Word: swoboda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Whatever their worth, the orchestra made the best of Ginastera's tricks. The orchestra had a splendid, fat and shiny sound which is distinctly a recent phenomenon. Conductor Henri Swoboda has the orchestra at his disposal, and puts it at the disposal of the music accurately...
Miss Karen Monson '66 played the Poem with a sweet, singing tone that remained clear, and carried through Sanders, even in the low registers of the flute. Here technique never faltered; the balance Swoboda maintained between her and the orchestra never wavered. In fact, her performance was too constant: Miss Monson never varied her tone quality or volume. By the end of the Poem, I wished for some slight distortion that would reveal excitement, some subtlety to tell of understanding...
...last half of the program, Swoboda finally roused the orchestra to enthusiasm with some music that was genuine for its own day, and hence is genuine now: Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 (formerly No. 4) in G major, Op. 88. Here Swoboda seemed to be a free man on home territory, and he was exciting to watch and hear. In the waltz of the third movement, he and the orchestra were all grace; in the final movement he shifted tempo and mood expertly. Here, safe in romanticism, the orchestra came alive...
Despite a slightly slow start, the first movement did not drag under Swoboda's baton, and the orchestra produced sounds with shapes totally absent in the performance of the Beethoven. The orchestra had a few problems: the strings sounded a little thin and scattered in the extreme upper register during the fourth movement, while the low woodwinds occasionally picked the wrong notes. But Swoboda and the orchestra did capture the excitement and variety of the larger forms within each movement, and the Brahms, which ended the program, mitigated the effects of the Beethoven...
...performance of the Brahms, Swoboda has shown his capacity to make the orchestra handle difficult material well; if he will now add consistency to such quality, he will make the orchestra worth hearing...