Word: continuo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...major work on the program is Bruckner's Mass in E Minor for eight-part chorus and wind orchestra. A small chamber choir will offer a group of motets, and the full chorus will sing Purcell's anthem, "My Heart is Inditing," accompanied by a string ensemble with harpsichord continuo...
...Zelenka Sonata #2 for two oboes and continuo, a piece much superior to the standard baroque trio sonata, Marx and his brilliant student, Judith Martin, offered support for their tonal theories. Its second move movement, a double fugue, presents two themes quite different in character. Characteristically, when Marx introduced the second theme, far more lyrical than the first, he suddenly switched to a quiet singing tone. This constituted the finest moment of ensemble work, for Marx at other times overpowered Miss Martin, whose style of playing is generally more gentle and feminine. Had Marx, with his command of such varying...
Consider the two pieces played by Michael Flaksman '66, principal cellist of the HRO. The Vivaldi Sonates en Concert in E minor for cello and orchestra were meant for cello and continuo. They sound soupy with a full orchestra. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is more at home with a saxophone band than this Vivaldi is with such a lush orchestral arrangement...
Schenck cannot be blamed for the worst performed number, Bach's Sixth Brandenburg Concerto; it was led by Bentley Layton, next year's conductor of the orchestra. Bach scored the Sixth Brandenburg for a chamber orchestra: two violas, two gambas (played by 'celli), a solo cello, continuo and bass. In the first movement, all the instruments except continuo and bass supposedly take turns as soloists, and thereafter only the 'cello and violas play the solo lines. This distribution threw the heaviest burden on the performers in the ensemble least able to hear it. The 'cellos and violas had to struggle...
Bach's Sonata No. 3 in E major for violin and klavier opened the program. In the classic manner, the gamba, with its forest of tuning pegs, doubled the continuo of the harpsichord. The trio maintained a nice balance; its members played to each other. But slippery intonation and lack of clarity marred the violin's performance, and the harpsichord indulged in unjustified rubatos and changes of tempi...