Word: tempi
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Osbourne McConathy, a Boston Symphony hornist, is as fine a conductor as the Boston Opera has had: his study of Baroque conventions was entirely evident in ornaments, phrasing, and tempi. His direction in the second performance gained in animation and sensitivity --improvements not totally shared by the singers. The cuts were extensive (the prologue and a half dozen scenes) but no doubt carefully chosen. It is a shame that a production as rare and as entertaining as this one, whatever its shortcomings, must perish after two evenings. Hopefully there is some basis to the rumor that Miss Caldwell may take...
...first movement so well made his hash of the second movement sound particularly bad. His tempo was excruciatingly deliberate, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately he sped up, slowed down, and sped up again; if the orchestra had followed his tempi exactly, the effect would have been even worse. The timpani solo, which a timpanist friend assures me couldn't have been too loud, was-and the movement as a whole was a gigantic bore...
...there were problems. Players and not only minor ones, watched the conductor far too much and far too obviously, instead of listening to the orchestra. They consistently fell behind the tempi, generally correct, set by conductor James Hughes...
...responsibility for the oppressive uniformity of the Bach rests more with Mr. Biss. Perhaps because of the inexperience of his players or the limitations of his soloist, he chose indifferent tempi for every movement. He took the second, for example, too slow for bounce and too fast for grace; the music just ambled along like an elephant. He also failed to provide variety in the orchestral dynamics to compensate for the restricted possibilities of the flute; most of the time, the notes did not seem to flow in any direction. Only in the fifth movement did the waters of dullness...
...like a dancer's, and his classic profile flashes now right, now left, like a lighthouse beacon. He has a nearly perfect ear for balancing orchestra and singers, and the Met chorus never sounds better than it does with Schippers conducting. Though emotion sometimes drives him into hurried tempi, he has a strong sense of opera that keeps his music in sympathetic concert with the libretto-which he soundlessly sings through in every performance...