Word: orchestra
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Bach Society Orchestra played its first concert of the year with verve and discretion, though the fare offered was surprisingly light. Perhaps the orchestra's conductor, John Harbison, is thinking of the taxing problems he will face in preparing a Bach cantata for the next program. At any rate, the Haydn symphony (No. 8) performed on Sunday was charming, if slight, and an interesting example of a classical piece with baroque devices still hanging on. No. 8 is part symphony, part concerto grosso, employing a harpsichord and three solo strings; the solo'cello was played with particular suavity and grace...
...career: his second complete recording of the nine Beethoven symphonies. At various times, mostly in the 1940s and '50s, Walter had made other recordings of the nine. But Columbia decided on a repeat performance with latest recording techniques, including stereo. The job was done with a specially hired orchestra of Los Angeles musicians in a hall not far from Bruno Walter's home. There, day after day over a span of six months, the old man led his men in the performances that he hopes will stand as "a kind of testament to the feeling I have...
...result is a seven-disk set of remarkable clarity, in which the various elements of the orchestra stand forth in superbly wrought detail. In the comparatively calm air of the early symphonies and of the Pastoral, the orchestra sings with a kind of warmth and lyric affection typical of Walter's musical vision. In the sterner period of the Seventh and Ninth, it takes on an incandescence and brilliance that elevate both performances to dazzling heights. Not all of the set is equally good, but all of it is imbued in some degree with Walter's ageless enthusiasm...
...Virtuoso Oboe (Andre Lardrot, oboe; the Vienna State Opera Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Felix Prohaska; Vanguard). Oboist Lardrot flitters his agile way through selections from Cimarosa, Handel, Haydn, Albinoni in a delightful demonstration of the richly colored range of one of the orchestra's less glamorous members. Haydn's Concerto...
...Major for Oboe and Orchestra alone is worth the price of the package...