The Philharmonic could opt to perform "Messiah" with its full forces, but in recent years it has emulated the lean period-instrument aesthetic now in vogue, recruiting early-music specialists like Ton Koopman to lead its annual renditions.
Over his nine years as music director, Michael Tilson Thomas has shaped this orchestra into a lean and versatile instrument.
Mr. Boulez presided everywhere with his usual dynamism and lucidity, and this most chameleonic of orchestras sounded like the ideal Boulezian instrument, lean and incisive.
Given that the pre-test version was considered too long, eight items that did not load highly (loading 0.3) to any of the three factors were also removed to achieve a lean and focused instrument.
Three preludes by a young Ruth Crawford unfurled with the eloquent roil of late Brahms and early Schoenberg; for Henry Cowell's "Banshee," Ms. Cahill leaned into the instrument's casing, rubbing and scraping eerie wails on its strings.
Album covers from Mr. Conte's LP collection adorn the walls — young Woody Guthrie next to Lead Belly — and folk art instruments lean in corners like strange creatures at a sideshow.
There was just so much of it (mostly on the Telecaster; Mr. Paisley's style is a monument to that instrument's lean, percussive sound and country-music tradition) that it stole power from the lyrics.
In most of the new songs — except for the earnest misfire "Wake Up (It's Africa Calling)," a duet with Neneh Cherry — guitars entwine with African instruments in lean, string-driven, mostly unplugged songs.
He continually leans over his instruments to check if they are maintaining their pitch.
Rizzo seemed to lean on cops as an instrument for heading off social change in a city being seismically altered by capital flight, and rising poverty.
Approaches to playing Mozart's music now range from the lean, taut sound of early-instrument groups to the vibrato-rich, romanticized sound favored by some modern ensembles.
