Word: brahmses
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It says a lot about the scope and ambition of Pratt's concert program that a piece as great as the Bach acted as prelude. It also says a lot about Brahms' Op. 24 variations that the set succeeded as successor.
His program was comprised of only three works: the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, the Brahms Handel Variations and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."
This miracle of invention, inspired by a vanilla aria on which Handel himself wrote five unassuming variations, drew praise even from Brahms' antipode, Wagner. Like their worthy companions, the Bach Goldberg and the Beethoven Diabelli, these pieces explore the melodic and harmonic potential of their progenitor exhaustively, and function collectively...
The basses set an appropriately crisp beat in the Beethoven and later in Brahms' Third Symphony, but no other strings showed any desire to match their attention. Adding embarrassment to injury, the first violins and cellos clearly faked several sections in the first movement, including the arpeggios that accompany the...
Even less can be said in favor of the brass. Muffled and shy in the Brahms, the entire horn section produced less power than any single counterpart of the legendary Chicago Symphony Orchestra of the 1970s. This absence of inspiration was particularly disappointing in the finale, but by this time...