Word: continuo
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...finest singing. The mezzosoprano and soprano, Jan Curtis and Susan Stevens, sounded totally alien, much as if one were simultaneously listening to a barrel-organ and a celeste. The choir was improperly overbalanced by the women, except in the Gloria, who smiled eloquently but sang somewhat carelessly. The contrabass continuo was consistently too loud and intermittently coarse...
...without subtleties of phrasing and dynamics. Together with Buswell, he was at his best when the music was at its most kinetic. At times his registration was somewhat arbitrary and misconceived, such as in the third movement of the Sonata in A, where he played the basso continuo left hand on the more loudly voiced manual, and the more important right hand line (in canon with the violin) on the softer one. His frequent use of the lute and leather stops became annoying, largely because of the basic ugliness of these stops on this particular harpsichord, as well...
...slated to be the highlight of the concert season. John C. Adams is the most professional and professionally-minded student conductor Harvard has seen in half a dozen years. In addition he has won respect as a solo clarinetist and chamber musician. Daniel Troob, the excellent continuo-player in Adams's superb production of The Marriage of Figaro, was to team up with him again as the soloist in the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23. One glance at the back of the program made it abundantly clear that Adams has accomplished a small coup d'etat in gathering so many...
...orchestra followed the Schein with Bach's D major Suite--cleverly illustrating the evolution of derived dance forms. Bach ambitiously divides his instruments into three groups; trumpets (3) and timpani, oboes (3) and bassoon, and strings and continuo, giving to each both entire sections and incidental passages, bounded by two movements in unison. Jackson's approach emphasized accents and pulse rather than singing line; he propelled all but the ponderous Overture quite effectively. Solo playing varied from highly impressive (the oboes in the second Bouree) to characterless (the strings in the Trio...
HEINRICH BIBER: EIGHT SONATAS FOR VIO LIN AND CONTINUO (2 LPs; Cambridge). Although the Baroque revival has dredged up a good deal of dross, it has also led to the discovery of some golden nuggets. Sonya Monosoff plays these with rich tone and temperament and gets colors seldom heard today, for Biber liked to use scordatura, an unorthodox tuning of the strings...