Ahhhhh.................The symphony season is essentially over, for both of my orchestras. While I wouldn't at all mind a couple more major concerts with my favorite group, I am relieved to say adios to the other for now. I am not the only musician to express disappointment in that particular orchestra being our last big show of the season, for any one of the reasons griped about in previous blog posts. Shall I refresh your memory?
Don't get me wrong, it is always a pleasure to perform for the lovely audiences which we have in both venues. It just feels like we are shortchanging one audience in particular by not doing justice to so many wonderful compositions, and that bothers me. It also bothers me that these concerts are less about the music and more about "Leopold the Incorrigible".
A couple of years ago, the brochures advertising an upcoming season were most definitely vehicles for the Leopold Show, rather than for a symphony orchestra. His countenance was omnipresent throughout. Literally, every page had some goofy, contrived image of our fearless leader.....One even had him "playing" a giant chile pepper. This year, he's dressed in a disco outfit on one page, and on another he has his arms outstretched in a "Here I am!! Look at Me!!" sort of pose. This isn't remotely about music.
So, back to our last concerts of the season. We performed an orchestrated version of the Liszt Hungarian Dance #2, to cover the loud and fast portion of the show. No big deal...the piece sort of plays itself. We probably could have done it without him except for the few tempo changes. Typical of at least one piece in every concert, the last couple of notes of a phrase were cut off in order to proceed quickly to the next section, although in this case, Leopold said it was intentional....because it "interfered" with the clarinet's little cadenza right after it (even though those notes were leading tones which guide the listeners' ears into the clarinet cadenza). Who needs to play what's written, anyways? In condescending fashion, during our first rehearsal he felt the need to explain that this piece was originally for piano and asked if anyone was familiar with it. One smart-ass raised his hand and said, "Yeah! It's from Tom and Jerry!".
The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto was next, with a young soloist who had little experience performing the piece (or, so it felt). She wasn't quite comfortable with a couple of spots, note-wise, and there wasn't a shred of musicality in the whole work. It was at the "I've got the notes learned, but not the music" juncture. During our two rehearsals with her, she consistently left out a beat right before an orchestra entrance, throwing everything off. Our conductor, true to form, had no clue that she was screwing up and blamed us for not being able to count. Thankfully, she got it right during the performances.
Prior to our rehearsals with the soloist, the phrase "She's gonna go like the wind, I just know it" was uttered (as is usual with regards to any soloist we are going to play with), and the only part of the piece which ultimately went like the wind was the slow movement.
Last on the program was a Brahms symphony, and I have to say that I was dreading it the whole season. I love Brahms, when it is done right. This guy has no idea where to find "right". For him, conducting is about waving his arms furiously, making intensely constipated faces, shouting "............TWO!!!!" (as in, "this is beat two, you idiots!"), sweating all over his string players and making sure that we play exactly at his desired metronome markings whether musically appropriate or not.
Brahms needs thoughtfulness and gravity, not sweat.
Leopold decided to push the tempo of one movement a lot faster during our dress rehearsal (in front of an audience, no less), causing sloppiness and many missing notes. A much-respected member of the group apparently spoke to him about it, and as punishment, the entire symphony was taken slower during the concerts. A forty-five minute piece ended up being over an hour long, and unendingly boring. Along those lines, another orchestra member tried to get him to not schedule our concert weeks back-to-back with our other orchestra as is the way it tends to happen. She used the rationale that he was getting "sloppy seconds" whenever we had concerts the very next week after the other venue. Instead of giving us the break between concert weeks that she had hoped to accomplish, he instead ensured that all of next seasons' concerts would be set the week before the other orchestra's. He can't ever be reasonable, only belligerent.
In the end, our concerts are all about Leopold putting on a show of astounding upper-body stiffness, an impressive command of beating on something and an intense display of obvious virility. He apparently wants to resemble a walking hard-on (and doing a damn fine job of it). I am hoping that our audiences respond as well as they do because they truly are enjoying the music, and not because they get a kick out of the pointless gyrations on the podium. I will give them the benefit of the doubt......................
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