1.   Harbison is beholden to perhaps too many elements of this enterprise, but every so often his musical imagination rises, hearteningly, in revolt.

2.   In the theater district, staging serves a practical function by obscuring a pervasive poverty of musical imagination.

3.   Most original, as a work of musical imagination, it builds the illusion of a whole compositional career, a real-life musical identity.

4.   Rather, he was a native New Yorker with an expansive musical imagination.

5.   That Abbado turned to Beethoven symphonies so reflexively at this time of anguish did not show great musical imagination.

6.   The bassist Steve Gilmore, the drummer Ron Vincent and the guitarist Howard Alden round out a quartet that sets her musical imagination flying.

7.   The problem here seems to be a distinct lack of musical imagination and one of the most grating lead singers to come along in a while.

8.   Wuertz played these with exceptional beauty of tone, finesse of voicing, and musical imagination.