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...Randi Trio: Feelin' Like Blues (World Pacific). A first recording by a 24-year-old pianist who can clout the keyboard with macelike power or spin out feathery right-hand phrases with impressive speed. All the numbers-Summertime, Blues for Miti, Cheek to Cheek-not only swing but bounce, suggesting that Randi would be wise to reach occasionally for the soft pedal...
These two elements blend together perfectly, for the "row" provides a framework for Copland's long-legged marches up and down the keyboard and the tonality draws the work back to a more placid, stable base. Because he has accomplished this integration within a distinctly personal style, it is a brilliant and welcome contribution to the modern piano literature, a field in serious decline...
...President took no pains to hide the fact that he was the man at the keyboard of U.S. foreign policy. It was a virtuoso performance. Sometimes he did finger exercises, sometimes he improvised, sometimes he played by ear. But never did he get so much as a genuine grace note in return from the big brass of the Kremlin...
...after intermission, with the playing of the final Sonata Opus 111, that Mr. Fischer really electrified the audience. His playing was percussive in the opening torrent of notes; he moved effectively from lyric to appassionato passages; his fingers flew over the keyboard in the long runs and octave passages. I was rather disappointed that he skipped the repeat of the first section, but one cannot expect everything; the remainder of his playing was more than satisfying. It is not easy to play the first section of Opus 111 at all, let alone well, and Mr. Fischer's excellent technique...
...seemed at first like the revelation of a new musical personality. A longtime friend of the Soviet composer, Richter managed to illuminate the lyric qualities usually obscured by the percussive Prokofiev style. Even in the most frenzied and violent passages-notably during Sonata No. 6, when he flailed the keyboard with a clenched fist-Richter drew forth a tone that was warm instead of strident, as full of shadings as a guttering candle flame. Later in the week Richter offered programs including Haydn, Schumann, Debussy and Rachmaninoff, playing each one with the uncanny air of direct communication that he conveys...