Word: violins
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...gave the first performance of Sinfonia Sacra for Violin and Two Chamber Groups, written by John Harbison, Junior Fellow in Music, for his wife, concert-mistress and soloist last night. The BSO opened the program with William Boyce's Symphony...
...those rare events in which first class artists, with apparently sufficient rehearsal time, conspire to perform a program of substantial modern music that deserves their skills. Directed by Leon Kirchner, musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and from Harvard gave the first Boston performance of Kirchner's Concerto for Violin, Cello, 10 Winds, and Percussion, and a concert reading of Stravinsky's ballet, Les Noces...
...Concerto seems to savor each instant, in a continued series of "Now! Now! Now!" At times, striking combinations of timbres stand out: for example, the violin, the large gong, and an open, bottom C on the cello; or again the celeste, Violin, and the clarinet. At other times, the solo violin and cello luxuriate in close and shifting harmonies. Elsewhere, Kirchner indulges in bombastic percussion: a fast run in the clarinet or strings leads to a bang...
Unlike the only extant recording of the Concerto (also conducted by Kirchner), this performance did not obliterate practically everything but the solo violin and cello. Joseph Silverstein, violin, and Madeline Foley, cello, and the other instrumentalists, members of the Boston Symphony, sounded clearly and, thanks to Kirchner's careful direction, at the right times...
...fate of the violin is a matter for conjecture...