Time Remembered In a series of introductory concerts in Berlin and elsewhere in Europe in 1931 and 1932, the Russian-born American musicologist and conductor Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995) championed the music of the Americas, by composers like Adolph Weiss, Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Henry Cowell and the Parisian-born Cuban Amadeo Roldan.
"They are quite difficult to listen to": as introductory comments at a concert go, it's not the most encouraging.
During introductory remarks before a concert by the Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday evening, Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, said that less than 5 percent of players in American orchestras are black or Hispanic.
Likened to a living-room gathering by Karen Sander, the institute's new executive and artistic director, in her introductory remarks before a concert on Friday evening, the setting proved entirely amenable to Wu Man.
During the introductory talk for this concert, American drum virtuoso Dave Weckl said he had spent the past seven years perfecting a new arm/wrist technique that enables him to play with even more power and speed.
In an introductory video about the concert Mr. Maazel says that by juxtaposing Mozart and Debussy a listener can discern the beginnings of impressionism in Mozart's idiom — a rather tenuous claim, although Mozart certainly broke new ground in the classical era.
That would express the feelings of many parents about their child's introductory rock and roll concert experience.
The three-week event is built around all-Tchaikovsky subscription concerts, and augmented with introductory talks, chamber music, choral concerts and even a screening of Ken Russell's 1970 film "The Music Lovers".
Variety shows like "The Bell Telephone Hour" and "The Ed Sullivan Show" presented both top names and newcomers, and networks offered symphony concerts, opera and seductive introductory shows like Leonard Bernstein's "Young People's Concerts" in prime time.
Her next major project features the second Viennese school and will involve 10 concerts and an introductory lecture over two seasons at Carnegie Hall in New York.
