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Precision and intensity are qualities one expects in good chamber orchestras. The Camera Concerti showed neither last night in Swarthout Recital Hall.
By Stuart Levine Instructor in English
The group has the appearance of one of those gatherings of musical friends in someone's living room for a pleasant evening of sight-reading—a fine custom, by the way—but in honest truth, I have heard such informal amateurs produce far better performances than we heard last night. Every entrance was ragged, there were burbles and bobbles and squeaks, and too many lapses in intonation.
And the accompaniment was dreadful throughout the work, not merely imprecise, but also quite without the good-natured bounce this bubbling little work deserves.
Joseph Eger, who doubles as the group's conductor and its horn soloist, is an impressive enough musician, as those who have heard his L.P. "Around the Horn" will testify.
He appeared as soloist in the Mozart French Horn Concerto K 495, and played well indeed, although I have heard him on much better nights. His tempi were good, especially in the first movement; even the late Dennis Brain usually played that far too fast.
These Mozart corcerci come without cadenzas; you write your own. The one Mr. Eger provided was out of character with the work. It called for stopped horn playing of a type a Mozartean hornist could not have produced. (Mr. Eger had to pause to adjust his tuning slide before the stopped passages), and included other passages technically unplayable on the valveless horn for which the work was composed. To make matters worse, the soloist had an embarrassingly hard time with his own cadenza.
Karen Tuttle appeared as viola soloist in two works, a G Major concerto by Telemann and Paul Hindemith's Traumusic for Viola and String Orchestra. She is a good violist and played both the eighteenth
century work and the contemporary one expressively, but she is certainly not of professional solo caliber.
Again, one had the impression of watching a good amateur at work. She flopped around the stage like a rag-doll, apparently oblivious to her surroundings, and even beat her foot during the faster movements. Personally I found these awkward mannerisms engaging, but they did underline her lack of professional polish.
Three Corelli dances and the Hindemith piece were the best-played works. The program was framed by two Handel selections, the Concerti Number 2 in F and the Water Music. The performance of the first was sloppy, and the second sounded terribly thin to ears accustomed to bigger ensembles.
Speaking of awkwardness: Mr. Eger must be the least graceful conductor in the business. I liked his choice of tempi throughout, but he seemed quite unable to get the Camera Concerti to play together.
Callas Keeps Dallas Red Carpet Unrolled
DALLAS — (UFI)— Maria Calls was scheduled to arrive here today for her only American operatic appearance of the season but Dallas opera officials were not sure what time to use their red carpet for the temperamental diva.
Miss Callas appeared at a concert in Kansas City last week and then raced to Europe to seek a postponement of the separation suit filed by her estranged husband, industrialist Giovanni Battista Menghini.
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Tuesday, November 3,1959 University Daily Kansan
The deadline for applications for Watkins Faculty Scholarships for the summer of 1960 has been extended to Nov. 14 according to James E. Seaver, associate professor of history and Western Civilization, chairman of the selections committee.
The scholarships provide funds for summer research by younger faculty members who have completed their Ph.D. but who have not yet attained the rank of associate professor.
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