Word: tonal
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...interesting phenomena are the two young ladies whose voices are pitched lower than most of the men's. Patricia Hess, as a friend of Amaryliss-Ann, applies her tonal qualities in a manner to give added gusto to the song "Snake Oil." An exotic Radcliffe enticer, Sheila Tobias whirls through "Mink on My Mind." Miss Tobias is smooth with her lines, although she appeared slightly embarrassed while enclosed in a barrel...
...sharp attack and bright tonal qualities of the chorus perfectly suited Koussevitzky's temperament. He liked working with a large, enthusiastic group of singers, and he often used the chorus before his retirement in 1949 he would have only two joint rehearsals before each concert, and although these usually went quite poorly, he had the personal magnetism to make all the performances exciting musical experiences, despite any inaccuracies in the choral parts...
...thought the most glaring fault was the lack of any dynamic of tonal norm whereby the long forte passages could be saved from conveying an impression of bombast and anti-climax. On the other hand the faith in Schubert's lyricism, which undoubtedly underlay the performance, was not pushed so far as to infuse each phrase, and as a result even ardent Schubert lovers would find it hard to apply to this performance Schumann's epithet of "heavenly length...
...first of the featured works, a small string orchestra under Norman Shapiro's direction performed Purcell's Fantasia on One Note. The novelty of this work lies in the "one note"-C-sustained throughout. All the harmony and counterpoint revolve about this tonal pivot, and it is a tribute to Purcell's genius that the technical tour-de-force never overshadows melodic beauty and expressiveness. Mr. Shapiro's treatment, however, seemed a bit heavy-handed and the players assigned the persistent C could not quite agree on its pitch...
...music. The attraction of instrumental color was avoided by using a bare string orchestra. The tempi were uniformly slow so as to attain the highest awareness of the formal complexity within each of the fourteen fugues performed. Yet at the same time, the playing, especially through its attention to tonal color and phrasing, attained such a level of devotion and warmth that the audience could not help but be moved to a closer contact with the music by the example of the performers...