The Oct. 9 Style review of a recital by violinist Robert McDuffie and pianist Christopher Taylor was published by mistake. It originally ran in The Post in Nov. 2005. A review of the Oct. 7 performance by McDuffie and Taylor at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater appears today on Page C2.
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Patti LuPone
You don't want to miss it when Patti LuPone throws a party, which is essentially what the Broadway diva did with her relaxed and engaging "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" Friday night at Strathmore.
How else to characterize her carefree, doo-wop version of "The Way You Look Tonight," or her puckishly envious glance at "West Side Story"?
"Hell, I could have played two of those parts," LuPone declared. Sure enough, she managed both roles at once in the Maria-Anita duet "A Boy Like That," singing with her patented, brassy energy while having deadpan fun switching between the characters.
Ostensibly, the act is a tour of roles and songs that the original Broadway Evita would like to have tackled at some point in her career. But despite a bit of catty early patter, the show is less a consideration of what LuPone coulda been than a celebration of the singular stage force she is. Behold as she cocks her hip, extends a hand yearningly toward the audience and sings from her heels. Many try, but few have the knockout punch of LuPone.
It landed with particular oomph during her moxie-fueled "Don't Rain on My Parade," but it was hardly the only weapon she used in this eclectic concert. "Trouble" from "The Music Man" might have been a slurred throwaway, and the happy "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' " had a curious tough edge . . . and to wrap up the quibbles, the bland "How to Handle a Woman" from "Camelot" isn't much to listen to in the best of circumstances.
But a Sondheim sequence found LuPone in supple, sublime form. She illuminated the witty lyrics of "I Never Do Anything Twice" with clever gestures and intelligent phrasing, delivered a poignant "Anyone Can Whistle" and added a brisk, ferocious and memorable "Ladies Who Lunch." LuPone and accompanist Chris Fenwick kept the tempos fast but not quite rushed, and they seemed to be having a ball during a second act, which LuPone said was largely new. The show felt fresh from beginning to end, whether LuPone was delivering the obligatory "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" or breezing joyfully through Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic," handling it all with infectious high spirits and casual command.
-- Nelson Pressley
Chateauville Foundation Benefit
Only conductor Lorin Maazel could pull this off.
On Sunday at the beautiful, intimate concert space on his 500-acre retreat in Rappahannock County, the New York Philharmonic music director brought together an elite group of musicians to play chamber music on a set of priceless Stradivarius instruments.
Look, there are virtuoso violinists Viviane Hagner and Akiko Suwanai, one gorgeously playing the Sasserno Stradivarius and the other doing wonders with the Dolphin, widely considered one of three finest examples of the Cremona master's art. Now comes the Tokyo String Quartet on the matched Paganini set, playing some poetic music of Webern with calibrated balances and searing emotion. How else would you cap off a concert like this other than a wonderfully refined and joyous account of Mendelssohn's great Octet in E-flat, Strads emitting mellifluous melodies here, rich colors there?
