The Cavalier daily :: Friday, March 6, 1970 :: University of Virginia Library

It is indeed a blatant waste of
musical talent when someone of
such outstanding musical stature
like Misha Dichter must perform
before a little better than half filled
house as was the case Wednesday
evening in University Hall. It would
not have been difficult for one to
get the impression that the
University Union is sponsoring the
Artist Series for the girls of St.
Anne's School who apparently
come just to escape from the
boarding school environment for an
evening and who appear to be more
interested in the people around
them that what is happening on
stage.

Mr. Dichter has a very
unpretentious manner of
performing. His bows are quick and
of a humble sort. His entrances on
stage are very swift. He often
surprises the listener by starting so
soon after sitting down instead of
practicing the conventional habits
such as staring up to see if there are
any insects flying around or better
yet communicating with the Muse
of music.

Quick Changes

The pianist began the program
with a transcription of the "Organ
Prelude and Fugue in D Major" of
Bach. Any listener would have
anticipated a severe lack of
dimension in a transcription of the
sort, but Mr. Dichter aptly
compensated for the wide scope of
the organ and the acoustics of a
cathedral with very obvious and
quick changes in volume to imitate
the changes in stop=registration on
thy organ, and with an almost
exaggerated use of the pedal, the
virtuoso beautifully brought out an
impression of acoustical
reverberations. One also would have
anticipated with scepticism, the
absence of a pedal board in the
fugue and thus, the absence of an
entire fugal voice, but Mr. Dichter
appeared to be playing the original
left hand and pedal parts all with
his left hand.

Early Work

The second work in the program
was the "Sonata in D Major, Opus
10, No. 3" of Beethoven. This
relatively early work is more
reflective of the classical style than
the style of Beethoven most people
are accustomed to. When I asked
Mr. Dichter why he chose to
perform a work from the early, less
mature period of Beethoven, he
replied that in his opinion this was
the most stylistically perfect sonata
of Beethoven's early period. He
added that he did not mean this to
be taken that he prefers
Beethoven's earlier music to his
later more sophisticated works.

Wise Decision

Following the Beethoven. Mr.
Dichter performed five short works
of Brahms. They were three
"Capriccios," a "Ballado," and an
"Intermezzo." Mr. Dichter wisely
chose to play these works in order
of contrast so as to give the effect
of contrasting movements. The
range was from the very docile and
romantic to the very vehement and
powerful.

No Luck, Girls

After the intermission during
which the young ladies of St.
Anne's vainly went scouting
around, Mr. Dichter came back to
perform the final work on the
program, Moussorgsky's "Pictures
at an Exhibition" which is a
musical tour de force and which
proved to be the highlight of the
recital. Although most listeners are
only familiar with this work, as an
orchestral piece of music, it
nevertheless was originally written
for the piano. In the opinions of
some critics, it is too massive for
the piano, but this certainly did not
seem so when Mr. Dichter
performed it.

In performing the impression.
"The Witches' Revelry," the pianist
had his hands virtually flying all
over the keyboard. The last
impression, "The Great Gate of
Kiev," proved to be a grand finale
with its impressive heavy block
chords.

Mr. Dichter received a standing
ovation after which he returned to
play a work by Chopin and one by
Liszt as an encore. Mr. Dichter is
without doubt, a pianist of the first
degree, and to be sure the
University Union was most
fortunate in getting him for the
University or St. Anne's or for
Charlottesville or whatever.