For Mahler’s 150th, the Adagietto from the 5th Symphony, with Bernstein, who helped catapult Mahler from cult status to the mainstream in the 60’s, at the helm of the Vienna Philharmonic:
Archive for the ‘orchestras not named minnesota’ Category
Happy B-day, Gustav
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010First Abuse From The Podium, And Now…
Friday, July 2nd, 2010Judging by the comments appended to Sarah’s post back on May 12, a lot of you were horrified when audio surfaced of conductor Anshel Brusilow brutally dressing down the musicians of the Richardson (TX) Symphony Orchestra during a rehearsal. One musician being singled out by Brusilow for his organizing efforts on behalf of the musicians quit on the spot. You may also recall that the grave sin that the musicians had committed to inspire this spittle-flecked rant from the podium was to pass out leaflets to audience members noting that the RSO’s management hadn’t been paying them anywhere close to on time for two full years.
Anyway, where there’s a spittle-flecked rant that someone thought to record, there’s probably a lot more dissatisfaction bubbling beneath the surface. One of the commenters on Sarah’s original post asked, “Where is the management in all this?” Someone else asked, “Where is the board?” This week, we got an answer to that, as the RSO’s management and board quite dramatically declared war on the musicians of the orchestra, who, as I noted back in May, make an average of $2625 per year from the RSO. (When they’re paid at all.)
Prolific orchestra blogger Drew McManus has a lot more detail than I’m going to go into here, so click on over to Adaptistration if you want the full story, but in a nutshell, here’s how it went down: the musicians were summoned to a meeting that was supposed to be to discuss “structural changes” to the orchestra’s operations. When they arrived, the representatives of the musicians’ union, the AFM, were barred from the meeting by a sheriff’s deputy and the Dallas Police. (I’m pretty sure this would actually have been illegal in Minnesota, but Texas is one of them so-called “right to work” states, which basically means “no right to a union.”) The musicians were then summarily told that their union would no longer be recognized, and the RSO would refuse to negotiate any new collective bargaining agreement with its musicians under any circumstances.
The union has responded by placing the RSO on the “Unfair List,” which basically means that union musicians (which is to say most of us) are strongly discouraged from accepting gigs there. A lot of non-union players also don’t take gigs with Unfair List-ed bands, because it’s not a designation that’s handed down lightly, and it’s usually a pretty strong sign of a very unpleasant working environment. Presumably, the entire complement of the RSO’s musicians will not be back, which is exactly what their management and board seem to want, anyway. Essentially, the orchestra’s leaders have decided that the people who actually play the music are so expendable, so dime a dozen, that there’s no harm in just blowing the entire organization up and starting fresh with, presumably, musicians who don’t mind not getting paid for months at a stretch and being shrieked at by an overpaid, washed-up has-been of a conductor.
It honestly takes a lot to get me worked up about union-management disputes in the orchestra business. On the whole, I’m glad to be in a union, but I also have a lot of philosophical disagreements with those who think musicians should always be in lock-step on every issue simply because we are unionized. I’ve never understood the attitude from some musicians that anyone working in management is automatically the enemy, but I’ve also known more than one orchestra manager or board member who treated musicians like hired help, thus encouraging such animosity. I feel very fortunate to play in an orchestra that gets amazing support from our board members, but I remember what it was like to play in an ensemble where that wasn’t the case.
I like to think I’m pretty fair-minded, is what I’m saying here, and that’s why you don’t see me writing a whole lot about labor disputes that I don’t have a stake in. But this RSO thing… this might be the most chilling, heartless, mean-spirited display of executive and board incompetence that I’ve ever seen in the music industry. Yeah, it’s on a small scale – it’s not like the RSO is the Boston Symphony or anything. But these are real people, with real careers, cobbling together a modest income by playing as many gigs as they can find, driving all over creation to play for any audience that will have them. And now they’re being kicked to the curb as if they did something wrong, and being told that their oh-so-extravagant $2625 salaries are just too greedy for today’s world.
Back when Sarah linked to Brusilow’s petty little rant, I hoped it was an anomaly, a momentary lapse of self-control that didn’t really reflect how bad things might be in Richardson, Texas. But now we know the truth: the RSO’s music director, its managers, and its board well and truly deserve each other.
Great expectations
Thursday, June 17th, 2010I’ve written about the response to Dudamel’s first national tour with the LA Philharmonic, and noted the pitfalls of being a highly-hyped young conductor. Now the Philadelphia Orchestra has named as their new music director a young conductor who, along with Dudamel, is touted as a leader of his generation, Yannick Nezét-Séguin.
Much that’s been written about this appointment, most referencing the expected topics: his youth, his vibrant podium presence, and the possibly galvanizing effect a youthful, charismatic music director could have on an organization fraught with financial woes and (through an extended music director search) a lack of artistic leadership.
I’ve not seen Nezét-Séguin live, but I’ve heard from my Philly Orchestra friends that he’s generally well-respected by the band, and from people in the know that he’s a major emerging talent. Both of which carry cautionary statements, of course: first and foremost, because no orchestra is entirely satisfied with its artistic leadership, simply because there are too many perspectives about musicianship and personal rapport among the 90+ members of a symphony for a unified opinion to exist. As mentioned in a Philly Inquirer article an anonymous Philly Orchestra musician commented that they had stopped hoping for an overwhelming mandate to gather around a particular conductor “because of the danger of creating an ideal so perfect that no one would ever meet it.”
Second is the emerging talent part: 35 is still awfully young in conductor-years (even the most fortunate among us didn’t get to stand in front of an orchestra until our late teens, in stark contrast to the average violinist, who’s been playing their instrument since 5 or 6), and there’s always the concern that there will be a certain amount of repertoire-learning (and general music director job-learning) in the glare of an international spotlight. That being said, some artists grow gracefully, spotlight or not. Time will tell, and I hope it works out for the fabulous Philadelphians.
What irks me a little is the armchair prognosticating about how the arrival of a youthful, energetic music director will do much to revive a flagging organization; conductor as savior. No doubt, in the Philly Orchestra’s situation – artistic leadership at the helm after an extended period sans music director – this might be partially true. But to me it has the chime of an unreasonable expectation, in the end. It’s much like the Dudamel hype – this young man will change the classical music world! – hanging hopes on an individual to rejuvenate a field which needs an entire health-regime makeover, not just a touch of Botox.
I know newspapers are prone to hyperbole, but it always seems unfair to have such great expectations. Why can’t we just say that a new conductor may bring new ideas and new repertoire to a venerable old institution, without all the game-changing talk?
Inhuman expectations
Thursday, May 27th, 2010The classical blogosphere has been abuzz with reactions to the recent cross-country tour of the LA Philharmonic with their new music director, Gustavo Dudamel. The “Dude”, as he’s been monikered (cue “Big Lebowski” reference…oh wait, the LA Times has already done that – see the last line), has been touted by many (and certainly by the LA Phil PR machine) as the future of classical music (no pressure…).
It is, I think, human nature to want to cut the mighty down to size, and perhaps that lies behind some of the criticism – Peter Dobrin of the Philadelphia Inquirer puts it succinctly as “Dudamel falls short of hype”. The main critique, from San Francisco to New York, is the perceived incompleteness of musical ideas and unevenness of pacing and interpretation. John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune goes so far as to call it a “lack of musical depth”.
All of which I think is a little unfair. Dudamel, at 29, is a young conductor and remarkably young to be a music director of a major ensemble. Those of us who have seen him in action (albeit via video) immediately realize his volcanic musical energy, communicative passion and tremendous charisma. If one’s interpretive ideas are formalized and codified at 29, one should quit conducting; that’s the whole point of being an artist (absorbing, reimagining, constantly developing) and the whole joy of following an artist over the course of their career (being privy to that often extraordinary journey).
But in the end, it’s Anne Midgette at the Washington Post who hits the nail on the head for me. Her point, in a nutshell – Dudamel doesn’t represent the future of classical music:
The people who are trying to move classical music into the future are thinking about alternate kinds of programming, new venues, different repertory…Dudamel’s whole training appears to have been about perpetuating the status quo…I think…one reason he’s been so exciting to many people in the [classical music] field: he represents a future without radical change
Because, if you think about it, there’s nothing terribly forward-thinking or future-minded about a telegenic and charismatic young conductor (hello, Leonard Bernstein?). Yes, the back story (Venezuela, El Sistema) makes for a compelling rags-to-riches narrative, but that can’t carry the future of classical music either (although the notion of El Sistema itself is being implemented in several U.S. cities – now that might really impact the future).
To all the critics and haters out there – I hope you’ll judge Dudamel as you would any other enormously talented 29-year-old conductor. And to those who think the future of classical music lies in a magnetic young maestro – we can’t rest something as important and burdensome on a single set of shoulders. We need ideas, outside-the-box thinking and the courage to break from the past, and from what is familiar – strenuous and scary work. It’s much easier, I suppose, to do what we’re doing now; pinning our hopes on a savior who, eventually, may become the scapegoat at whom we point an accusatory finger.
How not to address an orchestra
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010Those of you who frequent this blog know that I often comment on the differing perspectives of players and conductors, both from a musical and and organizational point of view. Add into the mix my posts about the non-musical, managerial duties that a conductor shoulders, and you probably get a good idea of my usual take on intra-organizational struggles; it’s never a black and white situation, and there’s rarely a single bad guy.
I’m going to break from my own mold.
The Richardson Symphony Orchestra is a regional ($800K budget) ensemble in Texas led by Anshel Brusilow, perhaps best known as conductor of the Dallas Symphony in the 70’s (he was also concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 7 years under Ormandy). According to a press release from Dallas-Fort Worth Professional Musicians Association (affiliated Local 72-147), the RSO has been late on payments to its musicians:
Musicians performing with the Richardson Symphony Orchestra have had to wait weeks and months to receive their paychecks for most every concert performed over the past two years. Orchestra members still have not been paid for their April 10 concert performance, despite repeated promises from management to make the payments. “We’ve given the company plenty of time to get its financial act together and our pocketbooks have suffered for it,” said principal trumpet player and orchestra committee member Bert Truax. “We want the public and patrons to know what has been going on,” he said.
A legitimate enough complaint, right?
Music Director Anshel Brusilow’s response: listen to full audio here.
Some quotable quotes:
People are starving to death and you’ve got a job, and you’re a little late being paid so you’re upset…well, wake up, get a life!
(After claiming that he himself wasn’t paid in a timely manner, and is currently still out 70% of his salary from fiscal 09′):
The difference between me and you is that I still love music.
Brusilow rails against Bert Truax, the principal trumpet of the RSO, who lent his name to the original press release. It’s insinuated that Truax begged Brusilow for the job in a less that professional way. Truax’s response: “I quit”. To which Brusilow responds:
Is there anybody else who doesn’t want to play for me? Get out if you don’t want to play!
(“You got it”, says another player).
And then…the rehearsal continues. Surreal.
I’m surprised that the entire orchestra didn’t get up and leave. I understand that Brusilow is in his 80’s and came of age in a very different era – when conductors could hire and fire on whim, and did so. But those days are long gone, and this behavior is no longer considered normal or even appropriate.
This kind of abuse from the podium is unacceptable. The podium is not a bully pulpit. And to make one’s personal grievances and attacks in the relatively public forum of an orchestra rehearsal in the era of Flip cameras and the Internet is a dangerous proposition.
As for the actual conflict at the RSO (delayed payroll), it’s a regrettable situation of which I have very little information, and thus have no basis to comment. As for the response of Brusilow, I will say with conviction; this is a disgraceful way to address an orchestra.
UPDATE: A blog reader pointed out to me that on Brusilow’s website under the “availability” tab, he offers not only lectures, masterclasses and guest conducting but also “Orchestral Relations Counseling”.
Oh the irony…
We need to do this
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010A “Viral Video” from the Cleveland Orchestra supporting the hometown Cavaliers in their Eastern Conference Semifinal bid:
Props to principal oboe Frank Rosenwein and his stylin’ headband (see it around the 1:29 mark).
Orff is fine and all, but whaddaya say; how about a Minnesota Orchestra version of the Vikings fight song?
“Dramatic cuts”
Thursday, April 15th, 2010As the Honolulu Symphony attempts to emerge from its bankruptcy, the in-fighting continues. The latest development; reorganization plans will not only be submitted by the Symphony Society, but by the Symphony’s musicians and/or other parties as well.
The Symphony Society has already put together a 258-page analysis that recommends a drastic reduction in both the schedule and budget. Said analysis was created:
Using customized Web crawlers that collected data and documents from federal agencies and industry sources, analysts compiled extensive information on economic characteristics, organizational performance, community dynamics and other areas deemed relevant for understanding the symphony’s current problems and potential solutions.
Is it just me, or does this methodology seem to eliminate any human element whatsoever?
The conclusion? That the symphony’s financial woes were due to:
• A business model based on “an unrealistic and unsustainable” budget driven by a desire to compete with other national orchestras.
• Wages disproportionate to the number of hours and weeks worked.
• An oversupply of seats and performances.
• “Expectations that the Society is an employment agency or welfare department responsible for the entire financial well-being of its part-time employees.”
This makes me wonder about that aforementioned analysis, and what “federal agencies and industry sources” were consulted, because these bullet points seem to be talking about a widget factory, not a non-profit arts organizations, much less a symphony orchestra.
A budget driven by competition with other orchestras? Is this about pay parity with comparable organizations, or is the underlying implication that they were paying the musicians too much, or that too many musicians were on the roster (and let’s be clear here, the largest fixed cost (by a substantial factor) in any orchestra is its musicians)?
Now, I don’t think $26K (approximate base pay for Honolulu Symphony musicians for the 06/07 season, the last season for which I could find publicly available data) for a full season of work is too much compensation. In fact, given the incredibly high cost of living in Hawaii, you’d need a second job to make it work.
How about the “too many musicians” idea, which many boards and symphony societies have floated as a cost-cutting conversation? A simplified for-profit perspective on complex artistic criteria; change the personnel in an orchestra, and you change the type of music you can play/product you can produce. In the corporate world, if someone is laid off, the workload can be folded into someone else’s (or several others’) job description(s). Increased efficiency? Sure. But you can’t lay off a tuba player and expect a violinist to pick up the slack.
Speaking of product, let’s skip to bullet point three. Oversupply of seats and performances are two very different things. First of all, Blaisdell Concert Hall, the symphony’s home, seats nearly 2,200. Yes, it’s too big, and always has been, so if you want to call that an oversupply, I suppose that makes sense. However, the oversupply of performance makes me wonder. This assumes that a “performance” is a single, immutable product. Last I checked, Piotr Tchaikowsky is very unlike Peter Cetera, and while concerts of their music both graced the 08/09 season, they are entirely different products. Lumping all concerts into the category of “performance” and suggesting cuts seems to betray either a lack of understanding of the complexity of the product or a disinterest in differentiating within the wide span of both repertoire and types of performances.
Back to wages. And that whole “disproportionate to number of hours and weeks” business. First of all, this assumes the orchestral musicians work only during rehearsals and performances; ie, it discounts the individual practice time which, depending on the musician, can be substantial. Second, it discounts the nature of the work. I’ve held a variety of non-musical jobs in my life (and in fact spent a year contemplating a non-musical career path post-college), from translator at a Tokyo law firm to executive assistant at an ad agency. If I condensed what was required of me in the average workday to its very essence and finished it in an intensely focused manner, I could have left work before lunch every day. Imagine that a rehearsal is such a condensation of spread-out work, accomplished within an extremely compact time-frame. It’s a difference in perspective that’s hard to grasp if one doesn’t know what goes into the creation of the “orchestral product”.
Finally, “Expectations that the Society is an employment agency or welfare department responsible for the entire financial well-being of its part-time employees.” I think I’ve addressed the part-time employee issue. As far as being an employment agency, isn’t the responsibility of an employer to provide fair compensation to it’s employees for services rendered? Is the implication that the Symphony Society is providing welfare for a bunch of lazy, part-time-workin’ musicians?
Listen, I’m sympathetic to both sides (to a degree) here. Musicians are baffled at the way management attempt to utilize criteria for analysis based on business models that take not account of the complexities and particular needs of a symphony orchestra. Management simply wants to find a streamlined way to run a business that, frankly, has not been working, and is not working for orchestras across the country.
The simple truth, however, is that the world is changing, financial realities are changing, and audience attendance is changing – and that means the orchestra business must change. But for rational change to happen, orchestras need to be analyzed as complex entities unto themselves, with a unique set of parameters – and not in a manner in which they are directly compared to any other type of company or organization.
I’ve written before about the Honolulu Symphony’s woes before, and it’s heartbreaking for me to do so. It’s the orchestra I grew up with, the orchestra I soloed with as a young pianist, and the ensemble whose musicians have provided such high quality teaching and coaching to countless students. I, and hopefully many others, watch and wait for an announcement of reorganization in the near future.
Best Week of the Season?
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010It’s no secret, of course, that we in Minnesota are ridiculously spoiled when it comes to the arts. Week in and week out, there’s more to see and do in the Cities than any other comparably sized metro area in the country (I read a stat a few years back that said that we have the highest concentration of arts and culture events per capita of anywhere in the US save New York,) and the sheer breadth of the music and theater scenes, in particular, can even be overwhelming at times.
So with that in mind, I wanted to point out that this week, the week in which basically everyone in town is focused on the Twins and Target Field, also happens to be one of the most jam-packed music weeks of the season. In fact, if you’ll forgive me the audacity, I’d like to schedule your next several evenings for you, seeing as the Twins are playing pretty much all day games this week. (Also, my own concert schedule means I won’t be able to make it to most of these shows, so it’ll make me feel better to try to get the rest of y’all to go…)
That sound okay? Very good, then. Here’s what you should absolutely be hearing live in Minneapolis/St. Paul this week:
Wednesday, April 14 - Nico Muhly & Sam Amidon, Southern Theater, Mpls. I believe I’ve brought up Nico’s music before – he’s been the It Boy (okay, one of the It Boys) of the New York new music scene for a few years now, and despite his careful cultivation of a distinctly hipster-ish, outsider image, the mainstream of classical music has recently been waking up to what his synth-tinged, genre-busting style could do for us. His show at the Southern last season with violist Nadia Sirota might have been my favorite concert of the year, and this collaboration with indie songwriter Sam Amidon should be another memorable show.
Thursday, April 15 - Thomas Zehetmair, violin, with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Trinity Lutheran Church, Stillwater. First of all, can we talk about this program? Beethoven’s towering violin concerto, played by one of my favorite violinists in the entire world, and that’s the appetizer? Zehetmair’s theme for this ambitious concert is pairing late-Classical music with serious modernism from the likes of Anton Webern and Ernst Krenek. There’s definitely a right and a wrong way to mix the 12-tone crowd with the classics, but this looks very, very promising. The SPCO has been putting together the most creative and interesting programming of any group in the Cities (yeah, I said it) for several seasons now, and this looks like it could well be a highlight of 2010.
Friday, April 16 - Symphonie Fantastique, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra Hall, Mpls. Yeah, I know, I’m shameless. But the fact is that Berlioz’s hourlong masterpiece is one of those epic symphonies that somehow gets left off most lists of 19th-century greats, and it’s a crying shame. I mean, how many symphonies do you know of that take as their subject a lovesick artist in the throes of an intentional drug overdose? …well, exactly. It could have been one of the all-time overwrought flops, especially given Berlioz’s melodramatic tendencies. Instead, it’s absolutely riveting from start to finish, and it’s one of my favorite pieces to play. Oh, and as a bonus, both our guest conductor and piano soloist for the week are rising young stars making their local debuts. Be there.
Saturday, April 17 - Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Dakota Jazz Club, Mpls. Chick Corea is one of those extraordinary musicians who everyone should hear live at least once. Whatever you might think of jazz’s “electric fusion” era, Corea’s music was always a strong argument in favor of jazz as a living art form, looking forward rather than back, and he backed it up with some of the best chops I’ve ever heard from any musician of any genre. And Gary Burton? He only more or less invented jazz marimba. This could be an unforgettable evening of music.
Sunday, April 18 – Salome, Minnesota Opera, Ordway Center, St. Paul. I remember hearing Garrison Keillor tell a story years ago about the opera singer Eileen Farrell. Supposedly, Farrell was once singing the lead in Tristan & Isolde, when she paused in between arias, leaned down towards the conductor in the pit, and said, in full voice, “You know, this is really a very dirty story!” I’ve no idea whether that’s true, but I do know that Tristan and his girlfriend have nothing on Salome when it comes to dirty. This might well be the most profoundly disturbing opera ever written (though The Crucible might give it a run for its money,) as well as one of the most musically spellbinding, and the Minnesota Opera’s production has been getting some rave reviews.
So there you go! Your week’s all planned out, and there’s no need to thank me. Unless, of course, anyone feels like making an illicit bootleg of Zehetmair’s Beethoven and shooting me a copy…
Violacrobatics
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010I’ll admit it. I’m one of those people for whom the internet has almost replaced television. Other than sports and the occasional Discovery Channel binge, I spend way more time watching video online these days than I do in front of my high-def TV. For a while, this perplexed me – my TV boasts a considerably higher picture quality than my Dell laptop, and the screen on my computer is 1/3 the size of the TV. So how had I arrived at a place where I’d rather click through an endless series of YouTube clips than check out the latest AMC drama that everyone’s talking about?
The answer seems to come down to music, as it usually does with me. TV has always (in my lifetime, anyway) been averse to showing live concerts on anything approaching a regular basis (no, the musical guests on Letterman and SNL do not count as “concerts,”) and the advent of online video has unearthed a gold mine of performances old and new, across every conceivable genre. And since musicians tend to be the type to immediately pass a particularly cool clip along to literally every other musician they know, I’m usually awash in clips that someone else thinks I have to see.
Usually, I don’t bother posting them here – after all, it’s a good bet that, if I’m being sent that clip by a dozen friends, you’ve probably seen it too. But a combination of professional awe and viola pride is telling me to post this one. It’s a live performance of Bach’s 6th Brandenburg Concerto (the one every violist knows and loves – no violins!) by something called Orchestra Mozart, which I confess I’d never heard of. They’re based in Bologna, Italy; their leader is the esteemed (and seemingly ageless) Claudio Abbado; and based on the playing of Danusha Waskiewicz and Simone Jandl, they have a viola section to be reckoned with!
Here’s the last movement. Cue 95% of you public radio listeners slapping your foreheads and exclaiming, “Oh, that’s the music they play just before Garrison Keillor’s show starts every week!”
Honestly, that performance makes me want to go practice. And as any professional musician will tell you, that’s saying something…
(Hat tip to Margot Schwarz of the Milwaukee Symphony for bringing these to my attention…)
Be Prepared
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010First of all, we’re back! Thanks to our tireless marketing staff, the whole ItC blog has been migrated over to Wordpress, and we even managed to bring all the reader comments along from the old Blogger site as well. Hopefully, you’ll find this layout a bit more readable, and we’ll find it a lot less annoying to interface with.
One thing we haven’t finished doing yet, however, is to bring along all the embedded video and audio in our archived entries. Basically, we need to re-embed every one of them in order to get them to show up here, so apologies if it takes a while to get to that. Also, if you encounter any other problems with the new site, drop me a line at sbergman[at]mnorch.org, and I’ll pass it along to the experts.
Now, down to business. There were actually a number of big stories in the classical music world this past week, but the story that really caught my eye was this blistering review in yesterday’s New York Times. Not only did Anthony Tommasini declare Leonard Slatkin’s version of a Met Opera classic to be a mess, he also called out the conductor for literally not knowing the score. It seems that Slatkin (a former MN Orch Sommerfest director and current music director of the Detroit Symphony) arrived in New York without having put in a lot of time studying the score to Verdi’s La Traviata, and admitted as much on his personal blog. Rumors had been swirling within the orchestra world that things were not going well in rehearsal as a result, and it sounds from Tommasini’s review as if the comfort level hadn’t improved much by the first performance.
Now, I have no desire to pile on Leonard, who has always been a nice guy and a good friend to our orchestra. But I think this unfortunate story points up two important truths about the duties of a conductor. The first is that conducting opera is a very, very different skill than conducting purely orchestral rep, and there are few conductors who are equally comfortable in both arenas. Also, the Met Opera being one of the world’s premiere opera companies makes it a fairly unsuitable place to be conducting anything for the very first time in one’s career. (In fairness, it also bears mentioning that Traviata was not, in fact, the opera Leonard was originally engaged to conduct.)
The second truth is that not all conductors are in the habit of putting in the kind of intensive preparation time that is necessary to really know a score. In fact, there are some very famous conductors who are notorious for “winging it,” flying by the seat of their pants in rehearsal and counting on the orchestra’s familiarity with the music to get them through it. And since, technically, all we absolutely have to see from the podium to play a symphony is a vaguely discernible beat pattern, the performances can often come off without a technical hitch. (It’s always fun to read reviews of this sort of performance, and see a conductor given credit for all manner of interpretational choices that were actually pure happenstance.)
Conductors like this tend to think of themselves, in my experience, as amiable coaches for the orchestra, rather than stern leaders. They justify their lack of preparation by imagining that they’re tackling the big picture, rather than all the little niggling details that most listeners won’t hear anyway. In rehearsal, they’re given to grand, sweeping statements about the meaning of the music, rather than specific directions on how we should play the next phrase. Which, to me, misses the point of being a conductor. We’re all musicians, and any one of us could make reasonable decisions on the tempo of a slow movement, or how loud a particular fortissimo should be. But there are 95 of us, and we wouldn’t all make the same decision, so it’s the conductor’s job to make those calls and enforce them. And if you don’t come in knowing the score well enough to have an opinion, you’ve just rendered yourself virtually useless to us as a leader.
As I said, underprepared conductors can still lead decent concerts, and certainly, pleasing the musicians of the orchestra is not any conductor’s primary job. But if you ask me, being prepared is about respect: for your musicians, for the composer, and for the audience that’s paying good money to watch you work. And just as the most important work I do as a violist is the preparation I put in at home before the first rehearsal of the week, the most important work a conductor does needs to happen before s/he ever takes the podium. And if you’re not interested in doing that work, you’re really in the wrong line of work.
