Beethoven--Overture to Goethe's "Egmont," Op. 84. Chopin--Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 Brahms--Quartet for Piano and Strings in G minor Joseph Battlsta, soloist.

Last night's concert by the Boston Symphony in Sanders Theatre contained some beautiful examples of what not to do. The only musician who escaped unscathed was Beethoven; his straight-forward "Egmont" overture received the powerful performance it merited--but when that was over, the troubles began.

One of these troubles was Chopin's orchestration. Generally uncomfortable in large works, the composer was nearly able to redeem the disjointedness of this concerto by the delicacy of isolated sections. Unfortunately, delicacy was precisely the quality Mr. Battista could not muster. He approached the most tender passages in a hard-boiled manner: although technically facile, he seemed suspicious of both sensitivity and real clarity. Thus the episodic character of the music, far from being disguised, was exaggerated to a degree which left the piece all but defenseless. It never had much armor anyhow--which is not surprising, considering that Chopin was only nineteen when he wrote it.

Conductor Richard Burgin reserved the humor for the end, probably quite unwittingly. Anyone familiar with Brahms' superb piano quartet could not help but be wary of a Schoenberg orchestration calling for two flutes, a piccolo, three oboes, five clarinets, four bassoons, full brass, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, eymbals, triangle, tambourine, Glockenspiel, xylophone, and strings. At the very best, these extra instruments were entirely superfluous to Brahms' musical intentions. At the worst, which was most of the time, they sounded like something Richard Strauss would have reconsidered even in his most beery moments. The percussion thumped, whanged, crashed, and tinkled; trombones blatted; horns bleated; strings dripped schmaltz--in short, all "Scheherezade" broke loose.

At least a few Brahms admirers sufficiently recovered from their horror to enjoy the last two movements thoroughly.

But I am afraid Brahms would not have been amused.