The Concertgoer Music at Sanders

WATCHING an amateur performance of the St. Matthew Passion is like watching an octogenarian make love; the wonder is not so much how well it's done, as the fact that it gets done at all. The Harvard Glee Club-Radcliffe Choral Society production of the Passion last Saturday night, then, was doubly a wonder, since it was both done and done well.

The St. Matthew Passion is a monumental work, requiring two orchestras, six or more soloists, and a huge three-part chorus. The preparation that goes into a performance is usually much too much work for any but full time professionals. Saturday night's performance shows that dedicated amateurs, given a lot of hard work, can do a pretty good job, too.

The soloists in the Passion were, for the most part, top flight. Karl Dan Sorensen, as the Evangelist, had a remarkable tenor voice of incomparable beauty, given a slight tendency to thin out in the upper register. Francis Hester as Jesus was beyond praise, giving a flawless performance of a beautiful part. Nancy Wilson, a sophomore called in at the last minute to fill in for the ailing soprano, did a splendid job, handling most of her role as if she knew it by heart. The choruses were in wonderful shape, as was the first orchestra which handled itself remarkably well. For a choral conductor, F. John Adams did a remarkable job in preparing the ensemble.

There were, of course, some problems with the piece. The other soloists were not up to the quality of Sorensen, Hester, and Wilson; their performances ranged from adequate to bad. The strings of the second orchestra, excepting the cello, were out of shape, seemingly under-rehearsed. But the viola da gamba and flute solos, the latter especially, were remarkably well-handled and most of the orchestra played nicely.

This performance of the Passion was, unfortunately, a one-time occurrence-the musical event of the spring season at Harvard. If you missed it-and many people were unable to get tickets-you missed something peculiarly fine. Better luck next time.

NO REVIEW of this weekend's music would be complete without a mention of the Boston Philharmonia's Sunday night concert. Under-publicized, under-attended, and at a ridiculously early hour, the Philharmonia with Leon Fleisher turned out a fine orchestral performance, one of the best I've heard this season. The program ranged from Haydn to Schnabel, and was uniformly well played.

The Philharmonia is a co-operative orchestra, dedicated to performing music outside of the mainstream of the orchestral repertoire. To this end, they put together programs of little known works by great composers, and pieces by more obscure authors. Their program Sunday included Stravinsky's Eight Instrumental Miniatures for Fifteen Players, a series of marvelously pleasant little mood pieces, each a short, refreshing musical exercise with a peculiar beauty; Davies's Antechrist, a strangely medieval piece which the orchestra handled skillfully; and Bach's Suite No. 3 in D Major, a bright, sometimes majestic piece built on sparing major chords which received a thrilling performance.

Schnabel's Duodecimet and Haydn's Symphonie Concertante in B-Flat Major formed the balance of the program, each quite well done. The Philharmonia has only one more concert this season, on May 2, and they certainly deserve a better turnout than Sunday's paltry few hundred.