Music Kirchner at Sanders

A GOOD CONDUCTOR is hard to find, harder than ever after the deaths of Sir John Barbirolli and George Szell. One place to find a good conductor, though, is in the Harvard Music Department. His name is Leon Kirchner, and, although his conducting experience is not that of a Barbirolli or a Szell, he and his orchestra compare favorably with Boston's other resident symphony.

Kirchner the conductor, like Kirchner the composer, is an exuberant, vibrant artist. He seems a little of everything-his precise hand movements reminiscent of Bruno Walter's, his body moving and even leaping off the ground with an enthusiasm like Bernstein's, his hair like Barbirolli's flowing mane-an artist totally consumed by his art. Yet he has nowhere sacrificed accuracy for emotion, and the clarity of his music, like the quality of his orchestra, is outstanding.

The Summer Festival Orchestra, which Kirchner conducted Monday night, is very good. Although a very young orchestra, it has reached a high level of maturity. Its faults are relatively few-the cello section is weak, the basses could improve a bit, but on the whole it is highly professional. Particularly noteworthy is its concertmaster, Tison Street, a young performer of extraordinary virtuosity. The almost demonical intensity with which he played, especially during the Bartok Divertimento for String Orchestra, portends a brilliant future for this particularly fine violinist.

The bill of fare Monday was a fine example of balanced programming, from baroque to contemporary, although it concentrated on established composers. The opening piece, Mozart's Symphony No. 34 in C. Major, K 388, went well. It is in three movements, not a major work by any means, but an interesting idea. This work was accompanied by some silly program notes apologizing for it because, the writer says, compared to Beethoven "Mozart emerges as a trivial blank," when judged emotionally. I suppose program note writers have to make a living, just like everyone else.

The second piece on the program, the Bartok Divertimento for String Orchestra was extremely well done. This three movement piece is highly symmetrical, very mature Bartok, composed in 1939. It's movements, Allegro non troop, Molto adagio, and adagio assai. are quite transparent, the first a rough sonata form, the second consisting of three figures, the first identical to the last, and the third a rondo. The amazing virtuosity of the violin sections was made abundantly clear in this work, especially in the third movement.

The Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, is one of the most consistently popular of the sacred cantatas. The purity of its vocal settings, when performed by an adequate soprano, places it among the most starkly beautiful of Bach's vocal works. Benita Valente, Monday night's soloist, is a perfect Bach soprano. She has a clear, pure voice, without any of the excess floridity or overblown style which is fatal in a Bach performance. Miss Valente and the orchestra gave a highly correct interpretation of the work, yet no one devoid of feeling. The work, originally composed for the Lutheran services on the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, contains two elaborate trumpet solos, which Jeffrey Stern handled unusually well.

THE FINAL WORK on the program, Kirchner's own Music for Orchestra, is an intriguing piece commissioned for the 125th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic last year. While I have not seen the score, I would say that it seems closer to the better Messiaen than to Lutoslawski, as the program notes suggest. It is an exuberant though occasionally muddy piece, with a few aleatory passages which give some freedom of choice to the performers.

The audience response to the piece was so enthusastic that Kirchner repeated it. It is not a piece which can be easily understood in one sitting, or even in two; a certain mystery remains, some of its parts are still unexplained. It is certainly a work of great genius, a suitable product of a great composer.

The Summer Festival Orchestra, like its counterpart, the Boston Philharmonic, fills a great gap in the cultural life of Boston. This city has been forced for so much too long to tolerate a rapidly deteriorating orchestra with a virtual monopoly on the city's cultural life. The presence of visible competition can only be a benefit to the city, and might even force the Boston Symphony to improve.