Orchestra worked hard

Press, 26 July 1976, Page 4

Orchestra worked hard

The Canterbun Orchestra's first subscription concert for the 1976-77 season < in the Christchuich town i Hal! on Saturday evening must have left many of the', small audience with mixed feelings. The confident promise of the high-spirited perform- 11 ance of Mozart's “Linz"! symphony - a few ragged! entries and some untidv in 1 tunation excepted — wagradually eroded and re o p'aced bs a feeling of anx ; ietv n the latter staees n* ’ Copland's Clarinet Concert, I anc n the faster movemento' Mendelssohn’' “halair | ssmnhony The galant little band <>• I 32 plavers (leader. Rut I , Pearl) worked hard for th< j conductor Dobb' Franks I However thev were prob I ablv as well aware as anx I ’ one in the auditorium that ; | chamber orchestra with only j

lb strings suitable for Mozart can hardly provide adequate balance against a double woodwind and brass section in the tutti passages 'of Mendelssohn. Dobbs Franks made no concessions in this difficult programme to the technical adequacy of the players. At time.-, the onward-moving moulding of the music, so■ vpical of the conductor, denanded more from the play•rs than they were able to uve The Mendelssohn svm•hont for example, coming 11» the end of the pro-1 ■amine seemed to be tool nuch for the strings to sus- ’ ain comfortablv. although! he performance was helped, done by the cohesion of 'he woodwind and brass plavers. i The Mozart and the' .lower movements of the; Mendelssohn were generally' erv successful. Although | suspect intonation in many!

places was an ever-present . worry, such blemishes did not obscure the over-all, shape and spirit of the per- ’ formance. i Keith Spragg was the soloist in Copland’s Concerto for clarinet with strings and piano. The soloist's smooth control of his instrument was an impressive feature of the performance. from the warmlyiscored opening, through the : difficult and rather banal isolo cadenza to the tricky Scherzo-like final section Unfortunately for composition and performance, the exposed interplav among : nstruments and the deceptive rhvthmic patterns near'y caused the collapse of the last section. Inadequate numbers was not the prob'em here: rather an insecurity of technique which more rehearsal may have overcome. — John M. Jennings