On the Right Track

THE HARVARD-RADCLIFFE ORCHESTRA, like most groups, always shows a great improvement throughout the year, as members learn to play as an ensemble and individuals acquire more technical facility. But who would have expected Saturday night's concert--the second in the 1976-77 season--to show an improvement so astounding? The HRO has perceptibly blossomed as an orchestral ensemble since September. And, to judge by Saturday night's presentation of works by Vivaldi, Mozart and Sibelius, the group is starting to exhibit high musicality, good intonation, and a discriminating sound.

Why such a rapid transformation? Two factors seem to have benefited the HRO. The first, paradoxically, resulted from the difficulty of HRO's December season. (In addition to the concert on Saturday evening, HRO will collaborate on December 11 and 12 with the Harvard Glee Club, Collegium Musicum, and the Radcliffe Choral Society in a performance of Handel's Messiah.) The amount of rehearsal time needed for both these events necessitated HRO's fielding a less than full-size orchestra on Saturday. The resulting sound, while somewhat lighter and more restrained than usual, was unusually clear and coherent.

THE SECOND FACTOR was undoubtedly the presence of violinist and conductor Oscar Shumsky. Shumsky is a prominent faculty member of the Juilliard School and an honorary director of the Violin Society of America. Yet he is not well known outside musical circles or beyond the New York area. He should be. He is a superb violinist and a superb music coach, as the concert revealed. Shumsky has a clear sense of professionalism, and evidently instilled the same sense in HRO, which became an unusually responsive body under his direction. He employs an instructive rather than brilliant technique; he knows exactly what he wants to achieve musically, and refuses to compromise in his search for his goal.

The concert opened with an old warhorse, "Autumn" from Vivaldi's The Seasons, which, as interpreted on Saturday night, justified its popularity. The piece featured Shumsky as violin soloist and conductor. The orchestra was extremely cut down, and resembled a sixteen piece Baroquesized chamber ensemble. The choice of music provided an excellent vehicle for Shumsky's awe-inspiring technical capability and his power to elicit clean, solid tone. The accompaniment by the chamber ensemble, especially in the final Allegro, had a shimmering, airy quality--one that marks a thoughtful interpretation of Italian Baroque music. Michael Curry, in particular, carried the obbligato lines to Shumsky's solo passages with crisp vitality.

Equally convincing was the performance of the first four movements from Mozart's "Haffner" Serenade, K. 250. Again, Shumsky played a dual role as conductor and violin soloist. The work, Mozart's first great orchestral effort, retains both a light, chamber music coloration and a tendency toward a concertant style. (This style makes soloists operate in opposition to the orchestra.)

The piece is written in D Major, which signifies, in Mozart, an emphasis on orchestral sonority. Shumsky promoted this interpretation with considerable success. The HRO spun through the four movements, permeated with tricky cutoffs and entrances, with flair and vitality. The bassoon work was especially fine. In two cadenzas written by Fritz Kreisler, Shumsky livened up the work (which does not have the force of the mature Mozart's masterpieces) with spectacular double-stopped trills and breakneck-speed runs.

In the second half of the program, Shumsky returned to conduct the HRO in a less satisfying but still competent performance of Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 in D. The musical strides HRO has taken since their first concert last month became particularly evident as the entire orchestral ensemble arrived on stage. Shumsky's rigorous approach paid off in good intonation and intelligent treatment of musical lines. Again, the choice of music fit the performing group, as the segmented polyphony merged in and out of broad themes, allowing each section maximum opportunity to 'sing' unabashedly in its turn.

The first two movements were the most successful; the Scherzo proved extremely demanding for the strings. The triumphant fourth-movement Allegro needed, quantitatively, more than the single doublebass present, and qualitatively, a fuller and richer brass sound, especially from the trombones. Nevertheless, the concert in its totality was impressive and gratifying. Under the right conditions, there's no reason HRO can't be a consistently fine orchestra, and the group sounds as if it is well on the right track right now.