Word: soloists
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Friday night's short but challenging program featured Landon Young as soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. His performance gave a continual impression of control and breadth, of getting far above the notes and phrases to achieve a coherent interpretation of each movement. There was a satisfying bigness about his reading that fitted this concerto perfectly, while not sloughing over the more lyrical passages. The second theme of the opening movement, particularly, with its appealing soulfulness, had a tender, longing quality without being sentimental. One could have wished for just a little less deliberateness...
...even before she moved to the Bolshoi Company in 1944. Born in St. Petersburg in 1910, she was introduced to the dance early: her father, Sergei Ulanov, was a member of the corps at the famed Mariinsky (now Kirov) Theater, and her mother, Maria Romanova, a Mariinsky soloist and teacher at the St. Petersburg Ballet School. At first Galina had no desire to dance, and she recalls "crying bitterly with fear" when she was first taken to the Mariinsky school when she was 9. Her father, Galina recalls, had wanted a boy, and since there were no other children...
Mozart's glorious Piano Concerto in G, K. 453, featured Edgar Murray '60 as the soloist. Though he phrased with style and intelligence, his lacklustre tone failed to bring to life many of his good musical ideas. In the third movement, however, his performance brightened considerably and he handled the variations accurately and vigorously...
...soloist, Neal Zaslaw and Richard Oldberg, both possess extremely fine techniques, which enabled them to handle easily the involved passage-work with which Mozart fills out his instrumental concertos. Zaslaw, playing the first Flute Concerto, in G, used a tone which, while more breathy than some tastes prefer, is even and manageable enough for delicate articulation. Oldberg's tone also veers away from the "pure" school, toward the specifically brassy sound...
John Harbison's conducting is becoming much more relaxed, without losing any of its control. The orchestra occasionally lapsed into an unpolished, open sound, particularly in the Flute Concerto where it covered the soloist; but for the most part, Harbison's handling of dynamics was attentive, and in parts of the Piston, very exciting. A more intense beat, besides lending even more excitement, would add rhythmic sureness and vivacity. Otherwise, both his and the Orchestra's work indicates much to look forward to, and one hopes they will not become assimilated into the larger Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra next year...