Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-07
BOSTON ORCHESTRA
IN THIRD CONCERT
Shows at Its Best i'm Rabaud' S
Own Composition: Concert
meister Fradkin the Soloist

The Boston symphony Orchestra gave its
third concert Of the season at the Academy
OF Music last evening before a large audi
cnCe. II was the second Of the series which
Mr. IIabaud las conducted. and in ii much
was done to couuteract tho very. favorable
! impression he produced at the preceding
concert
Tho concert opened with the SchunIaun
| symphony No, (. in - minor. II was rem
dered Care!essly throughout, especially in its
| rhythm and in its dynamcs, in strong CON
| trast 10 the performance of the Beethoven
Seventh Symphony y month ago which was
| done beautifully in both these respects. The
| allegro following the Introduction and the
| finale were taken at speed which made
| clear intonaton difficult and seriously i'm
| paired. if II did not utterly destroy, the
poetic content Of the work. Dramatically, the
| string parts, especially the first \ioliiIs ANA
| the brass, were much too loud completely
OUscuriug throughout the work. the very inn
portant and beautiful middle voices. OrcheS
| rral detail seemed to be almost entirely lack
| ing. or rather indistingushab!e. thythmi-
| CalN the first Niolins We're the chief offend
| ers they seldom played their figures
exactly together. "a very important matter in
| themes aGitatcd and broken as the main
! ones Of this symphony.
II IL true that this work has comparatively
| little in the way of soft Noiciug or sustained
! tones, but last evening there virtually
| none, The solo violin part in the romance
was all but completely lost in the volume Of
tone from the rest OF the orchestra, the plZ-
2cato Of the strings was hard and snappy,
and the peculiar rhythmic character in the
trio Of the scherzo could hardly DO distin-
guished, except at the close of the phrases.
The entire work left the extraordinary i'm
preston for concert Of really fine or
chestra that it had been insuffceutly re-
hearsed.
The second number was the Meudelssohn
concerto for Niolu played by the concert
neister of tie orchestra Mr. Frederick Frad-
kin. lie showed finished left-haud tech
nique, excellent iutonaton and u tone OF
pleasing quality, though not large, but much
Of his fine technical play ing was nulitied by
! a seemingly uncomfortable inClnatio TO run
away from his accompaniment. The same
lack OF rhythmic unity that was heard in
the symphony was apparent in the concerto,
notably in the first and the last movements.
where at times the Soloist was a full half
beat ahead OF the orchestra, The whole
certo was taken at very high rate Of speed
and the total impression of the work was
that Mr.. Fradkn was executing a tour de
force Of technical achievement rather than
artiStlcaUy interpreting a masterpiece Of
violin composition.
1t was in Mr.. Rabaud's own work La
Procession Nocturnc, that the orchestra
showed, for the first time Of the concert,
the work Of which II is really capable, in
perfection of rhythm. tune, dynamic control
and reserve. The composition is an early one
and susfains the good opinion of Mr.. Ra-
baud's ability as composer that was
formed here by his + minor symphony and
the opera "Marouf."
AS in both Of these works. il shows that
lie is a master OF the inouern orchestra, that
he is not afraid to write 4 coherent melody.
and that on the whole he finds the harmonic
scheme of the classical masters sufficient TO
express his musical thoughts. |; is program
music in every sense and follows with fidelity
and sN mpatny the poem of Ienau. upou
which il Is based If there be found in the
music u certain monotony in tempo and
darkness, both Of thought and orchestration.
it must be remembered that both of these
characteristics appear throughout the poem.
and the music could not be otherwise and
remain true TO the text, 1t is an excellent
work and was spcndidy performed.
The concert closed with the king Lear
overture Of BerlioZ which displayed the
usual characteristics of the composer of an
enormous orchestral technique expended upon
ideas OF n grade not too high muscaly and
somewhat .bombastic both in thought and
expression. 1t was played with force and
Nigor.