Conference thebay::joyoflex

1098.0. "Purple Prose" by SMURF::BINDER (Ut res per opera mea meliores fiant) Wed May 18 1994 07:16

    This topic is a place to post examples of verbal vitriol.  As the title
    suggests, postings should be cast in a strongly negative tone, WITHOUT
    BEING SCATOLOGICAL OR OTHERWISE OBSCENE.  Pretty much anything should
    be fair game, although I sort of draw the line at the common type of
    political mudslinging.  Anything posted here ought to have passed the
    minimum standard of having been published, and attribution should be
    given.

    I offer as a prototype the following, a portion of a Nashua Telegraph
    review of a New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra concert in January of this
    year.  As those who know me will recognize immediately, the author is -
    thank you thank you, no applause, please - none other than yours truly;
    however, I'm using it here as a direct result of a mail discussion with
    DRDAN::KALIKOW, who said that I should post it somewhere because its
    capsaicin content is higher than that of a recent Richard Buell piece
    in the Boston Globe.

    -dick

	Alexander Markov might benefit from a spanking, but I doubt it. 
	His flashy and unmusical treatment of Paganini's second violin
	concerto, the centerpiece of the planned program, was the
	performance not of a virtuoso, which he certainly has the power to
	be, but rather of a willful and self-absorbed child.

	Markov, whose bountiful innate talent should place him at the top
	of the heap, chose Friday to hack and slash at his instrument, to
	abuse the patience of the orchestra accompanying him by noodling
	through a vastly extended cadenza--oh, yes, it was apparent in
	their faces--and to impose on the goodwill of his audience, who
	would in any case be obliged to applaud him.  His immaturity
	deserved not plaudits but catcalls.

	Paganini wrote the concerto as a vehicle for his own prodigious
	talents.  It is, in the hands of a master, a virtuoso showpiece. 
	But virtuosi are not required to do ricochet-bowed runs so
	blisteringly fast that intonation is nonexistent.  Nor are they
	required to bow double and triple stops so harshly that their
	violins sound like beehives instead of musical instruments.  And
	they are are certainly not expected to demand such immoderate tempi
	(in the finale Friday) that the orchestra is simply unable to keep
	up.  All this from a strutting little man badly in need of a
	haircut and a visit to a good tailor is no less than inexcusable.

	Markov added insult to injury by returning to the stage to destroy
	Paganini's 24th Caprice.

    Dick
    
    In future will you please refrain from circumlocution?
    
    So, if you think someone's violin technique sucks, say so.
    
    Nick

    see 377.113
    
    Quoting oneself is a bit, how shall I say, self-reverential?
    
    		-John Bishop

    Hey lay off the fellah eh John?  I goaded him into it.  Just be glad he
    decided to grace THIS space with that gem rather than (yeeeeecccchhh!!)
    SoapBox!  :-)