There’s a common misconception – a myth, really – that “great” orchestras play well for every conductor, in every situation.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s even got some traction in the realm of the orchestral musicians (most particularly in so-called “great” orchestras).\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve heard, during my years in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, many incredibly sub-par performances, both with their music directors and with guests.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not just a case of “garbage in, garbage out”, either.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes a conductor doesn’t bring their A-game, sometimes they do, but the orchestra doesn’t agree.\u00c2\u00a0 In some cases, the orchestra respects the conductor, and goes along with what they want, even if it isn’t particularly inspired.<\/p>\n
It’s hard to hear that one’s ensemble must not be that good since we didn’t manage to play a completely different interpretation of a piece than the conductor’s.\u00c2\u00a0 Please!\u00c2\u00a0 It would be so incredibly disrespectful to do that, and unprofessional as well.\u00c2\u00a0 In addition, it’s easy for a wind or brass soloist to shine under less than ideal circumstances: they’re playing by themselves – they don’t have to get 10 or 16 other string players to phrase the same way, and their power comes from their very prominence in the orchestral texture – in most cases the conductor has no choice but to follow them, and so the rest of the orchestra as well.<\/p>\n
In the end, I guess it’s safe to trust the audience’s reaction which, for this series of concerts, was very positive (both in their reaction to the performances and the sheer amount of seats sold).\u00c2\u00a0 There’s more than one way to get the job done, and when done musically and with conviction, any approach can be valid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s a common misconception – a myth, really – that “great” orchestras play well for every conductor, in every situation.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s even got some traction in the realm of the orchestral musicians (most particularly in so-called “great” orchestras).\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve heard, during my years in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, many incredibly sub-par performances, both with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,115,2],"tags":[17,3668],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-criticism","tag-oregon-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-wD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17344,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2020\/02\/07\/coding-vs-musicking\/","url_meta":{"origin":2023,"position":0},"title":"coding vs. musicking","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago I had this (most likely very unoriginal) thought: in programming\/coding, the axiom goes \"garbage in, garbage out\". In the orchestra world, it sometimes can follow that rule, but most of the time, at any level of professionalism, the opposite is expected: \"garbage in, beautiful out\". This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/26\/adventurous-programming-and-why-you-should-care-about-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":2023,"position":1},"title":"adventurous programming and why you should care about it","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has recently named those orchestras and organizations which were selected to be honored for \"Adventurous Programming\" during the 2006-2007 season. I also have a connection to a couple of those groups honored, which I'll talk about after the jump.Here are the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1480,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/03\/why-so-many-bad-conductors\/","url_meta":{"origin":2023,"position":2},"title":"why so many bad conductors?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In one of his recent posts, Robert Levine asks why certain conductors or so over-payed in comparison to the average musician in their ensembles, and suggests that the answer might be found in the concept of scarcity: It is a core weakness of the orchestra industry world-wide that there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":904,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/01\/portland-youth-philharmonic-appoints-new-music-director\/","url_meta":{"origin":2023,"position":3},"title":"Portland Youth Philharmonic appoints new music director","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Conductor David Hattner has been appointed as the fifth conductor and music director of the Portland Youth Phiharmonic, known as America's first established youth orchestra, founded in 1924. Hattner's first musical career was as a professional clarinetist, and his positions have included the Princeton Symphony, Cascade Music Festival Orchestra, New\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"David Hattner, music director designate of the Portland Youth Philharmonic","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/david_hattner-226x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1459,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/21\/fatigue-factor\/","url_meta":{"origin":2023,"position":4},"title":"fatigue factor","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's that time of the season when the first wave of fatigue starts to set in. \u00a0We've had two back-to-back classical series, then the Inside the Score concert, and now we're on our second back-to-back classical run. \u00a0It feels like everyone is pretty much running on fumes this week, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":78,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/24\/smells-like-team-despirited\/","url_meta":{"origin":2023,"position":5},"title":"smells like team (de)spirit(ed)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"What 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. 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