The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra opened its season yesterday afternoon with an outstanding concert at Sanders Theatre. Under the leadership of conductor Attilio Poto, the orchestra performed a well-chosen program with unusual competence. The strings this year reclaim their position as the dominant section of the orchestra, restoring the balance which was so sorely lacking last year, and greatly improving the overall tone.

The performance of the young Hungarian violinist, Johanna Martzy, in the Brahms Violin Concerto was the major event of the afternoon. Substituting at the last moment, her reading stressed the dramatic qualities of the concerto without neglecting its lyricism. She has enough tone and technique to render the most difficult passages of this difficult work with seeming ease. The first movement cadenza was especially remarkable for its coherence, the sustained ending and orchestral entrance providing a particularly beautiful phrase.

The orchestra gave its guest soloist full support throughout. Except for some bad moments at the violin entrance, resulting from the fast tempo taken in the ritornello, Poto followed the soloist with amazing precision. While the orchestra did not play with as much expressiveness, rhythmic drive, and intensity as it might have, it at least supplied vigor and accuracy. The winds lapsed into insecure entrances and poor intonation at the beginning of the second movement, but their solos were generally good, especially those of oboist Michael Palmer. Miss Martzy received an immediate standing ovation at the end--a rare event in Sanders.

The first piece on the program, Bach's Suite No. 3 in D, showed immediately the tremendous improvement in the violins, whose tone is beginning to sound professional. The 'cellos and basses sounded weak, as they did later in the concerto, and they failed to provide the strength and insistence so essential to the crucial bass line in both Bach and Brahms. It was also disappointing to have the "French overture" rhythms played incorrectly, losing all their force.

The second work was the Variations, Chaconne and Finale by Norman Dello Joio. It is a well-scored and serious work by one of our leading contemporary composers, and a good work for an amateur orchestra to perform, being neither too difficult nor too trivial in content. The orchestra played it well, and one particularly difficult variation received an unexpectedly virtuosic treatment.

The orchestra has undoubtedly worked hard, and the effects of this effort show in terms of technical ability. It still plays with a stiffness which an amateur group should not have. The emphasis seems to remain with playing all the notes correctly and with good phrasing and tone. These considerations are important but they should not be allowed to substitute for awareness of the structural and musical aspects of a work. Some conception of a piece of music by both the conductor and the orchestra is essential to a really fine performance, and the H.R.O. is now capable of such performances.

(A tape recording of yesterday's performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto may be heard over WHRB on Wednesday, November 13, at 8:00 p.m.--Ed.)