It wasn't really the Harvard Summer School Chamber Players that performed in Sanders Theater on Tuesday night. Its members were all on stage, true--but as the nucleus of a chamber orchestra whose roster included some of Boston's best free-lance musicians. Accordingly, Tuesday night's performance, the sixth and last in the Chambers Players series, was marked by brisk enthusiasm and a high level of technical competence.
The program opened with the Sinfonia from Bach's Cantata No. 209, 'Non sa che sia dolore', written about 1730 in Leipzig. The cantata itself is based on an actual incident--a friend is leaving Germany for his native Italy, and Bach wants to wish him well, despite the sadness in parting. The Sinfonia, in B minor, sets this tone, and somehow greatly resembles the first movement of the D minor violin concerto.
The performance conveyed this bubbling yet mildly pained mood; Paula Robison on flute, especially, gave linear definition by her subtle stress on the downbeat in sixteenth-note passages. The first violins tended to chop off an upbeat eight notes aftera similar stress on the downbeats (a not uncommon failing)--but the total balance was excellent, and had the drive of authentic Baroque spirit.
The performance of Leon Kirchner's 1960 Concerto for Violin, Cello, 10 winds, and percussion which followed, also carried this sense of motion and drive. Kirchner, in comments on this work, has emphasized the extent to which he has retained roots in music like the Back, rather than concentrating only on the "nowness" of modern music. The Concerto reflects this concern, as Kirchner writes in the modern idiom, but with warmth and not numbing austerity. On Tuesday night, the brass and percussion were especially noteworthy; the former carrying out their role as an antiphonal block, the latter as understated punctuation. Lawrence Lesser, cello, and Robert Portney, violin, fit well into the ensemble sound--both have tended toward romantic interpretations throughout the Chamber Player series, and the piece provided them a suitable outlet.
The second half of the program, a performance of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C, "The Great," showed similar flair and ability, although it suffered a bit from lack of rehearsal time. This was particularly evident in the coda of the Andante, which lost touch with both balance and dynamics. However, the memorable trombone sound more than made up for any failings, and completely justified Schubert's revolutionary use of brass to present thematic material.
Kirchner, conducting the piece, largely succeeded in drawing out important lines and contrasting dynamics; his diminuendo in the final cadence, though, was inexplicable and seemed out of context. But all in all, a successful conclusion to a productive season of good music.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 13
Pakistani Folk Artists at Kresge Auditorium, MIT, 7 p.m. Info 646-8084.
Boston Summer Opera Theater "Masked Ball" at Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols School. Info 731-7262.
Tanglewood. Weekend Prelude, Earl Wild, piano, 7 p.m. Arthur Fiedler conducts all-Gershwin program, 9 p.m.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 14
Boston Summer Opera Theater "Masked Ball" at BB&N School, 8 p.m.
Summer Organ Recitals at Old South Church in Copley Square, every Saturday at noon.
Tanglewood. Open rehearsal, 10:30 a.m. Ozawa conducts Boston Symphony Orchestra in works of Crumb, Griffe, Ives. Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 15
Indian Hill Chamber Orchestra, Willis Traphagen, conductor, at Decordova Museum, Lincoln. Info 259-8355.
Tanglewood. Ozawa conducts Rochberg Violin Concerto, Isaac Stern, violin, and Brahms Symphony No. 1, 2:30 p.m.
