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Last chance to hear Guarneri: September 26, 1999
This fall, Orange County listeners will have what is likely to be their
last chance to hear the Guarneri String Quartet in its pristine,
unadulterated state. After touring with the ensemble for 36 years,
cellist David Soyer will relinquish his position at the end of the
1999-2000 season and appear with the group only on the East
Coast. Cellist Peter Wiley, a member of the Beaux Arts Trio from
1987 to 1998, will take his place.
Leonard Bernstein - a biography
A prodigiously talented composer, pianist, conductor and teacher, Leonard Bernstein did more to validate America's position in the
musical world than virtually any other musician in history. More importantly, he contributed a galaxy of superlative compositions and
recorded performances to our culture, and redefined the boundaries between classical music and other recently-derived popular styles.
He was the leading light of 20th century American music, and no contemporary musician of any instrument or specialty pursues his craft
without first acknowledging a debt to Bernstein. As a charismatic ambassador of music, he remains without peer.
Thirty-odd years ago, Philips issued a collection of Berlioz Overtures conducted by Colin Davis
(not yet knighted) with the London Symphony Orchestra, both stiff and blowzy. It was one of their
several collaborations in music by Berlioz, works large as well as small, hailed transatlantically at
the time as the ne plus ultra.
I was in the minority then; rehearing some of those performances today---especially big works like
RomJo et Juliette or Le damnation de Faust---I find myself unable to recant. Davis was, however,
as solid a conductor of Symphonie fantastique as virtually any of the dozens who’ve recorded it
since Pierre Monteux’s Paris version, now nearly 70 years old (manneristic then, manneristic still,
despite the worship of it by a coven of colleagues). Where Davis shone brightest was in his
recordings of Berlioz’s operas: Benvenuto Cellini, the two-part, five-hour Les troyennes, and that
intimate swan song, BJatrice et BJ nJ dict. Odd that he was so unconvincing in Puccini and Verdi,
or po’faced in Mozart, recorded during his term as Solti’s successor at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden.
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BERLIOZ: 7 OVERTURES (Les francs-juges. Waverley. Le roi Lear. Le carnaval romain.
