{"id":13914,"date":"2015-10-05T13:20:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T20:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=13914"},"modified":"2015-10-05T18:18:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T01:18:16","slug":"thoughts-of-a-front-desk-violist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/10\/05\/thoughts-of-a-front-desk-violist\/","title":{"rendered":"thoughts of a front desk violist"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve just read this wonderful article<\/a> on LSO principal violist Paul Silverthorne<\/a> on Ariane Todes’ blog<\/a>, and if you’re an orchestral player, conductor, or soloist, I’d encourage you to read it. It’s a goldmine of practical information from a top player in a top orchestra who has just about seen it all. Here are a couple of my favorite bits:<\/p>\n

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‘It\u2019s hard to analyse how great conductors make a difference. It\u2019s much easier to explain what the bad ones are doing that doesn\u2019t help. Bad conductors conduct everything they don\u2019t need to conduct but don\u2019t give the things they do need to. They have self-conscious gestures they use to look good, or they\u2019re not quite convinced of their own ideas.<\/p>\n

The problem for conductors is that until they\u2019re famous they don\u2019t get a good instrument to practise on. It takes a different technique to conduct a bad orchestra. You\u2019ll get a young conductor coming in and they\u2019ve probably worked with orchestras that aren\u2019t as good as the LSO and they don\u2019t know how much they can trust the orchestra just to do it.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018In my position I can see everything, particularly bow arms, which are so individual and make such a difference to someone\u2019s voice. Rostropovich was amazing \u2013 he\u2019d always have yards left at the end of his bow to open out the sound. Even with a diminuendo there was no loss of power. It\u2019s a particularly Russian thing: Yuri Bashmet does it, too. You can learn from the bow arms of all the great players.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Turning around and saying things as section leader has to be done with a light touch and as little as necessary. If you do say something, it has to be very simple and clear. I\u2019ve got really good players in the section so I\u2019m not going to be say anything patronising. You have to trust them. You have to give them clear leadership without going over the top, and a strong rhythmic leadership, otherwise they can\u2019t come in together. It doesn\u2019t have to be a big lead but it has to be very clear what you\u2019re going to do, with no hesitation. When you\u2019ve got a good section you can send back clues about what you\u2019re going to do with the phrasing, in how you\u2019re moving, with simple body language. It\u2019s the same as with conductors \u2013 if your movements are contrived or self-conscious it doesn\u2019t send the right message. It\u2019s got to come naturally from your playing and then it will work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve just read this wonderful article on LSO principal violist Paul Silverthorne on Ariane Todes’ blog, and if you’re an orchestral player, conductor, or soloist, I’d encourage you to read it. It’s a goldmine of practical information from a top player in a top orchestra who has just about seen it all. Here are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":13915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[299,135,2],"tags":[342,3706,3704,3705],"class_list":["post-13914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conducting","category-soloists-recitals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-interview","tag-london-symphony-orchestra","tag-paul-silverthorne","tag-principal-violist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-3Cq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/home_photo03.jpg?fit=540%2C250&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}