Concert Note:
On with the Crawl
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is making music at Carnegie Hall again, speeding along without training wheels. The season’s opener featured a program that turned out to sound a lot more interesting than it looked.
Honest. I hadn’t read this entry when I sent you my analysis this morning comparing interior “composition” to conducting an orchestra from the seat of the first violin, a la Orpheus. Last minute invitations to accompany in the absence of a certain someone will be gratefully entertained.
Now that I’ve read your Orpheus piece in whole this morning, I notice the focus on relationships between composers and music that also occupies me currently in spatial design. Having heard Orpheus in person, the concept of these musicians working just as hard to hear and play with one another as they concentrate on their parts in the score fills me with anxious excitement. You’ve sometimes described the effort involved as distracting in and of itself, the drama of the potential disaster. That is what live performances are all about. Your observation that the flamboyant conductor has passed from fashion is funny, and sad. I had such a crush on Seiji Ozawa and his fiery mane from behind the many times I was lucky enough to see (oops: hear) him in Paris in the 70s. He was hot. Your mention of it conjured up the Bugs Bunny as Leopold Stokowski. Ahem. Sometime, you must do a round-up of the Bugs Bunny classical repertoire! Brunhilda!!
I love the Saint Saens piano concerti, especially Nos. 2 & 4. They are glorious fun.
As for Nom de Plume’s observation about conductors, the austerity began after Lennie died. There are a few who bounce around alot (Tilson Thomas for one) but most are more like Muti or Abbado who have it all worked out in rehearsal and just come out to make sure it goes right.
But there is something to be said about a conductor’s charisma : at the nadir of the NY Philharmonic’s fortunes, just after Mehta’s loathsome reign, Bernstein came back for a hastily arranged concert after the regular season had ended, and just by coming out onto the stage the Philahrmonic looked and sounded like a different band.