Word: allegros
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Mark DeVoto's Introduction and Allegro, which the orchestra, bless them, performed twice, is an attractive and intelligent, if occasionally somewhat disjoined, piece of music. Mr. DeVoto writes with easy assurance; his deft, varied and imaginative scoring and an evident command of conventional forms allow him to experiment at leisure with the work's harmonies and tonalities. This is a relaxed and clever style reminiscent, if anything, of the early Ernest Bloch--I have in mind particularly, his Concerto grosso for Orchestra...
...Society showed what an excellent accompanying group it can be. Mr. Lazar can make his orchestra glisten like a winter day in Vermont; they are immediate and keen. The winds, always good, played with unusual elegance, and in the dialogue between the solo and accompanying oboes in the final allegro assai, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish Mr. Still from the Society's James Weiss and Eliot Noyes...
Conductor Michael Senturia '58, maintained a brisk and active pace throughout (certain of his tempi, particularly in the first movement, approached those of the demonic Fritz Reiner). If the symphony as a whole seemed to lack a unity of dramatic conception--only the final allegro was convincingly cohesive--individual sections of it were performed with real distinction. The faultless intonation of the orchestra's winds (the first desk flute and clarinet merit special attention), the resounding firmness of the brasses--all these are easily the equal of almost any professional orchestra. The strings were perhaps too eager to glow wtih...
This weakness was not in evidence in the allegro molto movement of Opus 110; Mr. Fischer's touch was alternately feather-light and hammer-heavy, in the right places. Things went down-hill from there on in, however. The slow movement lacked nuances of expression, and the final fugue was marred by a memory lapse, which, though not a fatal flaw in itself, may have caused the pianist's failure to inject the called-for nuovovivente. Still, the tight-knit cluster of highly emotional notes which closes the Sonata was very impressive...
...first minute of Piston's Serenata for Orchestra, one realized that everything was completely under control again. Professor Piston's work of 1956 was originally commissioned by the Louisville Symphony and received a fittingly excellent performance at its East Coast premiere last night. After being delighted by its boyish allegro--which has more than a bit of Copland to it--and its sensuous slow movement, I cannot quite understand the reticence of other orchestras to take up the short, light work. Everything that was first rate about the Bach Society's handling of the other pieces on the program...