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By Amy Miller Levine SAN FRANCISCO David Ramadanoff of Sau salito made his West Coast conducting debut last night at the San Francisco Opera House. A severe case of bronchitis kept Maestro Sei ji Ozawa away from the podium. It was a capacity crowd that came to hear Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ‘‘Hodie’’ and Ludwig Van Beetho ven’s ‘‘Violin Concerto in D Major” Stuart Canin, concertmas ter of the San Francisco Symphony, opened the pro gram as soloist in the Bee thoven work. His perform ance was masterful and musical. His tone tender and sweet, bold and authori tative. Some of his phrasings were magnificently embroi dered as his bow arm soared over the strings, equally at home at the frog as well as at the tip. His intonation was good and im mediately corrected when ever less than that. Ramadanoff conducted with authority, anticipating all of the significant cues. The orchestra played well under his direction. The in tonation of the string sec tions was excellent, their ensemble playing precision like. Yet, their tone produced a somewhat sticky, stagnant quality dur ing the characteristically re peated eighth and quarter note figures that appear in the first movement. ‘Hodie”’ a Christmas Can tata with a liturgical text is scored for soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, with chorus, boys’ voices, organ and orchestra. It is the story of Christmas told in 16 musi cal episodes. The two cho ruses filled the stage for this event — dressed in brightly colored red and blue attire. The performance of the boys’ chorus was incredible. Their clarity, purity, preci sion, musicality and delica cy was consistent through out the composition. Almost equally impressive was the performance of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. They projected each of the many moods ex pressed in the text and score with maturity, under standing, sensitivity and musicality. Their perform ance of the lullaby was ex quisitely balanced between the orchestra and the solo soprano. Their clarity of pronunciation was excellent. Sheila Armstrong, the so prano soloist, sang with a lovely and delicate tone quality. Her performance was expressive but difficult to hear because of a weak middle register. Her tone was lovely in the lullaby. Tenor William Harness makes a sound that comes from heaven, beautifully ex ecuted especially in his very first entrance. He appeared, however, to be a little un certain of his cues musical ly. Baritone Richard Stilwell, presented an impressive performance, at ease and in command of what he was doing. His performance of “The Oxen” was outstand ing. Bravo to David Ramadan off for his excellent per formance of a difficult task with such short notice. This concert will be presented again tonight at the opera house at 8:30.
Newspaper Details
San Rafael Independent Journal
San Rafael, California, US
Fri, Dec 19, 1975
Page 23
Full Page
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USA 24 Jun 2026
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