Midnight at Sanders With the HRO

John Finley's Hum 3 doubled its enrollment this year. The rebirth of interest in the humanities at Harvard applies to the other performing arts as well. Last Friday 1300 people filled Sanders Theatre for a midnight concert by the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. Despite the turning away of 200 people, the aisles were so crowded that fire officials nearly cancelled the performance.

Conductor James Yannatos presented an unusually vigorous selection of works, fortunate in view of the late hour. The program opened with a Bela Bartok suite of Rumanian folk dances orchestrated in 1917 by the composer from the piano solo version. The orchestral playing was excellent; big, clear, and confident. The pizzicato passages were especially impressive for their precision of execution by such a large group. But for content, the Bartok was not satisfying as an opener because the sketches are extremely short and lack formal compositional unity.

The conducting here--as through the entire concert--was skillful and a pleasure to watch. 'Yannatos' beat is clear and simple yet his form is animated. He has a peculiar rocking motion that in others could be annoying. The beauty of his conducting is in the pinpoint control he exercises over the orchestra, a product of confidence and experience that the student conductors we often see tend to lack.

The Bach society has a Stravinsky concert in the works, but the HRO beat them to it by playing the brilliant Symphonies of Wind Instruments, composed in 1920. Stravinsky employs masses of sound from the brasses (much the way Janacek does in the Sinfonietta) set against tight harmonies in the woodwinds. The result is a kind of Debussy with metallic colors. The rapt attention of the inactive string players on stage was ample testimony to the rendition.

The only flaw in programming was the dull Bach Cantata No. 51. Not even a magnificent trumpet obbligato part could redeem the initial aria. Joan Heller, the soprano soloist,' has a beautiful voice remarkable for its evenness. Her diction was good and one could only wish for more variation in dynamics. It was a mistake to use a harpsichord against the full string body: Gerald Moshell pushed the instrument as much as possible and all it produced was a distracting non-tonal jangle. With smaller forces, though, it was quite adequate; and the continuo playing included some appropriate ritards.

Tchaikowsky is gentle even in his fierce moments, and it is his Romeo and Juliet suite that is better know than Prokofiev's. When the Prokofiev version (second suite, opus 64) begins, it comes as quite a shock. The very extremes of range and timbre are called for, and once again the orchestra responded well. All the solo playing was very good, particularly from flute, harp, piano, and saxophone. Pitch was excellent, including the bizarre but effective ending with contrabassoon and piccoio.

Since many of the faithful had come at 11 p.m. to hear chamber music, by 1:30 in the morning it was clear that an intermission was more a curse than a blessing. Professor Yannatos eliminated it, conducting the well-known Strauss Till Eulenspiegel right after the Prokofiev. It was a perfectly light-hearted conclusion to an unusual evening. The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra has demonstrated an exciting and impressive level of skill in their second concert of the season.