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University Daily Kansan / Fridav, October 20.1989
Arts/Entertainment
9
Ensemble delves into Bach
Sunday concert will spotlight baroque period
Joshua Rifkin and the Bach Ensemble will perform Sunday afternoon in the Crafton-Prever Theatre.
By Jennifer Reynolds Kansan staff writer
If he could, Joshua Rifkin would read the mind of Bach. Since he can't, he does the next best thing and interprets Bach's music.
"We start with the aim of discovering what sounds Bach had in mind when he created the music," Rifkin a phone interview from Nebraska.
Rifkin is the director of the Bach Ensemble, which will perform at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in Crafton-Preyer Theatre at Murphy Hall.
Rifkin and the ensemble take into account more than just the music.
"We consider the instruments of the day, the number of people Bach wanted to sing, the tempos and the styles," he said. "In a sense these things are just a springboard for finding out what we think the meaning of the music is and how it should be interrupted."
Most early-music concerts are played by chamber orchestras of 12 to 20 people. The Bach Ensemble has eight.
Dan Politoske, director of the Collegeium Musicum, KU's early-music group, said that the size of Riftin's group was unusual but appropriate.
"He's done some experimental work with music usually done by large groups, and it was absolutely clear and lovely," he said. "I admire him and applaud him for doing different things."
Rifkin said he hoped that the audience would reach its own conclusion.
"I hope that people will enjoy the performance and not be concerned whether it is different but if it speaks to them in a way they can enjoy," he
Michael Kimber, associate profes-
"This will be a marvelous opportunity to see the baroque instruments spotlighted in concertos," he said. "The audience should go away feeling refreshed. Baroque music is a
Kimber, who plays the baroque violin and viola in a KU faculty group, explained how baroque and modern instruments differ.
delightful sound."
"Modern instruments have a heavier and brighter sound," he said. "They developed as musicians began playing in bigger concert halls and as musical styles changed."
Kimber said that in the 18th and 19th centuries, the violin was modified by changing string tension and length longer heavier and arched differently.
The wind instruments evolved by the gradual addition of keys and a new keyboard.
Kimber said that interest in baroque music had grown recently.
"Performing musicians have become interested in playing on instruments as they were set up back then," he said. "They are trying to understand how they played the instruments and how they felt about the music."
Although no recordings of the early music exist, Kimber said that musicians learned about the music from the instruments themselves.
"We can't actually recreate with complete authenticity how they played the music," he said. "We can sound that is closer to that period."
In coordination with the Bach Ensemble concert, Rifkin will give an informal lecture on performing baroque music at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Skilton Lounge, room 400 of Murphy Hall. From 9 to 11:30 a.m. Monday the ensemble will give a demonstration of baroque instruments in the Skilton Lounge. Both events are free.
'Baker Boys' film not quite fabulous, but still enjoyable
By Marc Parillo
Kansan movie reviewer
Uh, oh. Just when you thought cocktail lounge singers were considered reliable forms of entertainment, writer/director Steve Kloves puts "The Fabulous Baker Boy" to the test.
Beau Bridges plays Frank Baker, a washed-up cocktail lounge entertainer with the ability to capture the flamboyant style of the typical Las Vegas lounge singer. In fact, the screenplay must have come from the minds and mountains of professionals; themselves, they big collection of the worst jokes and corupt anecdotes available.
Jeff Bridges plays Jack, Frank's younger, less-motivated brother, who doesn't fit the true lounge singer persona but has an attitude capable of bringing out the worst in someone . . . namely Frank.
These Baker brothers hang from the thread of possible unemployment, as they have for 15 years, and have the illusion that they delight each sparsely-fitted night-club with their well-norm routine of nostalgic favorites such as "Feelings."
Jack, realizing the act needs fine-tuning, comes up with the idea of finding a female singer to spruce up the duo's decaying act. In the midst of attaining the one and perfect singer, ex-dating service employee Susie Diamond, played by Michelle Pfeifer, comes shuffling in.
And just when you thought you would never want to hear another version of "My Funny Valentine," Susie surprises both on-screen and off-screen audiences alike with a delightful variation of the song, and she enhances the duo's act.
Jeff and Beau Brides work well together as the fabulous Baker boys, but Kloves's screenplay confines Jeff Brides to a not-so-famous character. His usual charismatic approach is choked by the constraints of performing an uninteresting, lifeless character.
Michelle Fleiffer's performance as Susie Diamond is the most memorable in the film. Each beautifully sung, lounge ballad and steamy scene with Jeff Bridges radiates with charm and enervy.
The only real argument about the plot concerns the end. After the climax and ultimate resolution, it isn't apparent whether these characters changed for their own good or whether they were intended to be as hardy as their trainers and dating service employees.
What's so great about this film, however, is that despite the problems, it is still a fun, enjoyable story worth attention.
► Marc Parillo is a Lenexa sopho-
more majoring in film studies.
Selleck movie skirts issues but remains entertaining
By Bob Thomas Associated Press writer
Framed by two crooked narcs and sentenced to six years in prison, Jimmy Rainwood enters the vicious world of California's Oroville State Prison. He is preyed upon by the hardened cons, especially Jingles, who threatens to make Rainwood the gang's "pet."
Veteran convict Virgil Cane advises Jimmy that the only way to
avoid degradation and probable death is to kill Jingles. A moral man, Jimmy battles his conscience: Should he kill or allow himself to be destroyed? He kills.
ing, cannonading and explosions that are standard in this genre.
The moral dilemma is not fully addressed in "An Innocent Man." His prison experience and the harassment of the two cops on his own behalf have contributed to revenge. And revenge is what sells movie tickets these daws.
Selleck's strong performance is greatly enhanced by the work of F. Murray Abraham as the proudly amoral con. He delivers his prison philosophy with a cobra-like confidence. Laila Robins is properly sympathetic in the two-dimensional role as Selleck's wife. David Rasche, looking like an overage surfer, makes a marvelously sinister villain.
Innocent Man" succeeds as an action melodrama. Peter Yates, who practically invented the car-chase genre with "Bullit," is an expert of hardened action. He has the advantage of a first-rate cast, headed by the reliable Tom Selleck.
Selleck has rarely displayed such depth of feeling. Behind the titles he is seen as the sure-handed airline maintenance manager, who won't allow a jetliner into the air before it has been thoroughly checked.
Despite the skirting of issues, "An
Because of an error in addresses, narcotics officers David Rasche and Richard Young raid his house and wound him in the process.
Bewildered by the judicial process that believes the lying cops, Selleck is at a meek prisoner. Then he makes his crucial decision, and he becomes a hero to the inmates.
The prison sequences are the most gripping part of the film. Less convincing is Selleck's complicated plot of revenge. It ends with the car-bash.
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Capture the Moment...
The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts Concert Series Presents
A Sunflower Celebration
with the
Wichita Symphony Orchestra
Michael Palmer, Music Director and Conductor
and special guest artist
Richard Stolzman, Clarinet
"...the most exciting clarinetist in the world...
The Boston Globe
8:00 p.m. Friday,
October 27, 1989
Hoch Auditorium
Program
Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 74
Clarinet Concerto
Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98
Weber Copland Brahms
Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office; all seats reserved; public: $15 & $12;
KJ and K-12 students: $7.50 & $8; senior citizens and other students: $14 & $11;
for reservations, call 913-648-3982.
Partially funded by the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts; additional support provided by the KU Student Activity Fee, Swarathout Society, and the KU Endowment Association.
...You'll Be Glad You Did!