Prom 27 (3.8.12): Wagner & Bruckner

[Simon B]

An interersting point made from your practical experience, Hornspieler.

I've recently finished watching the filmed rehearsals of Brahms symphony no 3 by the New Philharmonia Orchestra with Klemperer in 1970 in which Gareth Morris, then Chair of the orchestra and a fine flautist, says the opposite...

I suspect (though look forward to being suitably chastised if not!) that HS isn't talking about cueing in the sense that you mean here - though having been there I don't really agree with the more general criticism he's making.

Rather, it's a perceived lack of clear (or any) indications of changes of tempo, inflections, gear changes, whatever you want to call them that I read him as referring to.

The start of the scherzo is cited as an example because a) it's tricky and b) it was a bit scrappy momentarily. Out of nowhere, strings have to play a fast rhythmic articulate motif en-masse in a sort of rhythmic ricochet with the horns, all of it quietly. That's inherently testing, particularly so in the RAH acoustic with its delays and echos. If the conductor doesn't give a couple of beats with the kind of crystal clarity Petrenko was deploying for the NYO on Saturday, well, I'm glad it's not me trying to figure out instantly exactly what speed we're all supposed to be going at.