Word: hathaway
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Idyll's original performance was by a minimum of musicians strung along the stairway of the Wagner villa. In a misguided attempt at authenticity, Hathaway eliminated most of the Bach Society's already small complement of strings. Without security in numbers. the string players were cowed by the infamous intonation problems of this highly chromatic piece...
...orchestra and Conductor Daniel Hathaway both seemed more at home in the romantic Siegfried Idyll. For the first time there was an attempt to provide the music with a decent amount of expression, dynamic contrast, and formal shape. Thrown into relief by the work's reduced instrumentation, the winds--except for the French horns--showed themselves capable of an incisive handing of leitmotif and at times produced a positively luscious ensemble sonority...
...first. Mozart's Bassoon Concerto, which opened the concert, was a delight. Soloist Jackson Bryce's tone was full and rich from the bottom to the top of his range, his phrasing graceful, and his technical control impressive. He played the romantic cadenzas pensively, entrancing the audience. Conductor Daniel Hathaway controlled the orchestra tightly, following Bryce's phrasing and balancing him nicely...
...Piston's pleasant little Divertimento, the nine performers gave a cheerful and accurate reading of the outer movements, and put considerable intensity into the lyrical middle movement. Hathaway conducted apparently without a clear understanding of the work. Melodic lines were submerged in the first two movements. The last was more convincing, even if slightly mechanical...
...Claff both played very sensitively, executing their imitative sections elegantly. Miss Speaker's tone was rich and warm; Miss Claff's was clear but, unfortunately, was often covered by the orchestra. The strings, especially the violins, were astonishing: their sound blossomed in the opening bars and rarely let down. Hathaway co-ordinated his forces deftly, generally letting the piece play itself, producing perhaps the best Bach Brandenburg at these concerts in years...