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DON SHIRLEY NIGHT...Call it what you like, it was the master himself teaching the undergraduate audience the history of classical piano. The auditorium held around 2500. There should have been 5,000 there - give or take a couple hundred music lovers. Shirley, the concert pianist, opened the program on "Aria and Variation No. 29" from the Goldberg Variations by Bach. That was followed by Billy Strayhorn and Don Shirley's composition, "Lotus Blossom." The gem of the opening program was Don Shirley's perfection on 'Rhapsody in Blue," by George Gershwin. The master pianist in a solo presentation, delighted the audience, receiving standing ovations after each piece.
JOINED BY JURI TAHT & KENNETH FRICKER...The two are champions on their classical instruments. Taht plays Cello and Frickers, Bass. For openers, let's say the evening was refreshing. There were no electronic instruments on stage. Just the beautiful sounds, mastered by Don Shirley on his Steinway Piano, and the bowed intimate refreshing to the ears sounds from the cello and the bass. The first piece played by the trio was, "I Can't Get Started," sung years ago by the great Ivy Anderson. Then came "Surrey With The Fringe On Top." It featured inter-plays between each instrument, short strokes in triple segments on the Cello and notes picked up and down the beautiful sounding bass, and topped off by Shirley on piano. The following number ran me right up the walls, as he played softly on the piano, silent bows on the cello, delicate bowing on the bass, Don Shirley went into, "Good Morning Heartache." "Have-mercy," I said to myself with closed eyes, seeing Billy Holiday singing, as portrayed...