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THE WASHINGTON POST B6 Monday, Nov. 8, 1971 Recital at Lisner by Cecelia H. Porter John Williams' guitar recital promised much last night at Lisner Auditorium. The 30-year-old Australian artist has a considerable pedigree stretching from studies with Segovia to extensive concertizing in Europe and the United States over the last decade. The program, too, held out high hopes. Going out of its way to bypass the banal guitar repertoire usuallly represented, it featured a Suite and Tombeau by Sylvius Weiss, the illustrious lutanist and contemporary of J.S. Bach, as well as a Partita for Guitar, composed in 1963 specifically for Williams by Stephen Dodgson. Before beginning the concert, Williams made the strangely modest confession that he didn't know which suite of Weiss he was playing. Then he proceeded into a program that continued downhill all the way. Though he had an imaginative way of emphasizing the most important lines in the Weiss and Bach, Williams' timing of coloristic changes failed to coincide with the structure of the music. The same might be said of the way he contrasted dynamics and approached tempi. Effects such as echoes were promiscuously scattered about. And the Sarabande of the Weiss Suite was extended and distended to an exaggerated adagio, at the expense of all musical sense. Despite an assured performance, Williams couldn't hide the headlessness of the Dodgson, a weak conglomeration of non-jarring dissonance and Gershwin rhythms. Some traces of flamenco style at the end would have been refreshing if the composer had only developed this idiom more. But he didn't. Phillips Concert Elaine Comparone had a fine idea in opening her Phillips Collection concert yesterday afternoon. From the fourth English Suite of Bach she moved to sonatas by two of his most illustrious sons. One in A Minor by Carl Philipp Emanuel showed, in dazzling manner, both how much the son had learned from the father and how far he was eager to proceed from his father's manner to one of his own. The second, in A Major, showed Johann Christian, called the "London" Bach, writing in the newer, more elegant style of Haydn and Mozart,upon the latter of whom the young Bach had no little influence. Miss Comparone is a player of unremittingly fiery temperament. She delights in the freedom of the fantasy-like movement that opens the C.P.E. Bach sonata, and revels in the floods of notes, played almost as presto groupings, that make its finale exciting. Yet she has no trouble leashing her energies for the far cooler rondo that opens the sonata of Christian Bach. What she seriously lacks is the kind of discipline that makes freedom more enjoyable for everyone. She plays as if she had been frightened in her childhood by a metronome so that she will never speak to one again. Such pullings and haulings in almost every phrase of the English suite gave it a rubbery texture that became intolerably mannered. Each artist is entitled to his own idiosyncrasies. Miss Comparone belongs to the violent head-shaking, body English school, far more so than Landowska, Ehlers, Kirkpatrick, Valenti, Kipnis, or Fuller, to name six noted harpsichordists at random. There may be no connection between all this and her problems in applying rubato, and in the frequency with which she played two noted when aiming for one. But it is worth her serious thought. She closed her recital with music by Frescobaldi, Rameau, and Scarlatti. - Paul Hume Violin And Piano By Joan Reinthaler Isidor Saslav and his wife Ann are an uncommonly harmonious couple. The violin and piano duo played at the National Gallery last night and demonstrated a quality of ensemble performance rarely heard. Much of the credit for this must go to the pianist, Mrs. Saslav, who by the nature of such chamber instrumentation had the job of following her partner's lead. She knew just when to keep in the background, but had no difficulty at all asserting herself when the music called for it. Hers was a no-nonsense, but supremely musical contribution. Isidor Saslav is concert master of the Baltimore Symphony. His playing is knowledgeable and totally secure, and, while his tone is not one of great beauty, it does combine breadth with a pointed quality. Their program was interesting and unusual. It featured the Washington premier of a short piece by Ezra Laderman, "Les Adieux", a texturally well-constructed work that contained sections of attractive violin and piano-doubling. In effect, however, it seemed to be all climax and mighty laboring after something that escaped me completely. The Mozart D Major Sonata K. 306 received gracious treatment even though it is one of that master's less inspired efforts. Good tempos and delicate handling of the piano bass kept the piece just this side of sounding like one of the Kreutzer violin exercises. Grieg's second Sonata in G Major deserves to be heard more often. It is full of nationalistic sounds and dance-like sections that ooze peasant charm. The evening's highpoint was the Hindemith Sonata in C written in 1939. Hindemith wrote with the greatest freedom within the strictest formal outlines. This piece is no exception. Sturdy and energetic, the contrapuntal structure is beautifully clear. Even the tranquil second movement has an underlying rhythmic insistence, and the grand gesture of the finale works magnificently. The Saslavs played it splendidly. Show times Kennedy Center OPERA HOUSE--Dark. "Candide" resumes Tues. CONCERT HALL--Choral Arts Society of Washington. 8:30 EISENHOWER THEATRE--Dark. "The Country Girl" previews Fri. Stage ARENA'S KREEGER-- Dark."Pantagleize" resumes Tues. ARENA STAGE-- Dark."Moonchildren" resumes Tues. FORD'S THEATRE--Dark. NATIONAL--Dark. "Man of La Mancha" opens Tues. SMITHSONIAN PUPPET THEATER--Dark. "Tom Sawyer" resumes Weds. WASHINGTON PUPPET THEATRE--"Cinderella" 10:30 12:30 WASHINGTON THEATRE CLUB--Dark. "All Over" resumes Tues. Film AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE--"Orders to Kill," 8. APEX--"Kotch," 7:35, 9:35. AVALON I--"Sunday Bloody Sunday," 7:25, 9:30. AVALON II--"Carnal Knowledge," 6:30, 8:10, 9:50. BIOGRAPH--"Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me," "Thank You Masked Man," 6:30. 8:15, 10. CERBERUS I--"Summer of '42" 6, 7:55, 9:50. CERBERUS II--"The Murder of Fred Hampton," 6:50, 8:25, 10:05. CERBERUS III--"The Magician," 5:45, 7:35, 9:25. CINEMA--"The Steagle," 6:30, 8:15, 10. CIRCLE--"Hamlet," 3:05, 7:15, 11:20, "Oedipus Rex," 1:40, 5:45, 9:50. DUPONT--"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," 6:30, 8:15, 10. EMBASSY--"The Bust is Coming," 1:15, 3, 4:45, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10. FINE ARTS--"Sacco and Vanzetti," 5:45, 7:50, 9:55. GEORGETOWN--"Borsalino," 1, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10. INNER CIRCLE--"Hunchback of Notre Dame," 3:10, 6:55, 10:20; "Night of the Living Dead," 1:20, 5:05, 8:55, 12:50; "Flash Gordon, Chap 9," 2:50, 6:35, 10:30. JANUS I--"A Day at the Races," 1, 4:25, 7:50; "The Big Store," 2:25, 6:20, 9:45. JANUS II--"Death in Venice," 1:30, 3:45, 6, 8:20, 10:40. KEITH'S--"Play Misty for Me," 11:30, 1:30, 3:35, 5:35, 7:40, 9:45. KEY--"Fantasia," 6, 8, 10. LINCOLN--"The Bus is Coming," 1:15, 3:20, 5:25, 7:35, 9:40. MacARTHUR--"Murder She Said," 7, 9:50; "Murder Ahoy," 9:20. OUTER CIRCLE I--"Millhouse," 12:35, 2:10, 3:45, 5:20, 7, 8:40, 10:15. OUTER CIRCLE II--"Alex in Wonderland," 2:30, 6:25, 10:15; "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," 12:35, 4:25, 8:15, 10. PENN--"Midnight Plowboy," noon, 1:20, 2:50, 4:20, 5:45, 7:15, 8:40, 10:05. PLAYHOUSE--"101 Acts of Love," noon, 1:40, 3:20, 5, 6:40, 8:20, 10. 10. PLAZA--"Touch Me," noon, 1:40, 3:20, 5, 6:40, 8:20, 10. REPUBLIC--"They Call Me Trinity," 1:15, 3:20, 5:25, 7:30, 9:40. TOWN--"Shaft," noon, 2, 4, 6, 8:10, 10:15. TRANSLUX--"Coy Uncle," noon, 1:40, 3:20, 5, 6:40, 8:20, 10. UPTOWN--"They Call Me Trinity," 7:30, 9:35. [[Image]] William H. Johnson: "In all my years of painting I have had one absorbing and inspired idea and have worked toward it with unyielding zeal--to give, in simple and start form, the story of the Negro as he has existed." Art Johnson Works On Exhibit JOHNSON, From B1 popular of Johnson's paintings-their colors are so bright and strong their mood so "primitive" and gay-but I find them very sad. Their gaiety seems forced. Too many of them grin too much. Beneath the brightness of their colors, these late paintings, not all of them, but many, seem darkened by defeat. "In all my years of painting I have had one absorbing and inspired idea and have worked toward it with unyielding zeal-to give, in simple and stark form, the story of the Negro as he has existed," Johnson said. But look upon his life's work and you will not believe him. There is something false about his "primitivism," his "union with the minds and imagination" of his people, his late, triumphant return to blackness. He had never left. It is nice to think the world of art exists above the ugliness of life, but forget it. Johnson was trained as an academic painter. He worked three years as a stevedore to earn his academy tuition. The more he studied, the more he traveled, the more he looked and learned, the further he had moved from Florence. The finest of his late works-"Flowers," "Nude," "Young Man in a Vest," all of 1939-40, and the extraordinary "Woman Ironing" of 1944-tell us nothing of "the story of the Negro." They are paintings about painting. "Social art it is, then," says Taylor of Johnson's later paintings. But painting is not a social art. It is done and seen alone. Music is a social art, and the greatest black artists of Johnson's era, Charles Parker, for example, were musicians who had no fear of superhuman skill or polish or complexity. Johnson fought these things. He spent 20 years shifting styles, trying to be true to the person that he was, struggling for freedom. It was in those years of struggle, rather than in the "primitivism" he arrived at, that his victory was won. Lord knows his victory was not complete. When he was hospitalized in 1947, 1,154 paintings, drawings, and prints were turned over to the Harmon Foundation of New York which had long given him support. No one else wanted them. They have since been given to the people of this country, and from that horde of treasures the National Collection has selected this sad, heroic show. It closes Jan. 30. Pill Lawsuit PITTSBURGH, Pa. (AP) -A former Miss America has sued a birth control pill manufacturer, claiming pills made by the firm caused her to suffer a stroke that left her with facial damage and impaired her ability to speak. Jacqueline Mayer Townsend's suit was filed in U.S. District Court Thursday, asking over $10,000 damages from the Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp. Mrs. Townsend's lawyer says she began taking Ortho Novum birth control pills Oct. 26, 1970. The suit says she suffered a stroke, allegedly caused by the pills, Nov. 27,1970. Her lawyer said she was suing the company because it failed to warn users of the pills of what she considers a danger of the drug. Mrs. Townsend, 29, of Washington, Pa., was Miss America of 1963. She is married to a lawyer and is the mother of two children.
