Recent Reviews Shower Praise on UR Artist-in-Residence Zora Mihailovich
Music critics at Fanfare magazine and American Record Guide are beaming over Zora Mihailovich's new Brahms release (available on Centaur Records). Here are a few excerpts:
American Record Guide (January/February 2008):
"Pianist Zora Mihailovich is a poet with a big technique. Brahms's writing for the keyboard is notoriously difficult, but you might just not notice that from the command and style she brings to all of this music. In the Sonata No. 3, the composer's finest and last, she holds her own easily with the likes of Rubinstein and Ashkenazy in the craggy peaks of I, and in tossing off those perilous right-hand octaves in the Scherzo. But it's in II, the slow movement andante, and IV, the intermezzo, that she makes her strongest statements. Her touch is pure silk in the quieter moments, and the outlines of each of these movements are defined with strength and clarity. She wants us to understand that II is surely as beautiful as any short work Brahms ever wrote, and we do. Further.
she delves deeplv into IV and captures its haunting mystery perfectly." (Bender)
Fanfare (January/February 2008):
"Unlike Beethoven's catalog of works. Brahms's is less likely to be spoken of in terms of distinct periods, early, middle, and late. Or, as David Dubal was quoted by Mihailovich: "From the beginning to the end, Brahms was Brahms." In choosing works that, chronologically speaking, do span Brahms's earliest to latest years, Mihailovich reaffirms something she said in our interview- if I may be allowed to expand on it- which is that what links all of the composer's works from beginning to end is not necessarily to be found, as it is in Beethoven, in specific melodic motifs and gestural language that recur throughout his music, but in the constancy of his manner of expression. The striding, striving, confident boldness of youth heard in the F-Minor Piano Sonata is reflected antipodally and in microcosm in the contemplative confessions of the op.118 intermezzos. One hears these connections in Mihailovich's readings, which makes this a highly engaging and enormously satisfying recital, recorded in mid-October 2005 at Little Bridges Hall, Pomona College in Claremont, California. Mihailovich plays a Steinway D, captured in rich detail by recording engineer Sonny Ausman. Mihailovich is an artist of profound musical intelligence and, for me, a wonderful discovery. Her Brahms is one I shall return to often." (Dubins)
Annual Viennese Ball Promises an Evening in Old Vienna
Alles Walzer! With that formal command to hit the dance floor, the annual Viennese Ball at the University of Rochester began at 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, in a Wilson Commons student center awash in black ties and taffeta. Since its inception as a small celebration of the waltz and Austrian formality in 1985, the Viennese Ball has mushroomed into one of the University’s most elegant social affairs, attracting hundreds of ballroom dancers eager to experience a touch of magic and romance in three-quarter time. Open to the public, and now drawing more people than ever from outside the University community with its “Evening in Old Vienna” theme, the ball was sponsored by the University Chamber Orchestra and the University Chamber Singers.
In addition to a performance of selections from the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzer by the chamber singers during an orchestra break, the event featured a waltz exhibition by the Botsford Ballroom Dance Team, a local group of nationally-ranked dancers between the ages of 16 and 21. For participants caught up the ballroom dance craze sweeping the country, the University’s Ballroom Dance Club and Swing Dance Club ensured that dances other than the waltz were available while preserving the formal air of the festivities. Light refreshments were served and door prizes were awarded from community organizations, including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Barnes & Noble.
