Thank you, Richard Strauss

23. September 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, Quotes, Videos

Ten Golden Rules For the Album of a Young Conductor

1. Remember that you are making music not to amuse yourself, but to delight your audience.
2. You should not perspire when conducting: only the audience should get warm.
3. Conduct Salome and Elektra as if they wer ebe Mendelssohn: Fairy Music.
4. Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a brief glance to give an important cue.
5. But never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight. If you can hear them at all they are still too strong.
6. If you think that the brass is now blowing hard enough, tone it down another shade or two.
7. It is not enough that you yourself should hear every word the soloist sings. You should know it by heard anyway. The audience must be able to follow without effort. If they do not understand the words they will go to sleep.
8. Always accompany the singer in such a way that he can sing without effort.
9. When you think you have reached the limits of prestissimo, double the pace.*
10. If you follow these rules carefully you will, with your fine gifts and your great accomplishments, always be the darling of your listeners.

From “The Golden Rules for the Album of a Young Conductor” (1925)

* Amended in 1948: Today I should like to amend this: take the tempo half as fast. (Mozart conductors, please note!)

… and here he is, excitedly conducting a work he wrote:

Dudamel Quotes

17. September 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Conductors, Quotes

It’s not that people don’t like classical music. It’s that they don’t have the chance to understand and to experience it. Going to a concert can sometimes be very difficult. It can be a long journey. There’s the ticket prices. But when the music goes to the community – not the community coming to the concert – they say, ‘Wow! I didn’t know that this music was so amazing!’

“We have to go and show these people what classical music is. We say sometimes that classical music has a small audience, but it’s because people don’t have the chance to be closer to it. Of course, we also have to play in concert halls. This is our dream when you are a musician – to play in a good, comfortable hall with a wonderful acoustic. But it’s also important to bring these new audiences to concerts.

And later there’s this:

For Dudamel, the key is to approach everything as if for the first time. “You become a musician because you like music … but in time, when you have your job and you start to work every week, music becomes a routine. My job is to avoid this routine. The challenge is not so much to change the sound. The challenge is to connect and to create something special,” he says.

“Sometimes I say to orchestras, ‘Look, people are coming to concerts to listen but also to see what is happening on the stage.’ Because it’s so easy to enjoy music with a CD in your house. You can stop whenever you want. If you want to talk to somebody with your mobile or to drink a little glass of wine or a scotch.

“A concert, it’s like a ritual. But the ritual has sometimes become tired. And that is why, even for me sometimes, when I go to a concert, I think, ‘Oh my God, here we need something more!’ The musicians have to give something more. They don’t have to jump, they don’t have to scream, but they do have to communicate their feelings.”

Yes. Indeed!

And I’ll end with this:

“I was thinking just now of rehearsing the Alpine Symphony. That is a symphony with a huge orchestration, and it’s not true that less and less is more. I remember [Sir John] Barbirolli speaking about Jacqueline du Pré – a huge artist giving everything in every note – and he said, ‘If you don’t exaggerate when you are young, what will you have when you are old?’ “

But do go read the entire article!

Enjoy!

07. September 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Conductors, Videos

(I posted his 5 year old rendition of Rite of Spring some time ago … but look what he was doing at age 4! I wonder if he can make an oboe reed. Hmmm.)

Final Dress, Over & Out

04. August 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, Merola, Opera

So now it’s on to the four performances of L’Elisir d’Amore.

Four years ago the same conductor, Martin Katz, was here. I had to cancel out on a rehearsal because I was sick. This year I don’t have to cancel out, but I do have a stupid cold. Sigh. Last night I had a few coughing spells, but otherwise I survived. Now I’m on to the constant sniffly stage. Not fun when one is playing oboe, but what can ya do?

The opera is easy for second oboe (as I’ve told readers earlier) but it is certainly not easy to play as softly as required due to the non-pit. Last night a colleague asked an audience member (they bring in donors and others for the dress rehearsals) how the balance was and she said we did still cover up the singers at times. I can honestly say I can’t play any softer, and I already have a swab in the bell to mute the sound. I could play “air oboe” if necessary, though. That doesn’t even require a good reed!

The conductor, Martin Katz, has been a pianist for a number of singers, including Marilyn Horne. From what I can see, I can’t put up anything with Horne, as all the YouTube videos request I don’t embed them. So here are some links from his younger days:

Rossini: “Se il vuol, la molinara”
Copland: Simple Gifts
Saint-Saëns: “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix”

… and of course there are more.

Here is an interview with Martin Katz:

Part 1:

Part 2:

New Conductor for Seattle

29. June 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors

.. and it’s another young conductor who has been hired. This time it’s for Seattle:

It’s official: The Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s baton will be passed to a 36-year-old French maestro, Ludovic Morlot, when Gerard Schwarz steps down from the music directorship a year from now.

I read it here.

Here’s another article.

Another Young Conductor

16. June 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, News

I’m rather late on this one … I kept meaning to blog about it but put it off. So most folks already know that Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has been named music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

He’s not all THAT young; he’s thirty five.

Remember that “don’t trust anyone over thirty”? I mean … thirty used to be old. Right?

;-)

Here are a few videos:

An interview:

conducting snippets

A Conductor Blogs

01. April 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, Opera

Oh-oh! Guess who did not come to the rehearsal today?
I left my residence, which is all of two blocks north of the Met. On the way, I was sure that I saw Angela walking in the same direction. This struck me as odd, as I knew that she was staying south of Lincoln Center. And it was only 30 minutes before rehearsal was scheduled to begin.
Upon arrival, I checked in with the musical crew. About seven minutes before we were to start, Craig came over to the pit, grumbling about problematic sopranos, only not in very nice words at all. The rest of us did not understand what was going on and it was then that we were informed that Angela said she was too tired to sing and act today.
Now what were we supposed to do?

[and further down on the entry ...]

Looking at the orchestra, whom I had only seen twice before, there were some faces that were not familiar. With a standard rep opera this is not uncommon. Everyone is supposed to know the music backward and forward. Traviata is performed practically every year at the Met.
But what I might have said in rehearsal to one player, or a section, may not have been put in the music. And so there were a couple of minor traffic accidents. The players always caught themselves but it still seemed awkward at certain moments.

-Leonard Slatikin

Days and Nights at the Opera (Part II)

Want to read more from Maestro Slatkin? Just go here.

Conductors of the Female Persuasion

22. February 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Conductors

A female conductor is an interesting thing, because it first of all challenges the idea of a conductor as a dictatorial, dominant force, and maybe it reinforces the idea of a conductor as someone who is sharing a musical idea with people.

-Stephen Hough

Is Mr. Hough suggesting a woman won’t (can’t?) be a “dictatorial, dominant force”? What am I missing here? (I easily miss things.)

I read it here, in an article about women conductors. It also includes this:

I would never ever limit myself to thinking of somebody based on sexual priority, or being a man or woman, or young or old. It’s just not important. Music is as close as we get to God in this living world. This is an international language that everyone, somehow, understands.

-Anu Tali

Should Conductors Be Performing on Their Instruments?

22. February 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Conductors

Among today’s crop of conductors I can’t find a single one who performs on their instrument with any semblance of regularity. It took me a while to find out that The Dude played violin at one point, though there is absolutely no mention of him doing that in public for the last 14 years (though from some reports in the press he seems on the verge of being capable of transubstantiation). My fellow Buffalonian Michael Christie got himself a degree in Trumpet, but ditto on the disappearing instrument. My buddy Alastair Willis? No idea. I do know that his sister is a helluva horn player, but that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong – I like all these guys, but my question is: “How do conductors expect orchestras to take us seriously if we don’t play our instruments?”

-Bill Eddins

I read it here.

I take conductors seriously when they are good conductors. I’m honestly not bothered at all if they don’t perform on an instrument. I am bothered by incompetent conductors. That is what drives me absolutely bonkers.

Well, that and oboe reeds. Duh.

But maybe some of you are annoyed that conductors don’t play instruments. Feel free to comment here … or go over to Bill Eddins post and comment there.

Manfred Honeck

20. February 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Conductors

Manfred Honeck, the music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, is a Roman Catholic who prays before every concert, sometimes in the company of fellow musicians, tries to attend Mass daily, makes no secret of a desire to perform in the Vatican and had a private chapel built in his home in Austria.

Mr. Honeck, 51, known mostly in Europe before taking over in Pittsburgh last year, made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut on Feb. 9 with performances of Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s First Symphony. In a lengthy interview the next day that ranged over his views on Mahler, an artist’s role in society and his family history, he spoke openly of his religious beliefs. Catholicism permeates his life, and has an influence on both how he programs and how he conceives of music.

“It’s a guide,” he said of his religious conviction. “I’m an instrument, to make music better, to make my profession more honest. It allows me to be very deep in my soul. Therefore, the music probably comes very deep from that area of my soul.”

At the same time Mr. Honeck stressed that he did not bring a religious interpretation to bear on music generally, or impose his beliefs on the players. “As music director, you’re the music director, not a spiritual leader,” he said.

Hmmm. Second conductor post today. Just that sort of day, I guess.

I recently was thinking about how my faith influences my playing. I don’t write about my beliefs here, but I’m sure readers notice that I put up Sunday morning and evening sacred music. Faith and music seem somehow connected to me. When I perform, I do try to focus on glorifying God, because of what I believe. But I’m rather quiet about my faith with my colleagues. I do appreciate Maestro Honeck’s openness about his faith.

Read the whole thing.

Edo de Waart Doesn’t Just Listen to Classical

20. February 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, Read Online

When asked what he had listened to most recently for pleasure, de Waart answered without hesitating, “James Taylor. ‘Never Die Young.’?”

Calling Taylor a “great American artist,” he said he exchanges Christmas cards with the singer/songwriter and plays his music so often that his young children recognize it after just a few notes.

No James Taylor is on the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra schedule for next season, though.

I read it here.

5 Year Old Conductor

15. February 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, Videos

… doing Rite of Spring. I’ll let his work speak for itself. You don’t need to hear from me! Well, except to say this kid is cute and clearly hears the music!

Female Conductors

23. January 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, Links

“If there are difficult issues, for instance if a male conductor is yelling in a theatre about something, then it’s generally accepted – the way men handle difficult situations is taken as a mark of authority. But to do this as a woman can be very badly perceived. Different ways of handling a crisis are more usual for men. Showing the same authority from a woman’s point of view is sometimes not that easy for others to deal with.”

-Emmanuelle Haïm

I’ve never heard a woman conductor yell, so I guess I don’t know how it would be handled around here. I’ve had one apologize a bit too much. These days I rarely hear a male conductor yell either. When I began my professional career I certainly heard a fair share of yelling. It didn’t bother me, because my high school years were spent with a screaming conductor. I thought that’s what they were supposed to do! I remember people getting so angry about a yelling conductor and all I could think was, “What’s the big deal?!” I no longer like yelling. Go figure.

Anyway, check out the article about women conductors and that old glass ceiling thing.

Leonard Slatkin

23. January 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors

… attempting to live healthier, says:

“Giulini told me that when he woke up and realized he’d survived, he vowed to make a change: that life would no longer be a part of music, but from that that moment music would be a part of his life. At the time, I was too young to really get it. Now I understand.

“I’ve made up my mind that free weeks will be free weeks, and no matter who calls with a cancellation, I’m not going.”

Part of living healthier is knowing when to turn down jobs. I’ve gotten to a point now where I actually don’t feel as if I have to take everything. Sure, the income would be wonderful, but health — sanity! — is also somewhat important. Not that I’m anywhere close to as busy (or talented) as Maestro Slatkin, of course. But I can learn from the Big Guys, right?

I love this part of the article:

“I haven’t been perfect,” he confessed. “I slip sometimes. Like the other night at the Pistons game I had a cupcake.”

For some reason the fact that it’s a cupcake just makes me smile. (Also makes me want one, of course!)

RTWT

Leslie Dunner

13. January 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Conductors, Symphony

… will be joining Symphony Silicon Valley for two sets this year. First it’s Porgy & Bess (scroll down), which we are doing for two weeks, so if you can’t fit it in with that link’s dates, try this, and later a Mozart/Mahler set (scroll down). Turns out that’s not all he’s up to. He’s a candidate for Peoria Symphony Orchestra as well. But wait! That’s not all!

Leslie Dunner, the next candidate for music director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, has plunged hundreds of feet over southern Africa’s Zambezi River. He’s jumped out of planes. He’s scuba dived with sharks.

And that’s what he does for relaxation.

“At one point I was seeing my doctor about all of this, and he said, ‘You know, what you do professionally is so rigorous and so regimented and so detailed and so exact that you reach points where you’ve got to break away, and so you go overboard,’ ” said Dunner, who leads the Peoria Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Rachmaninoff and Mozart on Saturday.

“After the shark cage diving, I was volunteering in a project in South Africa. I was placed working in an old age home. That was something I had never, ever imagined myself doing – taking care of people. There were 78 residents between the ages of 67 and 95. I worked with them for three weeks.”

Such ventures aren’t merely ways of blowing off steam. Back in the early 1990s, Dunner was touring with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and realized that he was visiting a lot of countries considered “exotic” for an American but not learning anything about the people, the land, the culture or the environment. He decided that every year he would try to make a trip that would help him learn about the planet, another culture or himself.

RTWT

Now I’m thinking of all sorts of imaginative and thrill-seeker ways he could land on the podium when he’s here. Hmmm.

« Older articles
Newer articles »