Spring 温蒂漫步

McKendree Spring is a progressive folk-rock band, active mainly in the early 1970s. The band consisted of Fran McKendree (vocals and guitar), their first bass player was Larry Tucker (shown in the picture) then Fred Holman took over bass, Dr. Michael Dreyfuss (electric violin, viola, Moog, Arp, Mellotron), Martin Slutsky (electric guitar)…

McKendree Spring was certainly not your ordinary American folk-rock group. They didn't take influences from the Byrds or CSNY. Dr. Michael Dreyfuss played violin, but you couldn't compare them to It's a Beautiful Day. The fact the group hailed from Upstate New York meant they didn't have to play by California rules…

Among the many recorded versions of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring that appeared around the work's centennial year, several were of piano transcriptions, in most cases Stravinsky's own four-hand piano arrangement. The 5 Browns' live recording presents a five-pianos version by Jeffrey Shumway that shows the family of virtuoso pianists in various combinations, from the single note at the opening to all ten hands by the ballet's clangorous end. The group deserves kudos for performing this tour de force without scores, and for making it work without a conductor.

Brilliantly played, efficiently conducted, and effectively recorded, these performances of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and selections from his Firebird Suite lack only one thing to make them successful: excitement. There's nothing in these scores the San Francisco Symphony cannot execute, from the most challenging solo writing to the most difficult rhythms, and there's nothing in them that Michael Tilson Thomas cannot masterfully direct, from the convoluted textures that open The Rite to the brutal polyrhythms that close it.