The World's Best

THE FIRST concert in the 1976-1977 season of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra almost requires two different reviews. The HRO, conducted by James Yannatos, put together a program of Berlioz, Shostakovich, and Brahms on Saturday night with greater fluency and strength than they have exhibited in several years. However, what really packed Sanders Theatre to overflowing proportions was the trio of pianist Richard Kogan, violinist Lynn Chang, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who performed on what must be described as a musical level comparable to the world's best.

First: the Harvard Trio, as they have billed themselves since they began their extensive appearances throughout the Brahms B major Trio, Op. 8, as a pre-concert prelude. The work was drastically revised by the mature Brahms, and despite its early opus number, its introspective intensity makes it an extraordinarily difficult work to interpret. But Chang, Kogan, and Ma (upon whom the trio now seems to be less visibly dependent for direction whirled through the work with abandon and brilliance. If anything, the second movement scherzo crept to the edge of brittleness; yet the sustained, almost religious adagio which followed was lyrically breathtaking.

Two members of the trio, Chang and Ma, returned for the second half of the program as soloists in the Brahms Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra. Here again, they infused their playing with intensity and drama; although Chang's lower register sometimes tends toward scratchiness, his tone quality is superb, and the intonation problems evident in his solo appearance with HRO last year have largely disappeared. Ma's electric stage presence and romantic approach, meanwhile, provided an ideal vehicle for the concerto and complemented Chang's hard lustre perfectly; he can do things with a cello, as Harvard audiences must recognize by now, that have to be heard to be believed. In tandem, the duo created a rich, fiery texture, particularly in the frequent double-stopped passages which almost duplicated a string quartet sound.

Second: However, the Brahms in its totality remained unconvincing Saturday night, for a reason all too clear--the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra itself. The Brahms requires an orchestra that can negotiate heavily scored passages, while retaining delicacy and clarity, and HRO could do neither beyond an elemental level. The 'deadwood' in the strings, especially the second violins and violas, had an enervating effect which extended to the cellos and winds, traditionally HRO's strongest sections.

BUT HRO HAS undeniably improved a lot; compared to their incredibly bad 1975 performance of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, the French composer was treated with kid gloves in the concert's opening work, his Roman Carnival Overture. Terry Maskin, who was outstanding in the 1976 Harvard Summer School Orchestra, showed similar mastery in the tricky English horn solo, and the trombones cut through the string filigree passages with round sonority. Even the upper string intonation was not excessively distressing, and the forte passages seemed to herald a new, aggressive, full-bodied ensemble sound.

But hopes were soon dashed by the performance of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10, which followed. The Shostakovich, composed in 1926, is enormously demanding, both because its ambience is unpredictable and puckishly cynical, and because all the orchestral parts are so exposed. Clearly, from a musical standpoint, this was the wrong choice for HRO; the strings were so busy finding the notes that the work's petulant power fell by the wayside. In particular, concertmaster Michael Harris showed little aptitude for his post, combining lackluster solos with bowings that evidently left the first violins non-plussed. Despite impressive third movement efforts by trumpeter Norman Birge and oboeist Jack Klebanow and crisp second movement development work by pianist Judy Kogan, the winds were swept along by the tide of mediocrity, while the percussion section combined poor placement (along the left wall of the Sanders stage) with ill-chosen dynamic levels.

The choice of the Shostakovich, though, did indicate that conductor Yannatos intends to challenge the HRO's capabilities throughout the year. Like most student orchestras, HRO should show marked improvement, and is starting out this year from a higher level than usual. But in terms of what the representative large orchestra of the Harvard community could and should sound like, HRO has a long way to go.