Music The Philharmonia at Sanders, Sunday

SANDERS THEATRE was less than half filled for the Boston Philharmonia concert Sunday night. Not a profitable situation for the orchestra, but the real losers were the people who didn't bother to come. The kind of program, and the kind of playing, which was heard in Sanders last Sunday was of a quality that doesn't reach Harvard very often.

The Philharmonia offered an intriguing contrast of styles, periods, and pieces. In the opening work, The Concerto Grosso, Op. 6 No. 1 of Corelli, Alexander Schneider, who conducted, doubled as principal violin in the concertino. The work went along smoothly, indeed brilliantly, but the wisdom of Mr. Schneider's decision to combine roles is dubious. Unfortunately, the orchestra had a tendency, especially in the first movement, to enter just a fraction of a beat behind him, a problem which would not have cropped up if he were not playing. Nonetheless, it was a fine performance, with especially good work by cellist Corinne Flavin and violinist Robert Brink.

Boston has never been fertile territory for clarinetists. The clarinet situation in the Boston Symphony was an open scandal for many years, until Harold Wright took the first chair this year. Wright established himself as a fine soloist with his performance of the clarinet part in Piston's Second Symphony with the BSO earlier this year. In the Mozart A Major Clarinet Concerto, K. 622, last Sunday night, he demonstrated his exceptional talent quite well. There were a few problems with the performance, however. Wright had some slight mechanical problem with his instrument from the second movement on, which forced him to reduce the dynamic level of the performance somewhat. The notes from G through B' emerged sounding a bit strained. Schneider, who has a tendency to rush into the beginning of a movement, and then gradually slow down, caught Wright off guard at the beginning of the third movement and was forced to start over. But these were minor annoyances, not major defects. In fact, the Philharmonia's performance of the Concerto was at least as good as any recorded version of it presently available, and probably better. The horns were particularly accurate, and, with a minor exception here and there, the violins were first rate.

STRAVINSKY'S Dumbarton Oaks Concerto is dedicated neither to the Harvard Byzantine Center nor to the United Nations conference. It was commissioned by the original owners. of Dumbarton Oaks for their thirtieth wedding anniversary. It is a light, lively piece, charming and remarkably entertaining. The piece is particularly taxing on the brasses and woodwinds, and they performed beautifully. The Concerto deliberately parallels the third Brandenburg in many ways, especially in the opening theme and the three part violin and viola sections. But, although it parallels the Bach piece, it does not resemble it, nor is it based on Bach in the way that Lukas Foss's Baroque Variations are.

The 'little' G minor Symphony is one of Mozart's most intriguing pieces. It is much more forceful than most of the earlier Mozart, written in 1783. I find the minuet in the third movement most astounding, since it lacks the airy, flighty tones of the typical minuet. However, in his intensity of interpretation, Schneider made it an even darker and more foreboding piece than usual.

His interpretation was for the most part weighty, and usually geared to the mood of the piece. Schneider is a musician who understands Mozart, and interprets this piece much in the manner of Bruno Waiter. He did a truly fine job.

If the season's opener was any indication, this will be a fine year for the Philharmonia. If the season's first audience was indicative, it may also be the last year for the Philharmonia. The orchestra deserves better than that.