The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • Page 13

The Daily Telegraph Friday February 6 CONCERTS FILMS PATRICK GIBBS 1 performance Perfectly proportioned beautifully phrased it was quintessential Mozart a shared by both these pieces and the delicately mellifluous writ- ing for voices and instruments of Berio's El Mar la Mar Stalking a Faustian legend distillation of Barenboim vast experience of and concern for with which tine programme this composer And the orchestra under Charles Dutoit phrased with him to the last minute detail After the interval he gave a CHRISTIE'S SOUTH KENSINGTON IS HERETO HELP YOU South Kensington i -ssv r' From the routine to the bizarre- whatever it is one of our specialists will advise on its value and saleability without charge or wide ranging account of Brahms's towering First Piano Concerto How gently his initial entry stole upon the ear And with what guile he built from this almost passive entry a performance of sonorous depth of imperious weight and of free mobility A limpid contemplative Adagio contrasted greatly with a Finale of enormous punch and drive set incidentally at a tempo which took account not only of the composer's "Allegro" but also of the equally important Non troppo" A generous magisterial performance NK Theatre lease sale By Our Arts Staff The lease of London's Cambridge Theatre which is owned by the Laurence Parnes Organisation is up for sale following the announcement of obhgauon Telephone or write for further details or call in at our reception counter between 9am-5pm The European Connection By ROBERT HENDERSON ANY LINKS that there may have been between the Italiari and British composers represented at the Wigmore Hall last night in the penultimate programme of the New Mac-naughton Concerts' imaginatively devised series The European Connection" were largely ones of circumstance rather than direct influence That Peter Maxwell Davies was once a pupil of Goffredo Petrassi was more a simple matter of historical fact than evidence of any perceptible connection between the personality or motivation of their two sharply contrasted pieces Apart from their scrupulous and shared commitment to the composer's craft there was little if anything in common between Davies's subtly undemonstrative recreation of the renaissance Scottish motet Si quis deligit Me" and the gladiatorial interplay and almost aggressively electric idiom of Petrassi's Grand Septuor" The illusion of calm and placidity produced by the fragile mostly very subdued yet hyper-active motif of Bernard BJands's Deja also seemed to draw both for its atmospheric and oolouristic effects more on oriental than specifically Italianate sources Its euflitiivated awareness of the precise nature and quality of instrumental sound he has however clearly passed on to his own former pupil Vic Hoyland whose specially commissioned Andaoht Zum KJeimen" like all the music in the recital was bravely played by the Lonrano Ensemble directed by Odaline de la Martinez Though a tough work to grasp in its entirety there was little actual toughness in the musical substance itself of a score full of impeccable heard rigorously composed and imagined ideas textures and sonorities And if a concern for the purely sensuous nature of sound is indeed a recognizably Italian characteristic it was a quality oegan John Ogdon EACH MEMBER of John Ogden's large audience at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night must have wished him every possible success- Serious illness has kept one of our most beloved pianists from the concert platform for three long years and so this was in so many special ways a significant and movmg occasion In all fairness it" must be admitted that not everything went as smoothly as Mr Ogdon might have wished but in outline at any rate the pianist's intentions seemed as spirited and warm hearted as ever The odd skimped detail here an occasional attempt at the impossible there kept everyone on their toes yet the lavish colouration of Szymanowski's Masques (impressively described by the pianist as music possessing an aura of extreme fin-de-siecle opulence was finely realised and a periodic retreat into self communion in Beethoven's op 109 Sonata and Schumann's Etudes Symphon-iques was often eclipsed by characteristic energy and commitment For his encore Mr Ogdon chose nothing less than Chopin's minor Ballade and finally left the stage in a storm of cheers BM Daniel Barenboim CAN IT REALLY be true that 25 years have passed since Daniel Barenboim first appeared on a London platform? Incredibly yes according to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra who celebrated the event at the Festival Hall last night by featuring him as soloist in two of his favourite piano concertos First came Mozart's Piano Concerto in A K488 the very work which introduced him at 14 in 1956 Impossible to compare the two performances of course but it is doubtful if the budding musician could have displayed the poise the relaxed mastery of last night's who is by no means eclipsed Dolly Parton the singer They are employees of a New York company Miss Tomlin is the experienced supervisor of a big room of typists and telephonists Miss Fonda is the new girl put under her wing and Miss Parton the shapely and long-suffering secretary to the only man in sight their boss and the company's Vice-President who could hardly be more the male chauvenist pig How these three their ideas stimulated by some smoking of marijuana come gradually to turn the tables making the office into a woman's world has its very funny moments especially in the disposal of a corpse but these steadily diminish alas as the piece turns away from reality where surely a lively satirical comedy was to be found THE NAZIS we know were responsible for a great deal to which must now be added the origins apparently of the preposterous plot of John Avildsen's The Formula The title refers to a catalyst used in a process discovered by the Nazis for converting coal to oil It appears briefly with Television -P14 other documents on the fall of Berlin but is then seemingly lost for some 30 years only coming up in discussion when a former detective is murdered in Los Angeles Had his former friend George Scott not been assigned to the case all might have been well but this is a persistent man who not only braves an interview with the great steel baron Marlon Brando but chases all over Europe to solve the case Marthe Keller is a dubious helper John Gielgud authoritative as usual as a scientist from the Nazi era Big Business as always is to blame but not surelv for the tedium and complication of this plot through which Mr Scott plods with his usual 'power Ghristies South kensingtoN the retirement for health reasons of the organisation's 51-year-old managing director 85 OLD BROMPTON ROAD LONDON SW7 3JSTELEPHONE: 61- Larrv Parnes We specialise in your interest The theatre has been dark since the closure on Jan 24 of "The Last of Mrs Cheyney" starring Joan Collins and no show has yet been chosen to replace it Stalker Academy Two 9 to 5 Odeon Leicester Square AA" The Formula Plaza I "AA" IF A director points his camera at a minefield whose dangers he has already established and then starts his characters on a journey through it impelled by some great attraction on the other side he will certainly have his audience's attention perhaps even for 116 minutes Such is the length of the construction adopted by Andrei Tarkovsky in his new film Stalker his second work of sci-fi following the spell-binding Solaris" It is adapted by the brothers Strugatsky from their own novel Adapted? Transformed would be better for whereas the novel paraded a dozen or so significant characters the film finds only four of which two are largely new creations and while the novel filled in the background of the town of Harmon in some detail from its smart Metropole hotel to its low tavern the Borscht the film is concerned only with a journey into the Zone This is an area of devastation outside the town time of course is the future caused no one knows quite how By a meteorite some say though others believe there was a brief visitation from another civilisation and a very advanced one too to judge from the artefacts left behind These are naturally much sought by scientists to appraise the nature of the visitants but" not easily come by since the Zone might be described as contaminated Soldiers sent in at first never reappeared The ground itself seems to be sewn with sophisticated death traps operated perhaps by a remote unseen hand While an official Institute has been set up to examine evidence mighty little has come out of what is now a prohibited area Tarkovsky's great achievement is his pictorial creation of this no-man's land looking now like some deserted battlefield now like a bombed city and now like a breaker's yard but for the most pJH looking like the landscape we have never known where lights are apt to flash strange sounds to be heard and landmarks to vanish without trace Entries into the Zone are not unknown by professional stalkers lured by the money they receive for curious finds brought back though the race is dying for the casualties are high Now a veteran of these originally named Schuhart but now called just Stalker is leading into the Zone an expedition made up of a writer and a professor of science also unnamed who are not interested in artefacts or money but have a special objective Deep in the Zone is said to be a room where a man's deepest' desire will be granted It is here their interest lies The Faust legend of a man selling his soul one might say but in reverse for it seems likely a man will lose his life before the room is reached so unpredictable and treacherous is the journey Again it is a remarkable visual feat of the director to make this journey really seem so perilous Stalker having always to throw markers on ahead to test the ground for traps is one clever device to keep us in a continual state of expectancy In fact though the journey through dark tunnels and deep waters is physically arduous nothing very eerie actually happens unless it is the cry Stop spoken by an unknown voice that saves the writer's life or the mysterious appearance of the professor ahead of the men he was following Meanwhile the characters are to some extent filled in the writer tending to be extrovert and talkative on his professional problems the professor to be reserved and calculating and Stalker himself to personify humanity facing philosophically the problems and dangers he might find in life itself Given these characters it might be thought that reaching the threshold of the Room might be the occasion for a great debate before finally committing themselves so to speak Actually what happens is predictable and unexciting reminding us that the Strugat-skys are writers of sci-fi not philosophy and while they may raid a Marcuse or a Heidegger some of their observations such as "You can't build happiness on the unhappin'ess of another" come straight from Aunt Annie in "Household Hints" Oh I dare say materialism idealism and the rest are given a great going over in a superficial sort of way and the future of mankind accorded a word or two now of hope now of foreboding But it is surely rather a let down from this would-be rari-fied discussion to hear at the very end comforting words of common wisdom from Stalker's wife who takes the Christian position on the place in life of pain and pleasure and has a good word for old fashioned love in sci-fi if you please So while the film is never less than wonderful visually intellectually and emotionally it seems to me to lack a comparable distinction -No fault this of the actors who reflect uncannily all the dangers of the journey while making pretentiousness and platitudes sound suitably profound COLIN HIGGINS made an enjoyable comedy in "Foul Play (with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase) and has in 9 to 5 the subject for another one the cast too Jane Fonda Lily Tomlin and a newcomer The Parnes Organisation took out a 12-year lease on the theatre in 1972 and has an option for a further 15 years Yesterday the company put the value of the remaining four years of the lease at a con servative £250000" Mr Parnes who will continue rii i i Woreicut Still nocure-will youheipusl PREVENT tofindone? WkM TELEPHONE OP WRITE FOR DETAILS TOi I BM mJ TI The British Diabetic Association 1 0 Queen Ann Street London WW OB8 iV RtYLMl Telephone: 'if AVAILABLE FROM CHEMISTS to advise the company said he was cutting down on his work on medical' advice I have not had a holiday for six and a half years The impresario began his career in the early days of pop music in Britain with stars like Tommy Steele Billy Fury and Marty Wilde 1 aa v- eg BacggEgcsc i mt iiS 19 Hi mk llftW I I LUbHLh I 1 IV Lh fl ILm afl IB afl Lby Lbb Be jB Bf Jfl LH Bi Bk Bi BbT si flfl IB HI fll 1st Hi fll Hi HI HtH HAH HT HI HI I HI I I I Bfl I I fl Bfl BsJ fl fl I II II II II ak I II bVJ II II 1 1 III BBBBJ BBJ Bfl flB flB Bfl flflj IB flflfl iflflflj LW WM flflr-Wfli mm Bfl mm A I'l flPl I fli iwl II bw I flU bbw HHHHHHHf aflH HHHHHHHHl VjM mmM flflj BB flfl flflflflflH 1 1 H- flflflfl flflflflB eaHflflfll HflBk aflflfll Hfllflfl I jaflflfl flW tBHflflfl Hflflk IjLWjij flH fllflHW fli eaHflfll HflBL flH Hh flj A flflj flj flj flk fll flftk HJ flj flH Afl flf HAV flH flj fl tH flfl flH flM flfll I I 1 1" "Bi B'flflfll flflTVflflflfl flflj flflP flflflflP HHHHHW flflflflfl BflflB mm hj mm mm flB Bfl JOHN BARBER THEATRE mmmm HHflflflBHw -Hfll mmmmm MMmM BhVHHHHB HfllflvflHW Hflfll IIhw hmmmm flfll flflf flfl HLBfll Hfek jmmm mm mmm mm flH Mm-mm flfl Hfl AvJ mmm flWflV Bf TflBTfl I Bj IB AH BB jflfl fljB flfl Mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mw mm mm flH mm flWflfll mm mm BBflJ Br flB Ptflfl mm fl VH BkIH mm mm mm mmWrnt mr VH wH flHHHflflflV BtBb! BHflk I BH hvJ mf wH tH BHfll HfllHHflV So we all feel sorry for the rueful Lavinia IF EXACT REPORTING of the humdrum has a fascination for Alan Ayckbourn But this most prolific and ingenious of playwrights always reports the humdrum with a novel twist The twist in Suburban Strains at the Round House is that it is a play with music A dozen or so tinklv pleasant little ditties by Paul Todd to Ayckbourn's own tart lyrics point up the dilemmas and distresses of poor Caroline his schoolmistress heroine so unlucky with my sorry choice of menv" she sings I'm uncertain and unsure and alone" Lavinia Bertram brings a charming freshness an agreeable voice to a girl whose choices soon make us all feel sorry Having married a handsome lazy actor (Bobin Her-ford) she has to support him while he flirts with other women and eventually seduces one of her pupils After throwing him out of her cosy flat she next invites in an attractive doctor If not eager to make love to her he is enthusiastic about criticising her face her deportment and all that is hers She ends by turning him away and taking back her husband but remains uncertain whether she would not be better off alone Ayckbourn surrounds her story with brightly sketched caricatures of her comically dreary father a fusy female neighbour with art obsessive cook of a husband arid so on is a A lot of people claim to know everythingthere is to know about the Allegro Simply because they know the name Unfortunately very few really know the car So before you decide on your next new car we'd like to make sure that you've got all the facts straight about our new range MjmmJk 4k The New '81 Allegro Is Quieter rOl I Austin Morris made this possible by a series of refinements that include the new 'A' Plus ngine and gearbox and a comprehensive sound insulation package Bulkhead floor boot and side paneisare fitted to reduce engine and road noise tP-jjJ SCI mm Comfortable Apart from Allegro's big-car roominess every model has now been given the luxury of new plush seating new colours and trim combinations AndAllegro'suniquemainteriance-teHydragas And thafs miles betrmananyLhingtrrenew Escort can promise Youllevenfindmeinsurancecategoriesarelo than the newEscortand the new Allegrotravels12000 miles or one full year between major services And thoseare major money saving facts JEmm'Mmi The New '81 Allegro IsThe Best MrWfe 9 Value When you sit in the new 1981 Allegro you'll finally realise the ultimate Fact True value for money Value that givesyou a lot more carforalot less money than you'd expect to pay And rigfrt now apartfrom immediate delivery you'll find your Austin Morris dealer can offer you a better deal than ever before So visityour nearest showroom and getthe real facts Oryou could listen togossipand kickyourseff later FactZ It's at your showroom now The New '81 Allegro Has 1 aVi Performance Allegro's improved powercoirresfrommeiiewA'pIusen that givesyou the 'edge' whenyou need it most When overtaking or M-way cruising Advanced technology that was developed forthe Austin Metro And there's a choice of power unik 1 litrc13and1Suptothe17matmovfrom standstill to 60 mph in only 110 seconds Combinethesefactswiththeunbeatabletracfaon of front wheel drive precise rack and pinion steering and dual-lineservoassistedbrakingandyou can leave a lot of foreigners gaping The cast is small but the comedy effectively exploits the torturing wounds of everyday chat Scenes overlap and their order is shuffled so that past present and future can be ironically juxtaposed One of the effective songs "Table Talk" sets gossip to music Another Dorothy and Me" parodies Darby-and-Joan ballads I liked best I'm an The New '81 Allegro Is More Economical No matter what Fact 5 Individual" the heroine's spirited version of Shakespeare's Love is not love which alters modelyouchooseyou'llfindthattheAHegroisvery thrifty I when it alteration finds This is a rueful truthful por For example the new 13 delivers afantastic trait of a sweet perplexed jammm mmwssaasssssssssssssBssss young modern seriously weak 496 mpg at a constant 56 mpht ened by the author's fondness for mmiscule and unnecessary detail The evening has its rewards but it is somewhat tepid dramatically It does not establish convinc ingly that Avckbourn's talent suspension ensures that everybody enjoys the smoothest fide On the roughest roads for the cruel trivialities of social behaviour can really get the best out of the emotional and exciting possibilities offered by a musical score The New '81 Allegro Has Style All new models have finserhD Fact 3 r- controlsand read-at-a-giance instrumentation design that reduces driving tension The new range can also offer twin headlights tinted glass head restraints push-button radio window demistingfoglightsandaero-dynamicspoiler forroad-huingsilitytogiveyouacarwithasmuch style as any fancy import The Hunting Group of Companies presents prize money totalling £11000 annually including two major awards for 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Society of Miniature Painters Sculptors and Gravers Royal Society of Marine Artists New Enoltsh Art Club IT'S AVERY DIFFERENT CAR Austin PSK Morisi illncTTaterl HHK Prirpc (mrrprt at timp nf ortincln nrcVfAr fWa 0 mfOal r-r4 fm rjwo e4 t' AT a nrl vaf Ivlk PwJmive NoPteailfl Delivfirv AAfltnr MspaTirw Tt 25579f Offidal Department Of Energy figures Austin Allegro urban mpg (87 1100KM) Constant 56 mph IVIOITIS I ber) Enquiries with sae should be atfdr eased to The Secretary General Federation of British Artist 17 Car Ron House Terrace London SW1Y driving 304 mpg93 110CXM) ConsUnt 56 mph 471 mpg 1100KM) Constant 75 mph 367 mpg (77 1100KM) WtitSupefCOWCr.