Her form of ballet — the women were on pointe — with its extreme extensions and sensual partnering, formed the core of the piece, but the more delicate, subtle passages spoke just as forcefully.
The dancers were skilled interpreters of Abraham's small and subtle passages; several times, we saw a riveting, awkward-seeming lift in which one man slowly hoisted another up and changed his grip on him over and over, painstakingly turning him, so that the lifted man appeared to be floating.
I also found the four seasons, not the monochromatic city version of my old postcard or the subtle passages in California, like the winter rain in San Francisco or the June gloom in L.A. Here, there are hurricanes that swell the brook that crosses my property.
The wave of brass that closes "Pines of Rome" was certainly mighty, but subtler passages, like the soft woodwind lines near the start of the "Pines of the Janiculum" section, were played with sensitivity.
That decision to pound home the work's portentousness, exciting as it was, exacted a cost in subtler passages, like the rising and falling chromatic figures that follow soon after the introduction.
And they're not allowed to get away with airily claiming that subtle literary passages are much sexier – hey, Jane Austen is actually really erotic, etc, etc. No.
Played by a 14-piece acoustic band, they range from drifting, mesmeric arrangements for the duduk Armenian woodwind to subtle, sparse passages, or more sturdy dance pieces played on the zither-like kanon, the oud or the santur dulcimer.
The days I visited, the smugglers made no effort to be subtle, openly auctioning "passage to England" in an aisle down the heart of the shed some refugees jokingly call the Champs-Élysées.
I could offer her some of the ideas I had for executing a passage – subtle details of shading and timing that go beyond what is written in the score – and learn of her preferences.
The Sennheisers sound great, but don't offer much power; subtle classical-music passages disappear completely on the plane.
