Orchestral music that performers like

[Dave2002]

We heard recently from Tony that he doesn't like the Pastoral symphony much. The question here is "what pieces do orchestral musicians really like to play?" Perhaps pieces that they look forward to playing, or playing again. Unfortunately we probably won't get too many valid responses, as few members here play in orchestras either professionally, or as amateurs, so the rest of us (I have played in amateur orchestras but not for a very long while) perhaps shouldn't chip in for a while.

It'd be good to have some opinions on this. Do musicians think "Oh ****, not another Tchaikovsky 5th" (or Beethoven's 5th, or Mozart 40, or Holst Planets .... etc.)?

[Barbirollians]

In her contribution to the 70 years of the Philharmonia video series - long term Philharmonia violinist Pierette Galleoni said she did not like Tchaikovsky programmes as the strings are playing all the time .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It'd be good to have some opinions on this. Do musicians think "Oh ****, not another Tchaikovsky 5th" (or Beethoven's 5th, or Mozart 40, or Holst Planets .... etc.)?

Yes - but I wouldn't be surprised to see as much disagreement amongst professional orchestral players who have to play what a conductor has chosen for them (chamber Musicians presumably have greater control over what they chose to perform) as there is amongst their listeners. (And a lot depending upon who the conductor is - referring to the Philaharmonia series Barbie mentions, I wonder how many of the players waiting with baited breath for Toscanini to conduct them in Brahms would have been as enthusiastic if it had been Walter Susskind on the podium.)

[Richard Barrett]

Unfortunately we probably won't get too many valid responses

This isn't a response directly from me but from my partner who is an orchestral professional so I guess it's valid enough. She says it's a combination of music you like to listen to on the one hand, and music which is rewarding to play on the other, challenging but not because of unidiomatic awkwardness, which in her case (from the point of view of the principal harp) would begin with Strauss, Mahler and Ravel. Bearing in mind of course that the Symphonie fantastique is the earliest work in general repertoire that she actually plays in at all, and many later composers such as Messiaen and works like Rite of Spring don't use it. The Berlioz by the way is not a favourite, on account of the harpists having to sit out the first movement then immediately play a highly exposed passage at the beginning of the second, not knowing whether the instruments have stayed in tune. (Stravinsky said that harpists spend 90% of their time tuning and the other 10% playing out of tune actually I'm not really allowed to find that funny).

[Richard Tarleton]

(Stravinsky said that harpists spend 90% of their time tuning and the other 10% playing out of tune actually I'm not really allowed to find that funny).

I've learnt several things there Richard, thank you and partner

I remember Osian Ellis saying in an interview that he spent much less time tuning his harp than his female orchestral colleagues (I think he was talking about Mme Scheffel-Stein), seeming to suggest they worried too much about it! Lovely man, I had the great pleasure of meeting him over 40 years ago.

[MrGongGong]

A friend of mine who is a harpist told me that her favourite part was the off stage harp in Rheingold
You only have to turn up about half way through
You don't have to dress up
You get a soloists fee
The part is very easy as it's probably only there to help the off stage singers keep in tune

(Grade 5 harp involves reversing a Volvo estate into a tight parking space)

[Petrushka]

Just going from things I've read I believe it's well nigh universal that string players dislike the monotonous rhythm of the last movement of the Schubert Great C Major as well as the long tremolos in Bruckner symphonies.

Finding out that they really like to play is more difficult to discover and must vary from player to player.

[BBMmk2]

I like works that have a particularly good tuba part, like some Shostakovich's music, eg his 5th and maybe the ones that have not too many bars rest to count!

[Suffolkcoastal]

I can't remember the source, but apparently some of the most interesting & challenging bass Tuba parts in orchestral music are found in the works of Havergal Brian, as the parts are frequently independent of the bass trombone.

[Dave2002]

I wonder how many of the players waiting with baited breath for Toscanini to conduct them in Brahms would have been as enthusiastic if it had been Walter Susskind on the podium.)

I'm not sure that players always feel the same about conductors as listeners and critics. I think I once heard Walter Susskind - can't remember what - but he was OK, and I think from what I recall the players liked him. OTOH it might have been another conductor, but whoever it was one of the players said he was a "sweetie".

Anyway, the original question was about music they like to play.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyway, the original question was about music they like to play.

And my suggested answer was that this differs from player to player - and that they might "like" to play things under one conductor that they would dislike playing under another.

[pastoralguy]

Having played thousands of works in public in orchestras over the years, my stand out pieces are DSCH 10, Le Sacre and 'Turandot'.

[mathias broucek]

Most of my musical pro friends are brass players with a couple of pianists thrown

Both hate an excess of counting for just a few notes

And both love it when the concert is over fairly quickly.......

[Richard Barrett]

Since this thread has reappeared...

I've learnt several things there Richard, thank you and partner

I remember Osian Ellis saying in an interview that he spent much less time tuning his harp than his female orchestral colleagues (I think he was talking about Mme Scheffel-Stein), seeming to suggest they worried too much about it! Lovely man, I had the great pleasure of meeting him over 40 years ago.

... one of the composers harpists (and this one in particular) least like to play is Shostakovich. He almost invariably writes for two harps in his symphonies and they always play in unison (presumably to compensate for bad Soviet harps that didn't make much of a sound), with all the ensuing problems of intonation and getting the two instruments to sound like a single one.

[Once Was 4]

Most of my musical pro friends are brass players with a couple of pianists thrown

Both hate an excess of counting for just a few notes

And both love it when the concert is over fairly quickly.......

There was a spat, widely reported in the press, a couple of years ago between a highly-rated conductor and an equally highly-rated amateur orchestra where the conductor walked out of the rehearsal and refused to go back in the evening to take the concert. There had been bad blood for some time between the conductor and the brass players who said that the conductor concerned did not understand amateur musicians, coming from a country where, if you can do it, you are paid to do it. They objected to paying their subs in order to sit for an evening's rehearsal doing nothing.

I well remember a time at the opera company where I was employed where a group of players stood in the pit during an interval complaining about the Massenet opera which we performing and comparing it very unfavourably with the Janacek that we had done the night before. Suddenly, an audience member, face beaming, stuck his head over the rail and told us what a wonderful show it was "so much better than that Czech rubbish you were playing the last time that we came!" This taught us a lesson (I think!). In the end it is what the punters like that counts - our's is not to reason why.