University of Virginia Library

Exciting Musical Year
For Sesquicentennial

By Roy Bonavita

It has been an exciting musical
year, and there is much to please
coming up in the 1969-70 season at
the University during the
confusion of the sesquicentennial
year. Mr. Jefferson was fond of
chamber music, so let's look at the
Tuesday Evening Concert Series'
programs first. The very heart of
the TECS is the string quartet and
there will be two of them. The
Guarneri (opening the series), and
the Hungarian Quartet later in the
season. There will be one concert
pianist, Peter Frankl, whose
meteoric rise to fame has dazzle
the world. The Berlin Philharmonic's
Octet will perform some
of the most attractive chamber
music ever written, while Charlie
Byrd, long familiar to many for his
performances at the Show Boat
restaurant in D.C. and now at his
own nightclub in the Washington
suburbs, will employ his great
musical gifts on the repertory of
the classical guitar. The Marlboro
Trio, a Renaissance Quartet and
Dimitri Markevitch, cellist, round
out the TECS' programs for the
year.

There is one glaring omission
in the Tuesday Evening line-up. No
Singer! This error cannot have been
purposeful because it is a
thoroughly entrenched tradition
that we shall have at least one
first-rate voice each year. Why
would, or should, this year be any
exception? The crops of good
opera singers are at peaks.
There is always the problem of
scheduling, but where there is a will
... Moreover, the large numbers of
lieder and opera buffs in this
community want to hear one. This
is one of those "traditional responsibilities"
which happens to befall
TECS. No one is asking for as many
singers as any other type of
performance — a quartet or trio of
voices — but just one concert in
eight, but surely not an appendage
to an early music quartet. Can the
line of Schwarzkopf, Sutherland,
Horne, Danco, Rubio, Fisher-Diskau,
Prey, Alva and many others
be broken now? Why should it be?
It isn't too late to correct one-gap
in an otherwise super group of
concerts.

Like the TECS, Artists Series'
intentions are to give best what
they do best, so their programs gear
to the larger audiences that those
events will attract. Two debates
mark the opening concert for the
Artists' Series. The first is that of
the renowned Boston Symphony
Orchestra itself, with its long line of
distinguished music and artistic
directors, which has not performed
at this University before to the best
of my understanding.

The second, and to me most
important, debut will be that of Dr.
William Steinberg, musical director
of the Pittsburgh Symphony, who
assumes the chair vacated by Mr.
Leinsdorf with the Boston this fall.
There is no musical career more
distinguished than Dr. Steinberg's.
He is without the slightest question
at the pinnacle of interpretation in
all symphonic music by Beethoven,
Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and
Wagner in this country — bar none.
His series of Mahler concerts with
the New York Philharmonic have
been hailed as great milestones in
musical history for that city. Dr.
Steinberg comes to the University
after his first, but long overdue, fall
opera recording in London during
the summer. When he comes, it will
be a supreme moment for the
University, maybe similar to Steinberg's
production of Wagner's "Die
Valkyrie" at the Metropolitan
Opera several years ago when
applause for him lasted for more
than fifteen minutes.

Foresight should be exercised
by many of us for the second
attraction; the Boris Goldovsky
Grand Opera Theatre will present
Verdi's masterpiece, La Traviata in
a new English translation. The poor
Goldovsky company. They are
compared with everything from the
performances of Wagner by Bayreuth
company at the Osaka Festival
in Japan, through La Scala's
season, to the quintessence of
"package program" opera at the
Theatre Colon in Argentina each
summer. So, Mr. Goldovsky, while
we criticize you, we are trying to
remember that your company has
professional artists, some greatly
talented, who are systematically
denied all the props and assets of
even a minor league opera house in
East Germany. The Traviata, if
anywhere near as good as Carmen
overall, will provide a delightful
evening with Verdi, Until the
Metropolitan Opera comes to Charlottesville
for one dollar and
ninety-eight cents, let's face it ...

This year marks the third
appearance, I believe, of the London
Symphony Orchestra at the
University. This orchestra, with the
competition of four full-time
orchestras in London, is the most
recorded orchestra in the industry.
Last year alone they ran the gamut
in performances with such guest
conductors as Leopold Stokowski,
Pierre Boulez and even Andre
Previn, the latter our conductor this
coming season and the Lannon
Symphony's permanent musical
director.

Assets outweigh liabilities this
coming year, and just one word to
all concerning performances. Why
pay more to see these artists
out-of-town? The University,
through its well known plans
through the University Union and
from the McIntyre Fund, offers
students, and faculty, all of these
outstanding musical events for rock
bottom prices. One would pay half
the cost of a season ticket to either
series for a one time performance
for any of the performances lined
up. There is simply no excitement
that can rival a "live" performance.