Evren Genis News
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2024-03-23
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2018-04-02 03:17:36
Haydn and Pogorelich
[…] in London, and a year later he was signed by Deutsche Grammophon. Pogorelich had studied in the Soviet Union since 1976; the year of the Chopin Competition he married his teacher, Alisa Kezheradze, 21 years his senior. Little is known about Kezheradze. When she met Pogorelich, she was married to a Soviet functionary, living in a large apartment in the center of Moscow. She taught piano at the Music department of the Pedagogic Institute (Vladimir Genis, a Russian-German composer and pianist who studied there, remembers Kezheradze as “the only bright spot in that theater of the absurd, … striking, slim, of indeterminate age, with a face of a Georgian princess.” She also worked with several Conservatory students. One of them was the young Mikhail Pletnev, whom Kezheradze prepared for the 1978 Tchaikovsky Competition after the death of Pletnev’s professor, Yakov Flier, six months earlier. Pletnev went on to win […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2016-11-10 17:39:40
BSO Opens Brahms Mini-Festival
[…] Nelsons and Hélène Grimaud The introduction to the fourth movement is thrillingly innovative. The tempo mark is Adagio. Two slow crescendo approaches to full-orchestra fp marks are followed by string pizzicattos marked stringendo molto (quickening greatly). All these were played flawlessly without a hint of indecision. A restless few seconds of rushing strings pass portentously, leading to a dramatic timpani strike and roll marked ff diminuendo, forcefully played with his usual panache by Timothy Genis. Brahms then scores a thrilling set of horn calls set above muted violins and violas playing atmospheric tremolandi as diaphanous accompaniment. If this were not enough, a solemn chorale is intoned by trombones, horns, and low woodwinds, all of which sets the stage for the noble C major legato theme played by unison violins and violas that has become one of the composer’s most cherished and remembered melodies. Nelsons led with full confidence and […]
2016-10-31 16:09:50
The lady is a camp
Back to celebrating Shakespeare (and Halloween) this week with one of the best: Verdi’s Macbeth gets true blood-and-guts treatment from Guillermo Sarabia and the legendary Marisa Galvany at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu in 1975. This is also a rare dip for me into what people of my generation used to call “party tapes.” I’ve posted some fun performances, and some cheesy operas with great casts, but I don’t think I’ve delved much into the genre of camp. Let me attempt to clarify. It’s not that Galvany’s is in any way a bad performance: it is just so consistently over-the-top and totally unhinged. Well, truth be told, there is a fair amount of making up text and music as she goes along, but I doubt if anyone would dare sing the role with this combination of unabashed passion and dementia in 2016. Galvany, née Myra Beth Genis of Paterson, New […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2016-10-21 23:13:53
BSO/Charles Dutoit/Yo-Yo Ma Bring Brits
[…] the sound is lost in the distance.” the 29 women from the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, prepared by Guest Chorus Conductor Lisa Graham, were appropriately distant and sirenic. Charles Dutoit and Yo Yo Ma (Robert Torres photo) Kudos to many of the orchestra’s outstanding instrumentalists: Mike Roylance, for his mastery of the exposed tenor tuba solo early in Mars James Somerville, Principal Horn, for his repeated rising four-note solos in Venus Timothy Genis, whose timpani virtuosity throughout, especially in Uranus, the Magician, was breathlessly essayed Malcolm Lowe, BSO Concertmaster, for many elegant solos Martha Babcock, Acting Principal Cello, for her heartfelt spotlight moments The entire brass section, with every member playing above and beyond in color, depth and with “grace under fire” James David Christie, organ, and the bass section, whose deep and soulful underpinnings were felt as well as heard Charles Dutoit, who knows this […]