Word: movement
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Symphony Hall should read "exit in case of Brahms." No one ran for the door, however, as Haitink masterfully mustered a grandiose yet precise reading. At the risk of iconoclasm, his technique is much clear and less irksome than Uncle Seiji's. To be fair, however, the first movement lost focus en route to the slinky final recapitulation...
...favorite part of the whole work is the heavenly oboe solo in the slow movement, which came off flawlessly. The same could not be said for the analogous solo of concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, who suffered from projection problems and musical hypertension. The third movement zipped along thanks to a perfectly achieved balance between the high winds and high strings. Loss of focus plagued most of the many memorable melodies of the finale. The first appearance of the chorale theme, in the brass, was somehow preferable to the weighty recapitulation near movement...
After intermission the Quartet turned to a sprawling Mendelssohn work, whose first movement tried our patience, even with the score on hand. The humidity took its toll in the andante, but the prior minuet was full of subtlety and humor, and the closing presto sparkled. The four adults were a cut above even very talented Harvard chamber musicians, few of whom could afford violinist Kinloch Earle's 1630 Amati...
...Beethoven fit under his fingers less naturally. Although his prodigious gifts made for some hair-raising pianissimi, his playing lacked the requisite Schnabelian drive. He strove for a nearly pedal-free sound at times when more blurring would have been a relief, and he attacked the first movement cadenza with all the grace of an angry farmer. The effect was wild, precipitous, unique--but out of place. The second movement demonstrated Schiff's peerless trill technique, while the third hurdled toward a deft close as leprechaun-like as the diminutive pianist himself...
...Symphony Hall should read "exit in case of Brahms." No one ran for the door, however, as Haitink masterfully mustered a grandiose yet precise reading. At the risk of iconoclasm, his technique is much clearer and less irksome than Uncle Seiji's. To be fair, however, the first movement lost focus en route to the slinky final recapitulation...