Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra

Attilio Poto ended his five-year career with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra last night. The concert's final piece was Beethoven's seventh symphony, performed in a manner which revealed a good many now-familiar characteristics of Mr. Poto and his orchestra; the out-of-tune winds, the unclear articulation in the strings, the surprising power in forte passages; the clear, business-like beat of the conductor. Given these conditions, the last movement, with its big tuttis and its motor energy, came off best; delicate, involved sections fared less well. It was the performance of a good amateur orchestra which has a good grasp of technical problems and frequently produces fine sound, but which has difficulty in conveying the spirit of the music.

Even the greatly reduced string ensemble in Bach's C-minor concerto (no. 1) for violin and oboe often failed to express the grace and flexibility in this lovely music. The soloists were the winners of the orchestra's concerto contest: John Austin played a rather discreet fiddle, which was occasionally overwhelmed by the powerful oboe playing of Carl Schlaikjer; nevertheless both parts were very well done. The other competition winned was E. S. Stewart, whose Variations on a Melody won the contest for undergraduate compositions.

Mr. Stewart's piece resembles those modern compositions which somehow manage to be simultaneously dissonant and entirely inoffensive. The style draws on composers as disparate as Berg, Barber and William Schuman; there are also a few easily recognizable major triads. It is an odd work in some ways, since Mr. Stewart contrasts tense, massive climaxes with passages that are almost flip--the sly fillip of the flute at the very end, for instance. The opening is very attractive, with the theme (almost a twelve-tone row) announced softly by the low strings pizzicato to the accompaniment of saucy raps on the snare drum. But in the middle section--a sort of languourous waltz--the sense of direction is lost and the piece begins to maunder. The final movement was transmitted in rather hazy fashion by the unsure playing of the orchestra, but it seemed much the same sort of thing. Mr. Stewart's material seems promising; had he not spread it so thin the Variations might have been stronger. His orchestration, at any rate, showed considerable imagination.

The concert opened with the Faithful Shepherd Suite of Handel-Beecham, and this noble music was generally well played. The audience was highly enthusiastic, and, at the close of the concert, joined with the orchestra in giving Mr. Poto a standing ovation.