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Concert Roundup
Despite uneven material, Horst Stein proved himself a great conductor and interpreter in his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
It's a pity he wasted precious time on a work by the Austrian composer Theodor Berger, called Chronique Symphonique, which was composed in 1940 and revised in 1953.
Despite the composer's own definition of the work as contemporary music, it is closer to a film score with simple harmony and banal melody. There are even traces of Viennese waltzes, and pseudo-oriental kitsch. It is brilliantly orchestrated, however, and Stein exploited the possibilities to the fullest, spurring the orchestra on to a display of magnificent fireworks.
Dvorak's magnificent Biblical Songs were rendered with so much insight and dedication that one wished there were more than five of them. The magnificent Czech mezzo- soprano Dagmar Peckova's dark-colored voice gave the songs a moving, introspective performance.
But the success was no less Stein's. Though he hardly moves his arms, the orchestra...