Saturday, June 12, 2010 - Concert in New York

Introduction

In today's puzzle, Cox and Rathvon seem to imagine a concert (4d) by a renowned Canadian classical musician who is introduced to us immediately in 1a, although his instrument does not appear until 15a. The performance takes place at a famous opera house in New York City (7d). He first performs alone (27a), playing works by several composers, including ones from the United States (1d) and Italy (21d) as well as a rare performance of a composition by one from Poland (23d). He then launches into what is surely his signature piece formed by 19a and 31a. As a finale, he picks up the baton to conduct an orchestra and choir in several works by Johann Sebastian Bach, including Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (28a) and Widerstehe doch der Sünde (18d). However, the program may not have included any of Bach's works represented at 7d.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

22a Song with a melody from the East (4)

Here "melody" is AIR and "from the East" means the letters run right to left or RIA (i.e., it is a reversal indicator).

2d Mike's good new musher (6,3)

Every source that I consulted indicated that a "musher" is the driver of a dog team, and not one of the dogs making up the team. However, it is this latter - albeit apparently incorrect - meaning that the setters clearly intend in this clue.

16d Heroism going astray in strange retrospective (7-2)

This would likely not have been the last clue to be solved, had I only known that the solution is spelled DERRING-DO (rather than DARING-DO).

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"CD" Cryptic Definition; "DD" Double Definition
	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted

Across

1a {GLENN GOUL}*|D - anagram (muffed) of LONG LUNGE + D; Glenn Gould: Canadian classical pianist

6a O|MAR_ - O (love, a score of zero in tennis) + MAR (blemish); Omar Sharif - Egyptian actor

9a VI|KINGS - VI (Roman numeral for six) + KINGS (chess pieces)

10a NE(GAT)ED - NEED (deficiency) containing (holding) GAT (revolver)

12a SUMATRA* - anagram (terrible) of TRAUMAS; Sumatra: an island in western Indonesia

13a A|R|BUT|US - A + R (river) + BUT (apart from) + US (you and me); Arbutus: a genus of trees in the family Ericaceae

14a _UND O_ - hidden in (feature of) foUND Object

15a KEYBOARD* - anagram (after moving) of DAY BROKE

19a GOLDBE(R)G* - anagram (awfully) of BOGGLED containing R (rap at first; i.e., initial letter of the word "rap"); Rube Goldberg: American cartoonist

22a A|RIA< - A + RIA {a reversal (from the East) of AIR (melody)} 25a HOG|ART|H - HOG (monopolize) + ART (paintings) + H (hot); William Hogarth: English painter

27a SO|LO(IS)T - IS contained in (in) {SO (very) + LOT (large number)}

28a POTS|DAM - POTS (takes a shot at) + DAM (mother); Potsdam: capital of the German state of Brandenburg

29a {IN|SIGHT}~ - sounds like (hearing) {INN (tavern) + CITE (mention)}

30a NONE~ - sounds like (said) NUN (sister)

31a VARIATIONS* - anagram (broadcast) of ON AIR A TV IS


Down

1d G(IVES) OUT - IVES (American composer) contained in (seized by) GOUT (joint pain); Charles Ives: American composer

2d {ESKIMO DOG}* - anagram of (new) MIKES GOOD; musher: sled dog (apparently incorrect definition, see Commentary on Today's Puzzle)

3d N(I|NET)Y - {I (one) + NET (profit)} contained in (in) NY (New York)

4d ONSTAGE* - anagram (doctored) of AGES NOT

5d LI(NEAR) B - LIB (Liberal) contains (keeps) NEAR (handy); Linear B: a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek

7d M(OT)ET - MET (opera house) containing (filled with) OT (Old Testament); Metropolitan Opera House: an opera house located in New York City

8d RADISH - a cryptic double definition; "radish" is an artificial construct meaning sort of (signified by the suffix -ish) rad, with rad being a slang expression meaning awesome.

11d GI|B|RAN - GI (soldier) + B (bishop) + RAN (raced); Khalil Gibran: Lebanese-born American poet

16d DERRING-DO - ERRING (going astray) contained in DDO {reversal (retrospective) of ODD (strange)}

17d FLORID* - anagram (nuts) of LID FOR

18d CAN|TATAS - CAN (terminate, as to fire an employee) + TATAS (farewells, with a nod to our British visitors)

20d BO(HEM|I)A - BOA (snake) containing (spanning) {HEM (border) + I (half IN; i.e., half of the letters contained in the word "in")}; Bohemia: a historical region of Central Europe constituting the western part of the present-day Czech Republic.

21d ROSSINI* - anagram (playing) of IRONS IS; Gioachino Antonio Rossini: Italian composer

23d CHOP|IN - CHOP (cut) + IN (popular); Frederic Chopin: Polish composer

24d C(LOSE)T - LOSE (forfeit) contained in (in) CT (court) [Note: the setters use an inverted sentence structure in the clue]

26d GO(T) ON - GOON (ape) containing (taking) T (time)

Postscript

Information in the introduction is drawn from several Wikipedia entries, including:

Bach: The Goldberg Variations is the 1955 debut album of the Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould. An interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), the work launched Gould's career as a renowned international pianist, and became one of the most well-known piano recordings ...

At the time of the album's release, Bach's Goldberg Variations ... was outside the standard piano repertoire ... The work was considered esoteric and technically demanding, requiring hand crossing in various places when played on a piano. Gould's album both established the Goldberg Variations within the contemporary classical repertoire and made him an internationally famous pianist nearly "overnight". First played in concert by Gould in 1954, the composition was a staple of Gould's performances in the years following the recording.

Glenn Gould "was extremely critical of Frédéric Chopin. In a radio interview, when asked if he didn't find himself wanting to play Chopin, he replied: 'No, I don't. I play it in a weak moment — maybe once a year or twice a year for myself. But it doesn't convince me.'"

This cantata [Widerstehe doch der Sünde] is notable in being the only Bach cantata recorded under the direction of the famed Canadian pianist, conductor and Bach specialist Glenn Gould (1932-1982) ...

[Johann Sebastian Bach] also wrote six surviving works he called motets; ... [however, I could find no evidence that these works formed part of Gould's repertoire].

On April 10, 1964, Gould gave his last public performance ... For the rest of his life, Gould eschewed live performance, focusing instead on recording, writing, and broadcasting. Towards the end of his life, he began conducting; he had earlier directed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and the cantata Widerstehe doch der Sünde ... His last recording was as a conductor, conducting Wagner's Siegfried Idyll ... He had intended to give up the piano at the age of 50, spending later years conducting, writing about music, and composing.

Glenn Gould died on October 4, 1982 - less than two weeks beyond his 50th birthday - following a stroke.

Signing off for today - Falcon