musical chairs September 26, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 4commentsMost of you are aware that there is a probation period for all new musicians who enter the orchestra. In our case, it’s a two year process. It’s all set out in our CBA (collective bargaining agreement), a timeline which governs the whole thing. There is a number of members of the player’s section and adjacent sections as well as concerned principals that comprise a committee which reports to the Music Director on the probationary player’s progress and problems (if any).
Part of this process is the dreaded move-up, where the probationary player is moved up to sit with the principal and under the music director’s nose on the front desk. When this happens, I, as the second-chair player, move back to the third chair, which is on the second stand, closest to the audience (the violas sit on the outside in the Oregon Symphony, as opposed to the more common violas inside with cellos outside, arrangement).
This shouldn’t be a big adjustment, but it really is! The sound I hear from the violins across the podium is much reduced, even though my distance from them has only increased by about four or five feet. I cannot hear the first stand, and can’t hear the back of the section, either. It’s a world of difference from being on the front row, much harder, in fact. The visual contact with the concertmaster and principal second violin are harder to achieve, and cellos: forgetaboutit. Every time I move back into the section I appreciate the difficult job that they have to do, one that in many ways is more difficult than mine on the front row. Sure, I sit under the nose of the music director, and have to have my parts learned to a ‘T’ at the first rehearsal (at least theoretically), but if you know what’s going on around you, navigating unfamiliar parts is much easier, and that job is simpler when you’re up front. In the section, you have to rely more on an inner rhythmic pulse, since you may not be able to see the beat as well, acoustics onstage can distort where the rhythmic center is, and you might have a cellist or bassist near you that plays very loud and rushes at the same time. That’s a lot to overcome when you’re expected to play within milliseconds of your principal or the violinist 30 feet away! Think about that next time you see us playing a unison passage in the strings: it’s amazing that it is together at all!
The other adjustment is occurring this week. Our principal, Joël Belgique, is playing the solo viola part to Berlioz’s Harold in Italy this week, so he is not playing the rest of the works on the concert. So, this week I am leapfrogging my usual chair for the hot seat: principal viola. This presents problems of a different sort. I play principal perhaps once a year for one week. It’s a job that takes some getting used to. You need to be communicating visually with the concertmaster and other string principals as well as checking for bowing descrepancies (we’re going up-bow while they’re going down-bow) and making sure that you’re counting like a fiend in the long stretches of rests or in mixed meters. When you add an unfamiliar guest conductor (as we have this week), it only adds to the mix.
I seem to attract big, nasty pieces when I sit principal, and this week is no exception. Stravinsky’s Petruschka is the other big work on the program (aside from Harold) and it’s got a lot of mixed meters, some tricky passage work, and non-intuitive rest structures that can make counting rests an adventure. Last time I sat in the hot seat, it was Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, and I don’t think I’ve recovered, yet. Again, I find myself in sincere admiration of the fine job that Joël does as our section leader: he is consistent, very low key and un-high-strung, and a very good musician. Not much more that one could ask for, and with our very demanding and uncompromising music director, it’s a hard balance to achieve in that chair.
So, the next time you go to the symphony take a look at the players in all parts of the strings sections, and remember the varying and constant demands that they all face and overcome to play great masterworks for your enjoyment and edification.
UPDATE: Our principal violist, Joel Belgique, is sounding incredible in the Harold in Italy solo part so far in rehearsals, so if you’re able, make a point of getting to the concerts Sunday afternoon or Monday evening to hear him.
smells like team (de)spirit(ed) September 24, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 1 comment so farWhat does make an orchestra “good” or “bad” or “mediocre” or “great”? It seems like it should be a simple matter: better orchestras play with more precise and adaptable rhythm, pitch and dynamics than lesser orchestras do.
But we’ve all been to a Big Five orchestra concert which was severely lacking in one or all of those things, at one time or another (a Philly “Messiah” performance lurks in the terrifying sewer reaches of my distant student memories). I’m sure that many of us have been to obscure orchestra concerts which were exhilarating and relevatory and life-changing, too.
I think that the defining attribute of a great orchestra, or even just a dependably good one, is esprit de corps. To paraphrase Kurt Cobain, a great orchestra smells like teen spirit. Many of the top orchestras in this country have a direct lineage of their membership that goes back to the very formation of the orchestra. The most celebrated orchestras in this country have a very clear teacher/student lineage that is remarkably unbroken. People in good/great orchestras have had a common musical language which was learned before they entered the orchestra, and was reinforced by a music director of relatively long-standing who was often fully resident with the orchestra (rather than a jet-setting guest conductor with which almost every orchestra of any level is saddled today).
Why is this the topic of my column this week? Well, this past week we learned that our new concertmaster of two years, Amy Schwartz Moretti, was leaving at the end of the season to become Director of the Robert MacDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. This was a stunning blow to many in the orchestra. Truth be told, I don’t think anyone really expected that Amy would stay as a ‘lifer’, but two years was a remarkably short time to have someone of such talent in the chair (even by her own admission - she was intending to stay longer than this, but the opportunity arose, and after much agonizing, she took it) and clearly she had much more to offer the orchestra and the community than the great things she’d already brought in her brief two year stint with us.
What is interesting to me about this is the pre-announcement vs. post-announcement state of the orchestra that I have observed. The beginning of this season started pretty auspiciously for us - the playing standard was quite high even after our long summer break (approx. June 5 to August 25) and our first run of subscription concerts and rehearsals the previous week were notable for the high spirits of the orchestra and the high standard of playing from nearly every position in the orchestra.
Then, the announcement. Poorly timed, I think, at the inception of the first rehearsal of our next classical series. The rehearsal was pretty much a wash - many stunned faces, lots of tears and depressed looks at the break, and stoic professionalism for the rest of the rehearsal.
Now, it feels like our game is off. We have been shaken to our core, which I wouldn’t have believed possible before this, but the swagger is gone, and the customary self-doubts that are endemic to our orchestra have started to resurface.
This brings to mind a tangent on the state of our orchestral psyche: we’ve been just “ok” for so long, that we’re loathe to admit that we might actually be truly world-class for the first time in our history. People come and hear us with a good conductor and they are stunned that we’re basically the same group that they heard five years ago (though not the same one as 10 years ago, for sure - turnover has taken care of that). So when something happens that is “bad”, we blame ourselves first, then if we really have incontrovertable evidence to the contrary, we grudgingly admit that we are pretty darn good and that is wasn’t our fault. This may be the phase we’re in right now, and another week or so will smooth the way to a continued recovery and looking forward to a bright future.
UPDATE: It seems (as I figured would happen) that the atmosphere in the orchestra is regaining equilibrium after the news of last week. It could be largely due to fatigue, as we’re in our third consecutive classical subscription series in as many weeks, and with a guest conductor who is less clear than what we’re usually used to, and a difficult and physically taxing program. Our principal violist, Joel Belgique, is sounding incredible in the Harold in Italy solo part so far in rehearsals, so if you’re able, make a point of getting to the concerts Sunday afternoon or Monday evening to hear him.
sad day September 20, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentWe learned yesterday that our superb concertmaster of two years, Amy Schwartz Moretti, will be leaving us after the new year to direct a new string center at Mercer University in Georgia. Amy is a treasure, and it’s hard to see her go, as her sparkling playing and personality have been a huge bright light to our orchestra for these past two years. Here are the official details from the press release:
MORETTI TO DIRECT PREMIERE CENTER FOR STRINGS; WILL LEAVE AT THE END OF THE 2006-2007 SEASON
Portland, Ore. … Amy Schwartz Moretti, concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony since 2004, will leave the Symphony at the end of the 2006-2007 season to become the Director and Associate Professor of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and to hold the Caroline Paul King Chair in Strings at Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music in Macon, Georgia. A search for her successor will begin shortly.
“This unique and compelling opportunity and my desire to do more chamber music and solo work have convinced me this is the right course to pursue,” said Moretti. “The position will give me direct involvement guiding and teaching gifted string students along with internationally renowned violinist Robert McDuffie and the distinguished visiting artists at the new center. I was not prepared to leave the Portland community so soon and have adored my time with the Oregon Symphony.”
“Amy’s tenure as our concertmaster has simply been fantastic,” said Music Director Carlos Kalmar. “Beyond her brilliant violin playing and leadership within the orchestra, she has developed a strong rapport with our audiences and community.” While the Symphony regrets losing Moretti, said Kalmar, everyone is grateful for what she has brought to the orchestra and community.
“Amy has been a strong partner in forwarding Carlos’ artistic vision for the Oregon Symphony,” said Maria Pope, Oregon Symphony board chair. “Our artistic momentum created under Carlos’ leadership will continue to grow as evidenced by the appointment of three new principal players this season.”
“I want to thank the orchestra, Carlos Kalmar, and the Portland community for embracing me and making me feel so at home here,” said Moretti. “I know that I will always hold in my heart the great music making that is happening with Carlos Kalmar and my Oregon Symphony colleagues.”
Founded in 1833, Mercer University has consistently been ranked among the leading colleges and universities in the South by US News and World Report since 1989. Mercer’s Townsend School of Music offers undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University will accept its first class in fall 2007. “Amy is quite simply, one of America’s greatest violinists, and one of the most inspirational teachers I have ever seen,” said McDuffie. “I know she has been tortured about leaving the orchestra she loves so much. That is a testament to her character.”
it’s almost quartet season again… September 13, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a commentWe just had an Arnica Quartet dinner meeting the other night to nail down a couple of concert dates and also our repertoire for the coming season.
We’ve got two concerts lined up so far for the Fall, the first a noon concert at Pacific University on October 3rd, where we’ll be playing the Haydn “Lark” Quartet, Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet, and two short arrangements by Shostakovich of music from his staged works (The Golden Age, and Lady Macbeth).
We have another concert in Salem, Oregon on November 12th @ 3 p.m. which will comprise the Haydn “Lark”, Shosty 8, and Beethoven’s monumental op. 130 (with alternate non-fugue finale).
As for the spring, our repertoire will be the Janacek 2nd (Intimate Letters), Beethoven op. 18 no. 6, and the Debussy Quartet. We’re kind of hitting all of the stylistic genres this year, should be interesting!
orchestral inheritance September 10, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentI read the most recent issue of Senza Sordino (the journal of ICSOM or the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians) at work yesterday, just before our second of two Garrison Keillor concerts (great fun, and absolutely worth the money if he’s coming to an orchestra near you soon - in this case I think the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony are his two other orchestral gigs this fall), and one article really caught my eye. It referred to the three main groups of musicians who make up the symphony orchestra. Not “strings, winds, percussion” or that sort of arrangement, but rather the age groups.
They are (and I’m paraphrasing, as the issue did not make it home with me last night): the newcomers, the middlers, and the veterans.
The author talks about the newbies and the veterans as the technical and historical authorities of the orchestra, but it’s what he said about the largest of the three groups, the middle-agers, that caught my eye.
The middlers (my expression, actually, more accurately is middle-farts) are who the author asserts really own the orchestra. They are between the ages of 30 - 50 (with some outliers), and they have made a committment to being in the group they’re in, and are those who take up most of the workload of committees and other grunt work that keeps the rest of the orchestra relatively happy. I hadn’t really thought of coming into this position of ownership, at least not in this way. It makes a lot of sense, and now I feel a bit daunted by the responsibility. It is this group, into which all of my closest friends in the orchestra fall, which now takes the task of stewardship of the orchestra, and it’s a bit scary! We as a voting bloc and largest group of people who form the pool of service for the orchestra now face an uncertain future: where will the orchestra go from here? How will we keep these phenomenal young talents that win our auditions each year? How can we motivate an already “asked to death” set of donors and audience members to dig a bit deeper and help us get to the next level? How do we stay relevent to a fast-moving and attention span deficient society?
I hope that some answers come to our collective minds in the near-term, and that some great music is made in the meantime. Well, welcome to a new season, one that will be one of our best yet, and enjoy yourself.
the william primrose legacy (cont’d) September 6, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a commentIf you’re into hearing state-of-the-art viola playing, look no further than the newly-released second solo album of William Primrose transcriptions played by Roberto Diaz and pianist Robert Koenig. Diaz’s first CD was a collection of works by Henri Vieuxtemps, also with pianist Robert Koenig. The Vieuxtemps CD was performed on his Camilli viola of 1739, which was a great instrument (purchased shortly after he was appointed to the principal viola chair of the Philadelphia Orchestra).
The Primrose CD has the added advantage of a new acquisition: the ex-Primrose Brothers Amati viola of 1595 which was owned by and performed on by William Primrose early on in his career, and upon which many of these works might have first been performed!
His [William Primrose's] father owned several fine instruments, including a c.1600 Brothers Amati viola which was kept locked in a cupboard. This must have been part of its attraction. Willie, as the family called him, described his naughty moments thus: ‘As a youngster, when he [father] wasn’t around, I found a way to open the latch on the cupboard where the Amati was kept and played it with considerable satisfaction. I preferred its sound to the sound of the violin. [1]
This instrument has a remarkable sound, all the more considering its small size of around 15.5 inches. I had the opportunity to play and listen to each of these instruments in Verizon Hall and was consistently amazed at the projection and power of the C-string on the Amati. You get what you pay for!
Diaz served as the Principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 10 years, succeeding his teacher at the Curtis Institute, Joseph dePasquale, who was a pupil of William Primrose. Diaz’s father, Manuel, was his first teacher, and he himself studied with Primrose at Indiana University, so the Primrose pedagogical bloodline runs deep through the Diaz family. After leaving the orchestra in the spring of 2006, Diaz succeeded Gary Graffman as the President of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
I’ve only done the most preliminary listening to this new CD (available at Amazon.com, the Naxos site, and the iTunes music store, among others), but it is exemplary in almost every conceivable fashion. The artistry is first-rate, with beautifully spun phrases, and the virtuosity is breathtaking. Add to this the wonderfully clear sonics of the Naxos recording, and the able accompaniment of ace pianist Robert Koenig, and you’ve got a great disc for anyone who’s interested in hearing what the viola at its fullest potential can do. Highly recommended.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I was a student of Roberto Diaz at the University of Maryland and the Peabody Conservatory of Music from 1991-1995.
[1] Claudine Bigelow “No time for snobbery” The Strad, August, 2004.
happy birthday to me! September 4, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a comment
If I told you how old, I’d have to kill you…
freelancers: second-class citizens? September 3, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentWord came of the recent settlement of a new contract for the Boston Symphony. In years past, the rates of pay for substitute and extra musicians (which are filled by freelance musicians) was locked to the rate paid to contracted members of the BSO. This contract cycle the rate for freelance musicians (which includes the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra) was slashed 17 percent. Basically the contract, which gave BSO musicians a 4.6 percent increase in the first year of the contract (with more to come in subsequent years of the contract) made room for a raise for the permanent members on the backs of the freelancers.
I think it’s a troubling development, because it’s not likely to ever be given back. The Oregon Symphony has a lower per-service rate for substitutes and extras, and though it’s always been a priority to get parity for the freelancers, it has never been the highest one. In the quid pro quo world of negotiating a CBA, you have to give something to get something, and sub pay always goes off the table very early on. I don’t know the history of the OSO’s move away from parity, but I have the feeling that it was a similar deal to what has just happened in Boston.
What’s worse is the message that something like this sends to your pool of freelance players. They are basically expendable, since if they weren’t , you’d be keeping their pay at a competitive level. In Portland, our subs earn less per-service than in the Opera or Ballet orchestras, which is to me frankly unacceptable. If you are a freelance musician who is being called to play with your local major orchestra, you’re most likely getting called at the last minute (often the morning of the first rehearsal) because a regular player has fallen ill or been injured. You’re expected to play at the same level as the full-time members of the orchestra, but you’re often sight-reading a part that, if you’re lucky, you’ve played before, or if you’re unlucky, is a world-premiere of a new work. You basically play an audition for your section every time you show up to work, and for this you are paid LESS than everyone else?? Give me a break! Parity of freelance musicians is not just a “nice option” but the only one.
