better living through chemistry

NSO bassist Jeff Weisner (with whom I was at Peabody Conservatory back in the day) has written an excellent blog post at Double Bass Blog concerning the delicate balance of chemistry that can make or break the relationship between orchestra and conductor. Since the National Symphony is, ahem, conducting a search for a new music director right now, his remarks are very prescient.

Here’s a sample:

Why is it so difficult to predict how a conductor and orchestra will interact? Some partial explanations can come from repertoire. If a conductor is doing a piece they feel strongly about, that can have an effect on how they work with the musicians. Another element is timing. If either the conductor or the musicians are tired or frustrated from a long string of concerts, too much time on the road, or just a bad cold going around, attitudes can become negative.

But even factoring these elements in, it’s simply impossible to predict how a conductor and an orchestra will get along, personally or musically, until they actually spend some time together.

I love the fact that this is such a mysterious and unpredictable process. It brings into play so many elements of what make being a musician such a great thing. Whenever a group of people get together to play music, each is bringing their own experiences and ideas to the table. Those ideas are expressed both verbally and in how they play. In a chamber music context, these ideas are hashed out in rehearsal. The final performance, at least in theory, represents a synthesis of the ideas and concepts that the group has worked out together in collaboration.

We have a completely unknown (to us) guest conductor coming in this week (Thursday, to be exact), Pietari Inkinen, and I’ll take time to write my impressions of how we get to know each other, orchestra to conductor, as the week goes on. It’ll be especially interesting since we are doing two works that are largely unfamiliar to us, the Sibelius En Saga, Op. 9 and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, along with an overly familiar work, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony.