Word: hro
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...HRO DID everything but sell popcorn last Friday night. Its fourth annual Midnight Concert, a late-night supper of light, easily-digestible music, strove too hard for broad mass appeal. The program--the most commercial work of Benjamin Britten, the showiest piece of Debussy, and one of the plainest concertii of Mozart--was all butter and no salt...
...orchestra sounded terrific on Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," especially during the unnerving exposure of its long section of solo variations for each instrument. Debussy's "Iberia" brought out the HRO's characteristically rich, warm sound and some beautiful wind solos, and its supporting part in Mozart's Second Horn Concerto was cleanly accented and clearly phrased...
Mozart's Second Horn Concerto is a thematically and harmonically uninteresting work, and soloist Charles Kavaloski--principal horn with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and HRO alumnus--did nothing to liven it up. His tone and pitch were flawless, but his interpretation was deadpan and uninspired. The third movement is written as a spirited march, but Kavaloski played it like an exercise and looked as though the monotony of it all were putting him to sleep. "Iberia" is too flashy and difficult a work to do justice to at 1 a.m. It was the only truly entertaining work on the program...
...Midnight Concert has probably outlived its usefulness. First, the HRO has only four concerts a year, and is too good an orchestra to justify spending one of them either on good music which it could perform better at 8:30 or on bad music which isn't worth its time. Second, with notable exceptions like "Peter and the Wolf" there isn't much children's music which still appeals to adult concertgoers, no matter what state their heads are in by midnight. The question may even be academic, since the only piece left of this genre which comes to mind...
...good news about the HRO this year is the consistent integrity of its programming. Last year's management tried to lure audiences with several trivial pieces--such as Dukas's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" of Walt Disney fame--which it mistook for crowd pleasers. The new management has dispensed with such condescension and every work which has been scheduled so far is worth hearing. Like last year, the HRO is performing well. The difficulties which arose in the last concert, presumably from musical overcommitment, should be rectified in the upcoming programs, which seem to be of a more manageable scope...