Word: schmidts
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Well, Harold Schmidt has done it again. He managed to prepare some 80 or so amateur singers in less than six weeks and put on a superlative concert in Sanders Theatre. The result showed the wisdom of the Summer School administration in disregarding its unwritten rule of not engaging the same choral conductor in successive summers. Schmidt's accomplishment is all the more remarkable in view of the facts that he was beset by unusual handicaps this summer and that he chose works of greater difficulty than in the past...
...concert, which is free, will also include choruses from Acis and Galatea by Handel, Flos Campi by Vaughan Williams, and Tirsi and Clori (Ballo Concertato) by Monteverdi. Selections from Rennaisance madrigals and contemporary American music will also be sung. The chorus will be conducted by Professor Harold C. Schmidt of Stanford...
...group of Renaissance secular pieces fared moderately well. They have no accompaniment, and occasionally suffered from insecure pitch. Lassus' Mon coeur went too slowly for my taste; and Monteverdi's dramatic early Baroque madrigal Dorinda lay a bit high for the sopranos. Schmidt wisely used only an octet for Mauduit's Enparadis, a charming example of vers mesure, in which the musical rhythms follow those of the spoken text...
...Schmidt is extremely telegenic and has good TV presence; and he provided brief but helpful commentary on each piece. Elaine Dowd (on short notice) and Polly Davis were the efficient accompanists...
Producer-director Ted Hoffmann's handling of the cameras was disappointing, compared with Ray Wilding-White's fine job last summer. We got only frontal views of portions of the chorus or rear views of Schmidt almost exclusively. Now this is precisely what we can see in any concert hall. What TV alone can do (and should have done) is to include plenty of side-view shots of the conductor, especially close-ups. Few things are more fascinating to watch than the face of a top-notch conductor at work...