Bows But No Scrapes As the Bach Soc. Bows Out

Classical music recitals continue through the summer in Cambridge and Boston, but many local performing groups are giving their last concerts of the season during the next couple of weeks.

The Bach Society Orchestra appears in its final performance of the season this Saturday, offering a program which is pretty much in the same vein as its three previous concerts this year. Although Bach Soc tends toward Bach and Classical works, it also programs a modicum of nineteenth and twentieth-century pieces. Although Bach, Haydn and Mozart were featured, the pre-Romantic era was hardly the emphasis of the concert programs this year--which included Bruch, Vaughan Williams, Mahler, Wagner, Prokofiev and Kodaly.

The final Bach Soc concert does not really reflect this post-Classical emphasis as much as did the previous concerts, but it is interesting nonetheless. The orchestra plays Kodaly's Dances of Galenta, Vivaldi's "winter" and "Spring" from the "Four Seasons," and Mozart's Symphony No. 35 ("Haffner"). The last piece should be most noteworthy, but also watch for violinst Jennie Shames, who has shown real talent and sensitivity in the past, in the Vivaldi work. The Bach Soc performs at Sanders Theatre on Saturday, May 6, at 8:30 pm. Tickets are available at the door or at Holyoke Ticket Office.

Two concerts this week at the New England Conservatory should not be missed. On Wednesday, May 10, faculty member Veronica Jochum performs in the final faculty concert of a series of recitals by the NEC piano faculty. She plays Mozart's Sonata in F Major K. 533, Bach's Sixth English Suite in d minor, Beethoven's Sonata in c-sharp minor op. 27, no. 2 ("Moonlight"), and Scriabin's Preludes and Poeme Sanatique op. 361: a superb program beginning at 8 pm in Jordan Hall, 290 Huntington Ave., Boston. Admission is free.

In the other NEC concert, pianist Gabriel Chodos plays Mozart's Rondo in D Major K. 485 and Sonata in D Major K. 576, Schubert's Sonata in A Major Op. 120, and Chopin's Preludes Op. 28. The Mozart Sonata and Chopin Preludes are especially worthwhile. Chodos plays on Sunday, May 7, at 8 pm in Jordan Hall. This concert is also free. Call 262-1120 for more details.

Currier House Fishbowl is the setting fog the Currier Concerto Concert on Sunday, May 7. Pianist Richard Kogan, soprano' Tamara Mitchel, and violinist Stephen Chan join in a recital of Grieg, Wagner and Bach, conducted by Louis Karchin, at 8:30 pm. These are all experienced and refined performers, so it's worth the $1 payable at the door. Rounding out the week in a big and noisy way, the traditional Open Reading of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikowsky takes place also on Sunday with rehearsal at 1:30 and a performance at 3 pm. All musicians--bring your own music stands--are invited to Lowell House courtyard. Maybe they'll use the Russian bells in the Lowell House belfry.

Among the classical happenings during the rest of the month, a selection of some of the more interesting follows Catherine and Robert Strizich will perform a lute and guitar recital of Baroque and Renaissance music on Friday, May 12, using copies of Baroque and Renaissance music on Friday, May 12, using copies of Baroque instruments with "musical interpretation based on original sources and performance practices of the era." Go to the Boston Center for Adult Education, 5 Comm Ave., for some little-heard early music. The concert is at 8 pm and admission is $2. Call 267-4430 for more info on plucked instruements.

Roy Kogan, the student who rendered a St. Saens work so nicely in an HRO concert earlier this spring, will perform in a piano recital on Friday, May 12, at 8:30 pm, in Adams Lower Common Room. Kogan's performance of works of Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and Schumann should be just as fine and convincing as his HRO performance.

In another Harvard concert, members of the faculty of Philips Exeter Academy will give a concert of chamber works of Crumb, Beethoven, Villa-Lobos and others on Monday, May 15 at 8 pm in Holmes Hall, North House. The concert is free and open to the public.

'The Mount Royal Brass Quintet, comprised of members of the Faculty of Music of McGill University, Montreal, performs its Boston debut on May 15. The year-old group will play brass works by Bach, Dahl, le Jeune, Calvert, Schuller, and Ewald.

The concert is at Paine Hall, Music Building, at 8:30 pm, and is free. Call Harvard University Band at 495-2000 for further details.

Finally, the last concert of the Busch-Reisinger Thursday Noon Recital Series for the spring semester takes place on Thursday, June 1. If you're still around, you can listen to organist James Higbe play Bach's Concerto in Cmajor, Toccata and Fugue in d minor ("Dorian") and other works. Call 495-2317 for more info. And have a good summer.