Word: hro
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...ORCHESTRA, like most groups, always shows a great improvement throughout the year, as members learn to play as an ensemble and individuals acquire more technical facility. But who would have expected Saturday night's concert--the second in the 1976-77 season--to show an improvement so astounding? The HRO has perceptibly blossomed as an orchestral ensemble since September. And, to judge by Saturday night's presentation of works by Vivaldi, Mozart and Sibelius, the group is starting to exhibit high musicality, good intonation, and a discriminating sound...
...such a rapid transformation? Two factors seem to have benefited the HRO. The first, paradoxically, resulted from the difficulty of HRO's December season. (In addition to the concert on Saturday evening, HRO will collaborate on December 11 and 12 with the Harvard Glee Club, Collegium Musicum, and the Radcliffe Choral Society in a performance of Handel's Messiah.) The amount of rehearsal time needed for both these events necessitated HRO's fielding a less than full-size orchestra on Saturday. The resulting sound, while somewhat lighter and more restrained than usual, was unusually clear and coherent...
...Society of America. Yet he is not well known outside musical circles or beyond the New York area. He should be. He is a superb violinist and a superb music coach, as the concert revealed. Shumsky has a clear sense of professionalism, and evidently instilled the same sense in HRO, which became an unusually responsive body under his direction. He employs an instructive rather than brilliant technique; he knows exactly what he wants to achieve musically, and refuses to compromise in his search for his goal...
...piece is written in D Major, which signifies, in Mozart, an emphasis on orchestral sonority. Shumsky promoted this interpretation with considerable success. The HRO spun through the four movements, permeated with tricky cutoffs and entrances, with flair and vitality. The bassoon work was especially fine. In two cadenzas written by Fritz Kreisler, Shumsky livened up the work (which does not have the force of the mature Mozart's masterpieces) with spectacular double-stopped trills and breakneck-speed runs...
...choice of the Shostakovich, though, did indicate that conductor Yannatos intends to challenge the HRO's capabilities throughout the year. Like most student orchestras, HRO should show marked improvement, and is starting out this year from a higher level than usual. But in terms of what the representative large orchestra of the Harvard community could and should sound like, HRO has a long...