In the shadow of as great an orchestra as the Boston Symphony, the Harvard-Radcliffe group can hardly propose for its purpose the presentation of definitive performances of well-known works. What it does set as its goal was demonstrated admirably last night at Sanders Theatre in what was by any standard one of the year's most satisfactory concerts--one in which the College orchestra presented seldom-played music of the past, let a University audience hear some outstanding new performing talent, and gave a first performance of a student composition.

Distinctly the high spot of the evening was the work of Noel Lee '46, who performed among other things Beethoven's First Piano Concerto. He set himself no slight task in choosing the concerto, which requires not only technical accomplishment but a sensitivity of interpretation to make it worth hearing. That the sensitivity was there was never in doubt, and Lee's technical standard was also high. The first movement in particular was impressive, with the cadenza--arranged by the performer himself--especially broad in emotional conception.

Lee was also the soloist in the premiere of the Variations for Piano and Orchestra by Nicholas Van Slyck 1G, the work which dominated the second half of the program. The Crimson's critic states frankly that he is not enough of a musician to analyze the competition after one hearing; but it should be observed that it was at all times interesting, not to any noticeable extent derivative, and in the best modern tradition of piano-orchestra color. Van Slyck rose to the enthusiastic applause of the audience at the end of his prize-winning work's performance.

The remainder of the concert concerned itself with the orchestra's other goal of presenting unusual music. Under Malcolm Holmes' direction, the orchestra gave first-rate performances of two old and quite unfortunately neglected works: a Purcell suite from "The Virtuous Wife" and a Corelli Concerto Grosso in D. Later in the evening the group played the seldom-heard Vaughan Williams "Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus'", a lovely piece for Harps and Strings which had Williams' customary lushness of orchestral sound. The only complaint to be registered about the evening in Sanders Theatre, as a matter of fact, is an old one: there were not enough people there. Perhaps the earlier Glee Club and Band concerts are an explanation; in any case there should have been more members of Harvard University interested in its outstanding orchestra last night.