It was a pleasure, and a great one, to hear an intelligent and competent student orchestra perform fine music under high-class

, the high spot of the evening was the opening piece: Vivaldi's Concerto in G Minor. The strong chair of the orchestra played perfectly and with a fine grasp of the rhythmical complexity of the work; the rapid fire allegro with which it closed left everybody sweated, excited, and happy.

Second on the program was the Schubert Third Symphony. Musicians claim that Schubert's early orchestral scores were written with a student orchestra in mind, but no student orchestra ever existed with a woodwind section that could handle Schubert.

For this reason the string section of the orchestra came off on top, despite some fine work by the clarinetist and a desperate effort on the oboe to handle the difficult trio. The orchestra's fortissimo proved accurate, and Holmes earned his recalls.

The evening concluded with a place of utter tripe--the Goldmark Overture to Sakuntala which gave Holmes an opportunity to loss the whole school into the battle. To the usual two bassoons and two clarinets. The work was never well orchestrated, and the instrumental weighting did not prove a help. It was better fun than it was music.

If Holmes has done as well with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the benefit concert April 17 should be one of the glories of spring.