Word: obbligato
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...third excellent wind soloist, Stephen Hammer, played the oboe for Bach Cantata No. 56. His contribution was the most exciting aspect of the piece. His phrasing of the obbligato line in the second aria demonstrated a facility with the instrument coupled with great sensitivity to precise imitation. The basso for the cantata, David Evitts, had been recruited in extremely short order. He sounded tired, with several lapses of diction and little variation of timbre or volume. In general, he was a shadow of the big, confident singer he had been just one night before as soloist with the Collegium...
...fans beknighted him the "Meistersinger Minister." Who knows? If Scheel could get together with West Europe's other leaders, even the factions in the Common Market might stay in tune. Scheel could sing, Edward Heath could pound the piano, and Georges Pompidou might even learn to tootle an obbligato on the French horn...
Smiling easily, she never lost her professional detachment, despite the obbligato of snarling drills and hammering as workmen put the finishing touches on the theater. Local newspapermen, wistfully recalling her public pyrotechnics of 20 years ago and hoping for more of the same, groaned in frustration at her low-keyed manner during rehearsals. One reporter disguised himself as a soldier in the chorus in order to get a story...
PART II OF The Oratorio contrasts vividly with the trumpets-and-drums splendor that precedes it. The scoring eliminates the festive instruments entirely and the accompaniments are lighter: a flute is used in two obbligato roles. The one aria had a trio-sonata texture with tenor soloist, flute, and continuo. This form was a special favorite of Bach's for which be wrote some of his best counterpoint. The simplicity and clarity of singer and flutist filled the entire church and maintained the spell throughout the aria...
...alto with flute obbligato was sung beautifully and smoothly though with little contrast within each voice. John Ferris, the choirmaster, seems to prefer building with blocks of sound, drawing contrast from combinations of timbre rather than individual efforts within a given part. This is on excellent policy when dealing with an acoustical entity as dry as Memorial Church. In a building that holds over 1000 people and offers no echo, terraced dynamics and antiphonal contrast are the surer path to expressive variety...