Stanley
Howell and Howard Hanson.
Next came a Song for Two
Violins and Soprano by
Frances McKay, a graduate
student in music here. The
work is poignant, to say the
least, and calls to mind
passages from Schoenberg's
Verklarte Nacht. Content
the description of one member
of the audience, that makes use
of some delightful plucked
string effects. Three Holocausts
in Two Poems by Harris
Lindenfield, a pair of short and
effective choral works,
splendidly sung by what
appeared to be members of the
University Singers, under the
direction of Judy Gary, were
sandwiched between the
MacInnis Toccata and Walter
Ross's Towards the Empyrean
for Saxophone, Tape, and
Dancer. Towards the
Empyrean is a remarkable
mixed medias composition
based on one of Vassily
Kandinsky's prose poems. The
setting, highly descriptive both
visually and aurally, was
splendidly danced and played
by Ann Rooker and Peyton
Clark.

The last work on the
program was Irving Fine's
Partita for Woodwind Quintet.
A friend of mine in prep school
played a recording of this work
all the time, and, quite frankly,
I thought it a crashing bore
then, and, despite the flawless
performance it was given on
Tuesday evening, I think it's a
crashing bore now.