Word: violinists
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...national standard-bearer both he and Wilker envision. The Kennedy Center concert hall's acoustics are extremely poor, and the orchestra's playing is not much better. The most recent program that Slatkin conducted underscored both problems. A joyless, hurried reading of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto featured the prodigy violinist Sarah Chang, 16, who cluelessly bowled her way through the war-horse, leaving Slatkin and the orchestra to catch up as best they could. The Brahms Fourth Symphony was better, benefiting from the sturdy, muscular interpretation that the new maestro favors, but it still lacked the refinement that marks...
...criticism in its premier (1808), and to some extent to the present day." And understandably so, since it has a deadly combination of mediocre themes and an unncessary number of soloists; this means that each theme is heard at least three times in a row, from the cellist, the violinist, and the pianist, before it is allowed to die. The certainty of this repetition quickly becomes tedious, especially in the first and third movements. Indeed, the third movement, a jaunty Rondo alla polacca, repeatedly tests the listener's patience with cadences that sound like a conclusion, only to keep going...
...occasion. It would be at least understandable if HRO had chosen the piece to spotlight three student musicians: the division of labor, and the relative simplicity of the solo parts, would make it ideal for students. Indeed, it should have been possible to find a student pianist, cellist and violinist who were more than equal to the task--concertmaster Salley Koo '97, for example, who was outstanding in the Shostakovich symphpony...
Instead, the soloists were ringers: BSO cellist Martha Babcock, Boston Chamber Music Society violinist Lynn Chang, and pianist Luisa Vosgerchian, Harvard music professor emerita. The soloists were, of course, quite good, especially Babcock, whose lovely tone compensated for the poverty of her themes. Chang was, if anything, a bit too thin--though this effect may well have been due to Sanders' acoustics, which make it difficult to hear at the extreme edges of each tier of seats. Vosgerchian, meanwhile, was a beatific presence, smiling and swaying joyously throughout; even what appeared to be a nasty fall...
...president of the South Asian Association and vice-chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Harvard Foundation for Inter-Cultural and Race Relations, Gupta also has responsibilities outside the lab. She is a violinist who has a black belt in a Korean martial...