The Mahler symphonies which he performed with the orchestra and subsequently recorded for his loyal company, Deutsche Grammophon, flashed only occasional theatrical fire until an astonishing interpretation of the maverick Seventh, the hardest of the series to balance and articulate.
But it is unlikely that Artemisia would have seen Caravaggio's "Judith Beheading Holofernes" before painting, in around 1612, the first version of her still astonishing interpretation of the same scene.
It was an astonishing feat of interpretation and prioritization that rationalized planning decisions and budget allocations with a new and very effective method.
Conlon Nancarrow's astonishing music for player piano offers performance without interpretation.
But the most astonishing metamorphosis is that undergone by the cast, whose interpretations of Fitzgerald's creations go from quotation-mark-framed stiffness or jokiness into a style that is compellingly sincere without ever being purely naturalistic.
Such waymarkers are there on the page in the astonishing imagery, the paper-dry narration, the hosts of questions and possible interpretations each image provoked.
It's astonishing how readily these notes have been taken at face value — as useful annotations, or keys to interpretation.
The vista symbolised the Soviet interpretation of the play: when the visiting colonel, Vershinin, dreams of a future that is "unimaginably beautiful, astonishing", he is predicting the achievements of communism.
It would be an astonishing lapse if a young conservatively minded student of politics did not spend some time engaged with Strauss interpretations.
For years, the "Left Behind" series, with its literalist interpretation of end-time prophecies, has put evangelical authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins among America's best-selling authors, with an astonishing array of spin-off products advancing their fiction and message.
They were just astonishing.
