Word: hro
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...FIRST concert in the 1976-1977 season of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra almost requires two different reviews. The HRO, conducted by James Yannatos, put together a program of Berlioz, Shostakovich, and Brahms on Saturday night with greater fluency and strength than they have exhibited in several years. However, what really packed Sanders Theatre to overflowing proportions was the trio of pianist Richard Kogan, violinist Lynn Chang, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who performed on what must be described as a musical level comparable to the world's best...
...program as soloists in the Brahms Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra. Here again, they infused their playing with intensity and drama; although Chang's lower register sometimes tends toward scratchiness, his tone quality is superb, and the intonation problems evident in his solo appearance with HRO last year have largely disappeared. Ma's electric stage presence and romantic approach, meanwhile, provided an ideal vehicle for the concerto and complemented Chang's hard lustre perfectly; he can do things with a cello, as Harvard audiences must recognize by now, that have to be heard to be believed. In tandem...
Second: However, the Brahms in its totality remained unconvincing Saturday night, for a reason all too clear--the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra itself. The Brahms requires an orchestra that can negotiate heavily scored passages, while retaining delicacy and clarity, and HRO could do neither beyond an elemental level. The 'deadwood' in the strings, especially the second violins and violas, had an enervating effect which extended to the cellos and winds, traditionally HRO's strongest sections...
...HRO HAS undeniably improved a lot; compared to their incredibly bad 1975 performance of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, the French composer was treated with kid gloves in the concert's opening work, his Roman Carnival Overture. Terry Maskin, who was outstanding in the 1976 Harvard Summer School Orchestra, showed similar mastery in the tricky English horn solo, and the trombones cut through the string filigree passages with round sonority. Even the upper string intonation was not excessively distressing, and the forte passages seemed to herald a new, aggressive, full-bodied ensemble sound...
Several students added that the University is in a weak position to set policy because it gives the orchestra such meagre support. "HRO is an independent organization," Stephen Pershing '79, a first violinist said. "It's very important that Yannatos have a right to choose his own people and conduct his own orchestra...