The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra gave its best program of the year on Friday night at Sanders Theatre. While it was still somewhat ragged at times, the orchestral tone had improved since Christmas time, and conductor Attilio Poto was in more authoritative control than in previous concerts.

The co-winners of the Pierian Concerto Contest, David Hurwitz and Robert Freeman, both played with considerable technical skill. Hurwitz, in Mendelsohn's Violin Concerto, displayed accurate intonation and a fine singing tone. The richness of even his lower strings stood out clearly against the greater mass of the orchestra. Pianist Robert Freeman chose another chestnut, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. This piece, with its viscous melody in the middle, is a musical hodge-podge. It serves mostly as a showpiece for pianists, and Freeman gave it a truly virtuoso performance. He showed a wily mastery of the keyboard that partially hid the banality of the music.

The Orchestra contributed a surprisingly suave rendition of Mozart's Symphony No. 36. The concert really came to life, however, in the Third Symphony of Peter Mennin, a contemporary American composer. While the form of this work is discursive, its incisive rhythms and dramatic orchestration give it a tension and a vitality that the war-horses on the program lacked.

On Saturday night, pianist Judith Yaeger gave a recital in Paine Hall, playing Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, and Schubert. Miss Yaeger, who graduated from Radcliffe in 1953, has studied in Cambridge and abroad. Plunging into a program of 19th century composers, she was properly immersed in the Romantic spirit but, happily, not drowned in it. She was at her best in cantabile melodies, and her delicate phrasing was just what the music needed.

The major work on the program was Schubert's Sonata in B flat. It is a work of some substance, and Miss Yaeger rendered it with carefully chosen tempi and stylistic assurance. She also played four short pieces by Brahms. I thought she might have brought out the theme of the Intermezzo in C with a smoother, more legato style, but her interpretation of the Intermezzo in E minor was beguiling and delightful. Miss Yaeger is a pianist of considerable talent and we can look forward to hearing more from her.