The symphony - 'very pleasurable performance'
Thursday night's Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra concert came off very well.
Conductor Victor Feldbrill introduced, with pianist Anton Kuerti's help, an
important work by Toronto composer Oskar Morawetz and the orchestra put on a
generally capable and workmanlike performance.
[...]
Mr. Morawetz' concerto was written just over four years ago and won a prize in
1962 from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which played it with Mr. Kuerti as
soloist. Since then it has had 15 performances - not bad going for a Canadian
work, especially over that period.
The reason - one of them, anyway - is that it is a well-constructed piece, a
little solemn in places but worth listening to. Its three movements are played
without pause, and while it is not too obvious where the first ends and the
second begins (the first movement has a slow, sombre motif that haunts the ear
throughout) the break between the second and third is more marked.
Mr. Kuerti performs the Morawetz concerto with considerable gusto and not only
seems to have a very clear idea of what the music is about but expresses his
purpose admirably.
[...]
