Word: conductors
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Conductor Gerald Moshell and all personnel of the orchestra are to be commended for their strong musical integrity. None of the music presented Thursday evening was, in the traditional sense, fun to play or conduct, as are the massive 19th century war-horses usually undertaken by transient orchestras comprised of widely diverse individual talents. Equally commendable is the fact that there was only one ringer in the group (as it happened, the Summer School just didn't attract a tuba player this year). And while the quality of performance was often less than ideal (although it was never distressingly...
...evening) and colleague Winifred Ramsey; likewise, the trombones were often exceptional. But, as throughout the program, I felt that things could have been much more exciting. As is so often the case, with a bit more attention to dynamics, rhythm and clarity on the part of both players and conductor, what was overall a commendable concert might have been outstanding...
Those familiar with Friedrich's background might have expected the unusual: an honored member of the East German Communist Party, he is deputy to the unorthodox Walter Felsenstein at the famed Komische Oper in East Berlin. Yet nobody seemed prepared for what appeared when Conductor Erich Leinsdorf lowered his baton for the overture. Tenor Hugh Beresford wandered over a barren wooden platform; instead of a balletic orgy, there was a huge human brain populated with frightening, dim figures miming psychiatric problems ranging from infantilism to sadomasochism. Venus arrived looking like a Reeperbahn stripper...
...traditional opera as a mélange of spinning theatrical events that dazzle the eye and rivet the ear. Musically, when Davies is not weaving in themes from Taverner, his treatment of the usual choirs of the orchestra has enough richness and fireworks (ignited in masterly fashion by Conductor Edward Downes) to placate the most avid devotees of Richard Strauss. Davies' hair-raising special effects-massed percussion, squealing clarinets, even the grating of a knife grinder-should be enough to titillate John Cage...
...tough opera," said Davies after the première-at which, however, there were twelve curtain calls and no cries of "Rubbish!" "I was pleased that the people listened to it patiently. It will benefit from repeated hearings." Conductor Downes agreed that the score was "murderously difficult" and saw no need to delay a verdict. "This is musical theater at its best, a great step forward to the opera of the future," he said. "I cannot recall a similarly favorable reception to a new opera in Britain...