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Show ymphony Review ill Symphony Seasons Ends With Exciting Ensembles The charm of the opening "Allegro," "Alle-gro," the tensile strength of the slow movement, and the brilliance of the closing were clarified and amplified with taste and technical excellence. Still mistrusted and misunderstood, misunder-stood, the late Beethoven quartets are generally attempted by only the finest ensembles, and with reason, rea-son, for they are taxing in every way. The Guarneri Quartet did everything ev-erything in their power to shape and vivify the C Sharp Quartet, and the glittering scherzi and moving mov-ing variations of the work grew under their hands. Composed in seven movements, to be played without pause, the C sharp Quartet leaves no time for retuning or rest, and the slight intonation difficulties difficul-ties in the closing movements were nothing compared with the musicianship musi-cianship and daring of the effect. j By MIKE SAFFLE Two outstanding ensembles the iah Symphony Orchestra and the Tjarneri String Quartet gave j.. r0 outstanding and interesting con-rts con-rts this past weekend, bringing e regular Utah Symphony season 111 a ad the 1967-68 Salt Lake Civic. elt!lusic Association concerts to a feose. Hllie Utah Symphony concert Friday Fri-day night, featuring Berlioz' beau-iful beau-iful and rarely-heard "The Childhood Child-hood of Christ," vindicated any J Earlier season flaws in my eyes. "'Maestro Abravanel led his orches-Vja, orches-Vja, the University-Civic Chorale, llhti soloists Roy Samuelson, Mer-,l4ne Mer-,l4ne Johns, Don Watts and Thomas East. in a moving and carefully-prepared carefully-prepared reading of one of the few rue masterpieces of French romantic ro-mantic music. The orchestra, subtle sub-tle and sensitive, not only provided ear and balanced accompaniments accompani-ments for the chorus and soloists, ut performed the "Night March," 'Incantation Music," and "Seran-ls;ade" "Seran-ls;ade" sections with verve and taste. 1 And the soloists, while not splendid lknd artistic at all times, generally !isang accurately and enthusiastically, enthusiastic-ally, conveying Berlioz' musical in tentions with competence. Most Successful The Childhood of Christ, narrating narrat-ing the story of the flight of t h e Holy Family into Egypt, puzzled Berlioz' contemporaries and lacks the overt splendor and orchestral brilliance of the earlier "Requiem" and "Symphonie Fantastique". But the delicate craftsmanship, the novel and powerful form, and the masterful emotional strength of the work cannot be denied several authorities have referred to it as Berlioz' most successful composition. composi-tion. - Saturday night's Guarneri Quartet Quar-tet concert at Kingsbury Hall, featuring fea-turing three Beethoven quartets in absolutely masterful interpretations, interpreta-tions, was as great a success as this year's local music scene might have wished and not a thousand people attended the recital, despite student tickets available for a quarter quar-ter with activity card! Opening with the master's "Quartetto Seri-oso," Seri-oso," the four instrumentalists Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, Michael Tree, and David Soyer amply justified the New York Times' opinion that "There is no escaping the fact that, singly and as a group, it (the Guarneri Quartet) Quar-tet) has no superior on the world's stages." From one dazzling sonority son-ority to the next, the Guarneri players unfolded Beethoven's structural struc-tural and emotional ideas with understanding un-derstanding and care. The Serios Quartet is a huge and complex series se-ries of difficulties; the Guarneri ensemble made the work clear and moving. Beethoven's earlier D Major Quartet, Opus 18, No. 3, a considerably consid-erably lighter work, received a fast-paced and accurate reading. |
