Word: bachs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Stern and his pianist, Manhattan's Alexander Zakin (like Stern, Russian-born), played their way through Bach, Brahms, Aaron Copland, Mozart, Bloch and Wieniawski, and Violinist Stern finally silenced the storm of applause by a little speech in Russian: "We are the first American artists to play here in many years. We hope many more will be here soon...
Michael Greenebaum gave his final performance as conductor of the Bach Society Orchestra on Sunday night. In the two years since he founded this group he has welded it into a truly outstanding student orchestra. For his final concert, he chose as exciting a program as possible, and the orchestra responded with its finest performance to date. The large audience evidently agreed, according the group a prolonged and vociferous standing ovation at the concert...
Living up to its name, the orchestra also played two Bach cantatas. The first was a solo cantata for baritone, strings, oboe, and continue, Ich hab genug (No. 82.). The orchestra was beautifully conducted by Greenebaum, but soloist Gary Gaines was clearly unequal to the taxing vocal line. His voice lacked support, volume, and depth; and his breath control was insufficient to sustain the phrases. The other cantata, Wachet auf (No. 140), fared better. The chorus, numbering only twelve, was well trained by Edward Lloyd, and bass soloist Thomas Beveridge sang with feeling. The soprano soloist was Sara-Jane Smith...
...Senturia conducted Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor. It was clear that he had worked the orchestra hard in rehearsals, for even though he conducted a little stiffly, the volumes and tempi were well chosen, and the orchestra responded well. Despite the loss of its founder, the Bach Society Orchestra should continue to be one of the top musical organizations in Cambridge...
...full house was in a show-me mood. The opening applause was just polite. Igor played César Franck's Sonata in A with half-closed eyes focused on his finger board, his lips compressed, mouth working. It was an impressive, boldly colored performance. The next work, Bach's knuckle-busting G Minor Sonata, is a test for any violinist. Violinist Oistrakh seemed to anticipate it with both distaste and fear and played as if to get it over with. It was, however, the evening's only disappointment. After works by Prokofiev, Szymanowski and Saint...