Word: tonal
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...some high points, notably the stunning Gregorian chant tenor solo, sung by Donald Brown. The Williams Glee Club sang with perfect intonation and balance, but these could not make up for its unpolished and open tone. An uneasy, strained quality dominated the performance, relieved only occasionally by sections of tonal warmth...
Although the entire orchestra displayed an amazing competency and ease throughout the piece, special honors must go to the wind section for their ensemble work and tonal consistency, particularly in the opening theme, which was quite lovely...
Mary Fraley Johnson played the Sonata for Violoncello Solo, Opus 25, No. 3, in her usual dramatic and vehement manner. This piece is some-what similar to its predecessor from the same opus, but was not nearly so dissonant. It did, however, accentuate the same tonal richness...
...this work, notwithstanding all the criticism of Brahms' orchestral form as too thick or unimaginative, needs an orchestra for many reasons, as the substitution of an organ, as in Sunday's performance, made painfully clear. The instrumental effects, such as pizzicato, used as a foil to the voices; the tonal texture of different groups of instruments; and the all-pervading crescendo and diminuendo which is so essential--all these are impossible for an organist...
...place of Ormandy's impressionistic tonal colors and blurred instrumental outlines, Reiner offered a lyrically transparent reading in which every phrase stood out as though etched with scalpel. The tempi were firm as bedrock, the contrasts brilliantly modulated. In both Philadelphia and Carnegie Hall, where he repeated the program, Reiner ticked off the beat with tiny flicks of his baton. To his audiences he revealed sculptured details that many had never heard before...