Word: allegretto
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...James Sommerville (horn)—created an everlasting impression with piercing sounds throughout the hall, truly making the first movement one that sets the tone for the entire concert. But it was the second movement of the symphony that truly displayed the artistry of the orchestra. The Allegretto resembled a funeral march in the somber key of E minor, and though the orchestra played it a bit too fast, Levine still managed to evoke loneliness and sorrow in every member of the audience. The strings delicately tossed the melody around, all the while building up to a climax...
...record, emphasizes garbage rock that sounds more like a NASCAR soundtrack than the inventive blues that enthusiasts desire. The band occasionally sounds like Collective Soul having a bad day or a meek Boston, but mostly just like guys playing repetitive chord changes with amps cranked and metronomes set on allegretto...
Next of the program was the Beethoven F major Sonata from Op. 10--in my opinion, Perahia's strongest performance of the night. This piece has enormous innate appeal, but certainly does not play itself and Perahia made it dazzling. Perahia imparted to the main theme of the allegretto middle movement the proper sense of graceful ghostliness, and played the living daylights out of the trio, but the real jawdropper here was the presto rondo finale. In an interview with WHRB, Perahia revealed that, studying under Miecyslaw Horszowski, he practiced his Leschetisky method like a good little boy. Nowhere...
Conversely, his adagio was more of an allegretto and here he may have been a little too playful. Ohlsson spun out long melodic lines, though his pedalling was admirably spare; and though the rhythm of the variations changed in predictable ways, his phrasing was never predictable...
...second movement faltered, but the third and fourth were compelling. The Allegretto was wonderfully reminiscent of Smetana and, except for a few more tuning concerns, captivated one's attention through to the coda. There were two excellent things about the fourth: the grand turn of the cellos and the terrifyingly loud sound of the symphony's last half-minute. Here the brass imbalance seemed plausible if not prudent. Everything, in fact, seemed that way. But the effect was titanically impressive...