and North America by storm during the 1930s. Among the countless Latin songs that have followed are the mambo Sway (1953) by Mexican bandleader Pablo Beltrán Ruiz; Kiss of Fire, a hit by Nat King Cole, Connie Francis, Guy Lombardo and Louis Armstrong in the 1950s that was based on a 1903 song titled El Chocó (“The Corn Cob”) by the Argentinean musician Ángel Gregorio Villoldo; and the classic tango La Cumparsita (“The Little Parade,” 1916) by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, a seventeen-year-old architecture student and son of a nightclub owner in Montevideo, Uruguay. Dance is, indeed, “the art of which we ourselves are the stuff from which it is made.” Ohlsson Plays Rachmaninoff, Continued From Page 73
not be so bad after all!” It was for the American tour that Rachmaninoff composed his Third Piano Concerto. The Concerto consists of three large movements. The first is a modified sonata form which begins with a haunting theme, recalled in the later movements, that sets perfectly the Concerto’s mood of somber intensity. The espressivo second theme is presented by the pianist, whose part has, by this point, abundantly demonstrated the staggering technical challenge that this piece offers to the soloist, a characteristic Rachmaninoff had disguised by the simplicity of the opening. The development section is concerned mostly with transformations of fragments from the first theme. A massive cadenza, separated into two parts by the recall of the main theme by the woodwinds, leads to the recapitulation. The earlier material is greatly abbreviated in this closing section, with just a single presentation of the opening melody and a brief, staccato version of the subsidiary theme. The second movement, subtitled Intermezzo, which Dr. Otto Kinkleday described in his notes for the New York premiere as “tender and melancholy, yet not tearful,” is a set of free variations with an inserted episode. “One of the most dashing and exciting pieces of music ever composed for piano and orchestra” is how Patrick Piggot described the finale. The movement is structured in three large sections. The first part has an abundance of themes which Rachmaninoff skillfully derived from those of the opening movement. The relationship is further strengthened in the finale’s second section, where both themes from the opening movement are recalled in slow tempo. The pace again quickens, and the music from the first part of the finale returns with some modifications. A brief solo cadenza leads to the coda, a dazzling final stanza with fistfuls of
chords propelling the headlong rush to the dramatic closing gestures. Pixar in Concert, Continued From Page 77
Thomas Newman and David Newman, one of Hollywood’s busiest composers. Randy Newman began his career writing pop songs and since 1981 has composed the music for nearly three dozen films. He has received fifteen Oscar nominations and won twice, for Best Song (If I Didn’t Have You) for Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Best Song (We Belong Together) for Toy Story 3 (2010). In addition to music for seven DisneyPixar feature films — all three Toy Story releases, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Cars and Monsters University (he received Oscar nominations for every one) — Newman’s filmography includes Seabiscuit, Ragtime, The Natural, Pleasantville, Parenthood, Avalon, The Paper, Meet the Parents and James and the Giant Peach. Thomas Newman, son of Alfred Newman and cousin of Randy Newman, is an alumnus of Yale and USC. He has scored more than seventy feature films, including such varied releases as The Shawshank Redemption, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Skyfall, Fried Green Tomatoes, Scent of a Woman, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Horse Whisperer, American Beauty, Erin Brockovich, Road to Perdition, Saving Mr. Banks and The Good German, receiving twelve Oscar and three Golden Globe nominations and winning six Grammys and an Emmy. For Pixar, Thomas Newman scored Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL•E (2008), both nominated for Academy Awards; he is currently at work on Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, scheduled for release in November 2015. Dvořák: From the New World, Continued From Page 81
compelling image that I could not resist the idea of having the soloist do exactly that. Concerti throughout history have always allowed the soloist to delight the audience with feats of great virtuosity, and when a composer is confronted with a real gift in the soloist’s ability to do so, it would be foolhardy not to allow that dream to become a reality.”
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, “From the New World” (1892-1893) (ca.42) ANTONÍN DVOŘ ÁK (1841-1904)
When Antonín Dvořák, aged 51, arrived in New York on September 27, 1892 to direct the new National Conservatory of Music, both he and the institution’s 183