The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 4, 1971 Page: 3 of 6
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(in* arts
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Houston symphony gives superlative rendition of Bartok
by THOMAS ZIMMERMANN
If the word "happening" in
modem English denotes an
event of unusual importance,
then just such an occurrence
took place last Tuesday evening
at Jones Hall, wherein guest
soloist Stephen Bishop, together
with Lawrence Foster conduct-
ing the Houston Symphony Or-
chestra collaborated in a super-
lative performance of the vir-
tually unplayable Piano Con-
certo No. 2 by Bela Bartok.
Their cumulative a($forts must
rank as one of the finest ren-
derings of this 20th century
masterpiece heard in recent
memory. Written in 1931 as a
vehicle for his concert tours,
Bartok liked to say to friends
that only he could get through
the work "now and then" be-
cause of the superhuman vir-
tuosity required. The composer
was soloist in the first per-
formance, which took place on
January 23, 1933, in Frankfurt.
The conductor on that occa-
sion was none other than Hans
Rosbaud, an early champion of
the music of Bartok. Rosbaud
said later that the 2nd piano
concerto established Bartok as
a great composer 'more than
any of his previous works'.
Stephen Bishop) negotiated the
savage ostinato rhythms of the
1st and 3rd movements as if
they presented no serious chal-
lenge to his virtuoso powers,
and Foster and the HSO outdid
themselves 'in a performance
that was a triumph for all con-
cerned.
It is interesting to dwell on
Bartok's current fame as one
of the great composers of the
20th century, and to remember
that as late as 1928 serious
music critics were calling him
a madman. An amusing illustra-
tion of this fact, is in order. The
February 1928 issue of Musical
America, at that time written
by and for the professional mu-
sician, contained the following
comment about a i-eview of a
performance of Bartok's 1st
piano concerto in Boston ". . .
from first to last one of the
most dreadful deluges of piffle,
bombast and nonsense ever per-
petrated on an audience." Times
do, in fact, change.
As the opening work Law-
rence Foster conducted an im-
passioned reading of the seldom
heard Introduction and Allegro
for String Quartet and String
Orchestra by Sir Edward Elgar.
Composed in 1905, this work
was long a favorite of the late
Sir John Barbirolli and is one
of the most successful composi-
tions for strings written since
the works by Dvorak in this
form. The quartet sections were
excellently played by Messrs,
Fliegel, Bennett, Crouse and
Bay.
After the untamed rhythms
of Bartok it is perhaps a bit of
a task to accept the romantic
flavor of Robert Schumann, but
this composer's 1st Symphony
was played after intermission
as the major and concluding
work. Written at a time of in-
tense personal contentment, the
symphony contains none of the
morbid introspection of Schu-
mann's later works in this form.
Foster was satisfied to let the
music speak for itself, with only
occasional re-touching of the
composer's orchestration, and
what there was of this was done
with taste and restraint. Ail in
all, an evening of great music,
superably played by our orches-
tra and their new Music Di-
rector. Lawrence Foster has now
completed his engagements with
the Houston Symphony for 1971,
but he will return for another
cycle of concerts in January of
1972. Next week we welcome as
a guest the eminent German
master, Hans Schmidt-Isser-
stedt, who returns for a third
season. For his opening con-
certs, Dr. Sehmidt-Isserstedt
has programmed the Violin Con-
certo by Bi'ahms and the Sym-
phony No. 1 by Gustav Mahler.
Pinchas Zukerman will be solo-
ist in the concerto.
Exp. typist will type student
papers, theses, ( 'ail G66-2918.
Varied fare offered at Fine Arts Museum
Tiie variety and richness o?
Indo-Asian Art as seen through
i lie discerning eye of a private
collector, John Gilmore Ford,
opened October 27 in the Jone;
Galleries of The Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston. The ex-
hibition comprises forty-nine
sculptures of stone and bronze
from India, gilt bronze sculp-
tures, many inlaid with semi-
precious stones or jewels, from
Tibet and Nepal, as well as a
few Thai, Khmer, and Javanese
examples. The sculptures date
from the 2nd century A.D.
through the 18th century. Of the
thirty-eight paintings, twenty-
four are Indian miniatures of all
schools, many dating from the
time of the Mogul Empire (15-
26-1857). Of the fourteen paint-
ing's in gouache on cotton, ele-
ven are Tibetian and three Ne-
palese. The Walters Art Gallery
in Baltimore organized this
circulating exhibition.
On November 2, an exhibit of
"Psychoanalytic Drawings" by
Jackson Pollock opened. The
83 drawings on 70 sheets in this
exhibition, organized and cir-
culated by Maxwell Galleries
Ltd. of San Francisco, were ex-
ecuted between 1939 and 1940,
the period during which Pollock
underwent psychoanalysis with
the Jungian psychiatrist, Dr.
Joseph Henderson. To aid the
discussion of his emotional dif-
ficulties, Pollock executed these
drawings many of which show
the influence of Picasso. Prior
to this exhibition and its fully
illustrated catalogue, only tAvo
sheets had been published.
These drawings bear witness
to Pollock's extreme emotional
states and stylistically they
show the process of abstraction
to which Pollock turned in mid-
1940. Departing from figurative
political and social statements
of the '30s, he adopted the
symbolic vocabulary of Surreal-
ism, the vehicle by which he
articulated the unconscious, the
interior reality, and eventually
he destroyed all overt imagery.
Since Pollock produced few
paintings during the 18-month
period of psychoanalysis, these
drawings are an important aid
in understanding his art and
they afford the viewer an op-
portunity to go beyond stylisti-
cal analysis, giving an insight
into the personality of the artist.
At the museum until Nov. 7
will be the exhibition "As
Time Developed . . . : Pho-
tography from 1840-1970."
Almost from its invention,
the photograph lias " been
accepted as an object whidh re-
veals the truth. This exhibition
traces the generation of this
attitude through photographs
from the last one hundred and
thirty years. The selection ex-
tends from Daguerre's work in
Paris in the early 19th Century
to the lunar vacuum photo-
graphs of Xeil Armstrong. The
photographs are on loan from
the Gernsheim Collection at the
University of Texas at Austin
and the Latent Image, a Gal-
lery for Photography, Houston,
as well as from the collection
of The Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston.
Through Nov. 15 will be
"Toward Color and Field" which
presents a selected history of
modern painting from Jackson
Pollock to the present. The ex-
hibition is designed to serve as
an introduction to the principles
involved in abstract art of the
last twenty years. The exhibi-
tion also provides a formal de-
finition of the color and field
.style of painting. Included in the
exhibition are works by Jackson
Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz
Kline, Helen Frankenthaler,
Morris Louis. Darby Bannard.
Ronnie Landfield, Peter Bradley
and John Seery.
Three texts also accompany
the show. Essay I is written
for young children to help them
relate the pictures to their own
experiences. Essay II, written
for the "new" viewer, offers
a guide for understanding the
problems and the methods of
solution involved in making ab-
stract art. Essay III, written
for the initiated viewer, is in-
tended as a working definition
of color and. field, as opposed
to other forms of abstract art
ROTC jocks fly eight miles high
Sixty Rice Army ROTC ca- to react in various unfavorable training exercise, coordinated
dets took part in a field train-
ing exercise last Saturday, and
everyone had a pretty good
time. It began at 9 am, When a
pair of Texas National Guard
helicopters shuttled the first
lift of cadets from the stadium
parking lot to the Addicks Res-
ervoir area, 25 miles west of
Houston. The fresh/men, sopho-
mores, and juniors were divided
into three patrols of about 12
men each, and the seniors actcd
as the "aggressors."
The entire airmobile opera-
tion was well-planned and in-
teresting. A ride on the UH-1D
Huey helicopters proved excit-
ing in itself. The Addicks area
resembles an overgrown rain
forest, which made the exercise
starkly realistic.
The purpose of the training
was for the cadets to learn how
situations. Everyone had to
cope with the aggressors, the
heat, and the C-rations. It was
what you would call a "war-
game," but the emphasis was
on the "game." An amphibious
with a local Marine unit, is be-
ing planned for second semes-
ter. Both training exercises are
part of a plan to eliminate dull-
ness for the Army ROTC pro-
gram.
(color-field, optical, abstract ex-
pressionism). All three text.-5
are in English and Spanish.
ROCK GROUP—15:iss guitar-
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expense-paid venture. Must
have no personal ties and be
willing to relocate. Call col-
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Freed, DeBow. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 4, 1971, newspaper, November 4, 1971; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245116/m1/3/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.