Delphi Posts Wider Loss On Lower Sales Managers at the former parts-making operation of General Motors said they were working to cut costs and to expand sales to companies other than G.M.... Read Full Article A Mother Never Forgets Paris in the autumn on a balmy afternoon. People are strolling in the sun. Cafes are full. It is a life that has no connection with the killing fields of Cambodia. But the memories of that era three... Read Full Article 3M Profit Falls But Beats Estimates The maker of Scotch tape and Post-It notes said profit fell 28% from the year-earlier period when it had a big gain on the sale of one of its businesses, but sales rose 9 percent.... Read Full Article Y So Up Front Becks? David ’Goldenballs’ Beckham cops one in the penalty box for a spread-legged Armani underwear ad.... Read Full Article Pipe Work Hits Thames Water Profits Thames Water has met leakage targets for the first time in seven years, but revealed that the extra investment in fixing Victorian cast-iron water mains across London has badly dented profits.... Read Full Article |
Music Review: As Mallets Fly, Bells Ring, Woodblocks Knock, Drums BeatThe stage of Weill Recital Hall became a crowded playpen of percussion instruments for Martin Grubinger’s evening of new and recent music on Friday. Had the stage been a little bigger, there would have been more of them. Mr. Grubinger, a young Austrian, had to change his program for an unanticipated lack of space. Stretched from one side to the other were snare drums at stage right; other drums escalating in size to a Verdi Requiem-size bass drum at stage left; and in between a marimba and some of its close cousins. At various points, bells tinkled, and woodblocks knocked like woodpeckers at a spruce tree. Shouts were heard. There was also a grand piano (just another percussion instrument to the ears of many), played skillfully from time to time by Per Rundberg. Concerts like these drift inevitably away from profound musical messages and settle on the instruments themselves. What exotic sounds can the composer cook up? What level of complication can the performer rise to? Mr. Grubinger, with his flailing body and semiperpetual grin, is master of the high-speed chase. He can also go from barely audible triple-pianos to earsplitting ultrafortissimos. His own piece “Aus dem Leben einer Trommel” examines the career possibilities of various snare drums, which Mr. Grubinger alternately tapped, scraped, brushed and beat the daylights out of. He also confirmed his ambidextrous talent for playing different meters at the same time. Mr. Grubinger’s monstrous fluency as a mallet percussionist was on display in Anders Koppel’s Marimba Concerto No. 3, with Mr. Rundberg’s piano standing in for the intended orchestra part. It also showed up in Minoru Miki’s “Marimba Spiritual,” a piece proving once again that sheer volume of physical activity is no substitute for interesting content. Evelyn Glennie’s “Little Prayer,” hushed and hymnlike, came dangerously close to easy listening. I especially liked Mr. Koppel’s Toccata, which was as clear-voiced as his concerto was thick and aggressive. A good percentage of the evening kept referring to African music as filtered through North and South American cultures. The Toccata veered between the tango and old-fashioned waltz time, the piano line delicately ornamented by marimba flurries. Iannis Xenakis’s “Rebonds B,” with its alternating bass drum and woodblocks, was the evening’s shortest yet most substantial moment, offering a sobriety and studied imagination that made a lot of the music around it seem not very important at all. Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationJoyful Noises for Not-So-Silent Nights...Celine Dion, She Went On and On... Music: Podium Star, Ever Expanding His Horizons... Juilliard’s New Semester Starts With New Music... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Music Review: As Mallets Fly, Bells Ring, Woodblocks Knock, Drums Beat |
i8news.com |