Letter to Lorin Maazel from Terry Johns

[LaurieWatt]

What a wonderful thread!!!

Whilst having no tales about off-stage choruses etc to tell, I do well remember an avant-garde solo percussion performance, in which the preliminaries consisted in said percussionist having to fight his way out of a large paper bag. The noises were all part of the performance.

Well, mentioning percussionists, it is worth possibly, recalling an occasion when Sir Georg Solti was conducting the first performance of a new piece by Hans Werner Henze called Imperator Heliagabolus Rex (spelling might be a bit awry) with the LPO at the RFH.

Solti was lost by the 5th bar which left the orchestra in a quandary but unusually, at the crucial moment, the tympanist, Alan Cumberland, was required to play more than just his beloved tymps. He had to operate the lion roar machine. Alan picked the thing up to pull the chord through and it all came to pieces in his hand, at which point he dropped it, missed his next tymp cue and uttered a loud expletive, inaudible to the audience, but not the brass section who collapsed with laughter.

All we were aware of in the audience was one horrendous racket and some obvious heaving at the back of the orchestra. Meanwhile most of the orchestra were ad-libbing material which had nothing to do with the score, which of course was highly irresponsible, but Sir Georg didn't have a clue what was going on.

Nor did the Times critic who complemented Sir Georg and the orchestra on their lucid realisation of what the composer was asking. Little did he know. Interestingly, many, many years later, the LPO played the piece again under the watchful eye/ear of Frans Welser-Most, played it far better, and, whadjaknow, it turned out to be quite a good piece!

[Nick Armstrong]

Comedy gold, Laurie, beautifully crafted

Never heard that one before!!

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, mentioning percussionists, it is worth possibly, recalling an occasion when Sir Georg Solti was conducting the first performance of a new piece by Hans Werner Henze called Imperator Heliagabolus Rex (spelling might be a bit awry) with the LPO at the RFH.

Solti was lost by the 5th bar which left the orchestra in a quandary but unusually, at the crucial moment, the tympanist, Alan Cumberland, was required to play more than just his beloved tymps. He had to operate the lion roar machine. Alan picked the thing up to pull the chord through and it all came to pieces in his hand, at which point he dropped it, missed his next tymp cue and uttered a loud expletive, inaudible to the audience, but not the brass section who collapsed with laughter.

All we were aware of in the audience was one horrendous racket and some obvious heaving at the back of the orchestra. Meanwhile most of the orchestra were ad-libbing material which had nothing to do with the score, which of course was highly irresponsible, but Sir Georg didn't have a clue what was going on.

Nor did the Times critic who complemented Sir Georg and the orchestra on their lucid realisation of what the composer was asking. Little did he know. Interestingly, many, many years later, the LPO played the piece again under the watchful eye/ear of Frans Welser-Most, played it far better, and, whadjaknow, it turned out to be quite a good piece!

I know the piece! Must check and see which performance I have of it - probably a Prom. Thanks for this wonderful story, LaurieWatt!

[Petrushka]

Well, mentioning percussionists, it is worth possibly, recalling an occasion when Sir Georg Solti was conducting the first performance of a new piece by Hans Werner Henze called Imperator Heliagabolus Rex (spelling might be a bit awry) with the LPO at the RFH.

Solti was lost by the 5th bar which left the orchestra in a quandary but unusually, at the crucial moment, the tympanist, Alan Cumberland, was required to play more than just his beloved tymps. He had to operate the lion roar machine. Alan picked the thing up to pull the chord through and it all came to pieces in his hand, at which point he dropped it, missed his next tymp cue and uttered a loud expletive, inaudible to the audience, but not the brass section who collapsed with laughter.

All we were aware of in the audience was one horrendous racket and some obvious heaving at the back of the orchestra. Meanwhile most of the orchestra were ad-libbing material which had nothing to do with the score, which of course was highly irresponsible, but Sir Georg didn't have a clue what was going on.

Nor did the Times critic who complemented Sir Georg and the orchestra on their lucid realisation of what the composer was asking. Little did he know. Interestingly, many, many years later, the LPO played the piece again under the watchful eye/ear of Frans Welser-Most, played it far better, and, whadjaknow, it turned out to be quite a good piece!

I remember hearing that Solti performance on Radio 3! Not one for the LPO label then?

[Hornspieler]

It would have been written at the time, not in 2013.

I'm surprised you aren't aware of his book' Letters from Lines & Spaces (5 star reader rated on Amazon):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0057AMS2...=terryjohnsnet ![/QUOTE]

.... which is why I questioned the relevence of Mr Johns raising the subject of Lorin Maazel's outrageous behaviour on these message boards.

Don't be sore just because another horn player has stories to tell

However, if such an action serves to raise interest in your friend's book, good luck to him.

I have yet to meet a retired musician who could claim to have made his fortune from playing in an orchestra.
So why should I be sore? After playing for 22 years I quit in search of a more settled existence and trebled my income overnight.

HS

[Maclintick]

In similar vein, Pierre Boulez once recalled an incident while conducting one of the later cowbell-plagued Mahler symphonies with the LSO in the Barbican - this may well have been the first movement of the Seventh. The offstage cowbellista was positioned just behind the open backstage door to the conductor's right, & entered appropriately on cue from the gallic maestro, whereupon an outraged audience member shot out from the front row of the stalls to quell what he presumed to be a bit of impromptu practice by some vagrant percussionist.

My personal rule-of-thumb for Mahler symphonies is that I enjoy only those without cowbells,
whose intrusions invariably sound as if the bar staff are clearing away the interval crockery. I can't really believe that's what Mahler intended ? ( percussionist members comments appreciated).

A further aside -- Years ago in the Austrian Tyrol I heard magical tintinnabulations from a herd of alpine goats on a high pasture. Smaller bells, & musically evocative. Could these be the composer's "herdglocken" ?

[visualnickmos]

Isn't there a famous story of an off-stage player (Mahler 7 post-horn?) being asked to play in a large cupboard at the back of the RFH... but during the performance, someone on another floor called what was in fact a goods lift, leading to the most perfect diminuendo ever devised.... earning the player congratulations from the conductor? Or is that totally apocryphal?

Apocryphal or not, a great story! I would guess it could be true; often the 'apocryphal' turns out to be the truth...

[amateur51]

Well, mentioning percussionists, it is worth possibly, recalling an occasion when Sir Georg Solti was conducting the first performance of a new piece by Hans Werner Henze called Imperator Heliagabolus Rex (spelling might be a bit awry) with the LPO at the RFH.

Solti was lost by the 5th bar which left the orchestra in a quandary but unusually, at the crucial moment, the tympanist, Alan Cumberland, was required to play more than just his beloved tymps. He had to operate the lion roar machine. Alan picked the thing up to pull the chord through and it all came to pieces in his hand, at which point he dropped it, missed his next tymp cue and uttered a loud expletive, inaudible to the audience, but not the brass section who collapsed with laughter.

All we were aware of in the audience was one horrendous racket and some obvious heaving at the back of the orchestra. Meanwhile most of the orchestra were ad-libbing material which had nothing to do with the score, which of course was highly irresponsible, but Sir Georg didn't have a clue what was going on.

Nor did the Times critic who complemented Sir Georg and the orchestra on their lucid realisation of what the composer was asking. Little did he know. Interestingly, many, many years later, the LPO played the piece again under the watchful eye/ear of Frans Welser-Most, played it far better, and, whadjaknow, it turned out to be quite a good piece!

I have just pebble-dashed my screen with part of a rather nice chicken-and-coleslaw sarnie, LaurieWatt

Lovely stuff!

[amateur51]

In similar vein, Pierre Boulez once recalled an incident while conducting one of the later cowbell-plagued Mahler symphonies with the LSO in the Barbican - this may well have been the first movement of the Seventh. The offstage cowbellista was positioned just behind the open backstage door to the conductor's right, & entered appropriately on cue from the gallic maestro, whereupon an outraged audience member shot out from the front row of the stalls to quell what he presumed to be a bit of impromptu practice by some vagrant percussionist.

My personal rule-of-thumb for Mahler symphonies is that I enjoy only those without cowbells,
whose intrusions invariably sound as if the bar staff are clearing away the interval crockery. I can't really believe that's what Mahler intended ? ( percussionist members comments appreciated).

A further aside -- Years ago in the Austrian Tyrol I heard magical tintinnabulations from a herd of alpine goats on a high pasture. Smaller bells, & musically evocative. Could these be the composer's "herdglocken" ?

Another - many thanks Maclintick