... couldn't conduct a bus!

[amateur51]

Eight on route 38 is my understanding.

I have seen one of them in such service, but it was going in the opposite direction to the 38 I was traveling in.

Oh cheers for the info, Bryn - I need to mosey on up to the Angel in search of a cap so I'll watch out for a 38

[Bryn]

Oh cheers for the info, Bryn - I need to mosey on up to the Angel in search of a cap so I'll watch out for a 38

Who knows, I might happen upon one on my way to one of the Tuesday evening free concerts at the City University Performance Space. This week's by Ian Pace (Sonatas by Hartmann, Carter, Boulez and Prokofiev) was rather good, though not quite the fireworks display I had expected/hoped for. The Boulez 2nd sonata in particular was played at decidedly pedestrian tempi compared to other performances of the work I have heard. The Carter (programmed well before his death) was a fine tribute, I thought.

[Wheels of Cheese]

An orchestra is about to perform the Eroica, and the conductor falls sick. To save the show, the first violinist is drafted in as the conductor. The performance is brilliant. The next night the conductor is ok and returns. The first violinist gies back to his place. As he sits down the second violin turns to him and says Eddie, you're back! Where were you last night?!

[salymap]

An orchestra is about to perform the Eroica, and the conductor falls sick. To save the show, the first violinist is drafted in as the conductor. The performance is brilliant. The next night the conductor is ok and returns. The first violinist gies back to his place. As he sits down the second violin turns to him and says Eddie, you're back! Where were you last night?!

Now that's one I've not heard before - bravo

[Hornspieler]

An orchestra is about to perform the Eroica, and the conductor falls sick. To save the show, the first violinist is drafted in as the conductor. The performance is brilliant. The next night the conductor is ok and returns. The first violinist gies back to his place. As he sits down the second violin turns to him and says Eddie, you're back! Where were you last night?!

Nice one, Wheelie

Where's yer bin, mate?

HS

[salymap]

Am I allowed a couple of remarks from conductors that amused me?

Sir Adrian to orchestra, while rehearsing a new work,composer stamdimg besidethe rostrum. 'Come along clarinets, we mustn't keepthe composer waiting!'


And Sir Malcolm to the RCS who had their heads in their vocalscores 'I could wear a false beard and you wouldn't even notice'.

[Hornspieler]

Sir George Solti was known to musicians as "The Screaming Skull" Certainly this bald-headed despot was much to be feared if he really got going, but the Hungarian in him came out from time to time and he actually made an occasional joke (deliberatelty, that is)

We were all assembled for the first rehearsal of Bruckner's 8th symphony. Solti looked around the orchestra, noted the 4 Wagner tubas in place and all the extra woodwinds and then, to our surprise, put down his baton and cleared his throat.

"Oh dear, who is he after now?" we thought.

We could not have been more surprised......

"Gentlemen," he said "get out paper and pencils - I'm going to give you a recipe for Hungarian Baked Egg Strudl"

he paused for a moment then continued to speak "first, you steal a dozen eggs!"

Hoots of laughter! A happy start to an exacting task!

HS

[Osborn]

I'll add a fairly similar one Salymap. This is Andris Nelsons rehearsing his CBSO a couple of weeks ago in his home city, Riga. The slow movement of Brahms Symphony 4, with the strings accompanying the wind with pizzicato:

” I want you to almost not look at me, but close your eyes and listen to them, of course, I am always grateful when DO you watch me!”

[Hornspieler]

I'll add a fairly similar one Salymap. This is Andris Nelsons rehearsing his CBSO a couple of weeks ago in his home city, Riga. The slow movement of Brahms Symphony 4, with the strings accompanying the wind with pizzicato:

” I want you to almost not look at me, but close your eyes and listen to them, of course, I am always grateful when DO you watch me!”

Nice one!

Back to Max Goldberg again:

"These conductors, they earn ten times as much as us, but they know ten times as little!"

Are they all really that bad? It is certainly true to say that there is a wider range of competence
among conductors than would be found in any orchestra.

Modesty is not a virtue in a conductor. He must be totally self-confident or he will fail to
impose his wishes on the players. He must be an extrovert, or he will fail to capture the
attention of the audience. As far as the players are concerned, he doesn't have to be pleasant,
or considerate, or to possess a sense of humour. He simply has to be good.

An example of one who met all the requirements was the late Constantin Silvestri. He had
the ability to make the most trivial works by lesser known composers sound like masterpieces.
He could also be extremely funny, sometimes unintentionally. His English was less than
perfect, but then he was born in Rumania and could also speak some French, German, Italian,
Russian and Japanese!

Can a man be judged by the colour of his cloth? Silvestri had two suits; one was blue/grey, the
other was a muddy brown. Whether he dressed according to his mood I don't know but,
whenever he appeared at rehearsal wearing his brown suit, we all knew that there was
trouble in store for someone - maybe the woodwind, maybe the percussion, maybe the harpists
but most often the strings; singled out for close examination desk by desk.

On this particular morning it was the brown suit. He also appeared to have a rather nasty head
cold. Not a good omen. Everyone wriggled uneasily on their seats.

The piece for rehearsal was Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Silvestri took out his coloured
pencils, opened the orchestral score, picked up his baton - and looked up.

“Sick to death of sex and violence!”

There was a unified gasp of astonishment. Okay, so the ballet was a little bit risqué for its time,
but it could hardly be called salacious.
Nobody moved. Silvestri waited, looking more than a little put out by the lack of any reaction.
Then the light of understanding dawned across the face of one of the first violins. She
leaned across and tapped one of the newer members of the orchestra on his shoulder.

“He means you,” she said. “Sixth desk of second violins!”

[Pabmusic]

The following anecdote from Paul Hindemith is supposed to tell of the 'final straw' that led to his giving up orchestral playing to concentrate on less worldly things. He was principal viola of the Frankfurt Opera orchestra at the time, which gave regular orchestral concerts under guest conductors.

In the early 1920s, there was a vogue in Germany for playing that relatively little-known piece, Brahms's first symphony. It had become de rigeur for any visiting conductor to include Brahms 1. Hindemith noticed that every conductor, without exception, would stop the orchestra in rehearsal just before the horn solo in the last movement and exhort the principal horn (in German, of course) to "imagine the sun is just breaking through the clouds" as he played it. This became so predictable, it was laughable.

Well, the guest conductor on this occasion was Bruno Walter - then in his 40s - and he was different. He rehearsed the symphony with minimal fuss and did not exhort the horn to "imagine the sun is just breaking through the clouds". He just let the music play. The concert went off very well, and Hindemith thought he'd congratulate Walter on a fine performance. As he approached the conductor's room, Walter emerged with his arm round the shoulder of the principal horn. He was saying, "You know, when you played, it was just as if the sun was breaking through the clouds".

Enough, apparently, was enough.

[amateur51]

Am I allowed a couple of remarks from conductors that amused me?

Sir Adrian to orchestra, while rehearsing a new work,composer stamdimg besidethe rostrum. 'Come along clarinets, we mustn't keepthe composer waiting!'


And Sir Malcolm to the RCS who had their heads in their vocalscores 'I could wear a false beard and you wouldn't even notice'.

[amateur51]

Nice one!

Back to Max Goldberg again:



Are they all really that bad? It is certainly true to say that there is a wider range of competence
among conductors than would be found in any orchestra.

Modesty is not a virtue in a conductor. He must be totally self-confident or he will fail to
impose his wishes on the players. He must be an extrovert, or he will fail to capture the
attention of the audience. As far as the players are concerned, he doesn't have to be pleasant,
or considerate, or to possess a sense of humour. He simply has to be good.

An example of one who met all the requirements was the late Constantin Silvestri. He had
the ability to make the most trivial works by lesser known composers sound like masterpieces.
He could also be extremely funny, sometimes unintentionally. His English was less than
perfect, but then he was born in Rumania and could also speak some French, German, Italian,
Russian and Japanese!

Can a man be judged by the colour of his cloth? Silvestri had two suits; one was blue/grey, the
other was a muddy brown. Whether he dressed according to his mood I don't know but,
whenever he appeared at rehearsal wearing his brown suit, we all knew that there was
trouble in store for someone - maybe the woodwind, maybe the percussion, maybe the harpists
but most often the strings; singled out for close examination desk by desk.

On this particular morning it was the brown suit. He also appeared to have a rather nasty head
cold. Not a good omen. Everyone wriggled uneasily on their seats.

The piece for rehearsal was Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Silvestri took out his coloured
pencils, opened the orchestral score, picked up his baton - and looked up.

“Sick to death of sex and violence!”

There was a unified gasp of astonishment. Okay, so the ballet was a little bit risqué for its time,
but it could hardly be called salacious.
Nobody moved. Silvestri waited, looking more than a little put out by the lack of any reaction.
Then the light of understanding dawned across the face of one of the first violins. She
leaned across and tapped one of the newer members of the orchestra on his shoulder.

“He means you,” she said. “Sixth desk of second violins!”

You wouldn't get that at the VPO

[amateur51]

The following anecdote from Paul Hindemith is supposed to tell of the 'final straw' that led to his giving up orchestral playing to concentrate on less worldly things. He was principal viola of the Frankfurt Opera orchestra at the time, which gave regular orchestral concerts under guest conductors.

In the early 1920s, there was a vogue in Germany for playing that relatively little-known piece, Brahms's first symphony. It had become de rigeur for any visiting conductor to include Brahms 1. Hindemith noticed that every conductor, without exception, would stop the orchestra in rehearsal just before the horn solo in the last movement and exhort the principal horn (in German, of course) to "imagine the sun is just breaking through the clouds" as he played it. This became so predictable, it was laughable.

Well, the guest conductor on this occasion was Bruno Walter - then in his 40s - and he was different. He rehearsed the symphony with minimal fuss and did not exhort the horn to "imagine the sun is just breaking through the clouds". He just let the music play. The concert went off very well, and Hindemith thought he'd congratulate Walter on a fine performance. As he approached the conductor's room, Walter emerged with his arm round the shoulder of the principal horn. He was saying, "You know, when you played, it was just as if the sun was breaking through the clouds".

Enough, apparently, was enough.

Great story, Pabs!

[salymap]

I wonder whether HS or any other professional has views on 'treats' sometimes handed out by their conductors?

When Sargent conducted the BBCSO he used to take them to the London Zoo as he was a fellow of the RZS.
I think they were given lunch somewhere but two particular friends of mine, one viola player, one cellist were less than thrilled by this annual jaunt.

I remember seeing pics in one of our papers with a member of the orchestra entwined by a dangerous looking snake, while MS himself visited his bush babies, little furry panda like thinga.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

“Sick to death of sex and violence!”

“He means you,” she said. “Sixth desk of second violins!”