Word: haydn
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Friday night's Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra concert was good throughout, but several things kept it from being excellent. Notably, poor string playing plagued the orchestra from time to time. This was especially evident in a marked fuzziness of the very first allegretto passages of Haydn's Symphony No. 99 and in several muddled string sections in the third and fourth movements of this same work. Michael Senturia conducted skillfully, but in spite of his efforts the exuberance of this fine symphony did not come across...
...course, Mr. Andrew Schenck, the Bach Society's new conductor, might have done something to enliven the evening. Mr. Schenck is blessed with one of the most competent small (and largely collegiate) orchestras in the country--it is hampered neither by ghostly strings nor awkward brass--but like Haydn and his themes, he often seems unable to decide what he wants to do with his musicians...
...Haydn, indeed, is a case in point. His Symphony No. 88 in G was the most important work on the program (although the printed program neglected to include mention of the various movements in its listing), but it received a listless reading. Mr. Schenk's tempi dragged, his dynamics lacked any shading (he managed only a creditable fortissimo and much less creditable mezzopiano), his attacks were ragged, his control uncertain...
...other composers-even his beloved Germans-he was less kind. On Haydn: "The feelings that he put into tone were [those of] a country pastor, a rather civilized stockbroker. When he wept it was the tears of a woman who has discovered another wrinkle." Tchaikovsky's music was "as hollow as a bull by an archbishop." Chopin reminded him of "two embalmers at work upon a minor poet," and Richard Strauss of "Old Home Week in Gomorrah...
...very apparent. In Schutz' 84th Psalm it displayed excellent control of its vigor and contrasts. The Choral Society contributed six delightfully cool and sweet songs by Schumann, the chorus maintaining an airy tone and a group of soloists spun an intricate, but occasionally ill-balanced, texture. Three choruses of Haydn ended the concert on a tender, almost sentimental note. They were, indeed, typical of the evening: sometimes erring in treatment, but often technically excellent...