{"id":3206,"date":"2009-10-06T12:29:41","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T19:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2009-10-06T12:29:41","modified_gmt":"2009-10-06T19:29:41","slug":"context-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/06\/context-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"context is good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve heard from quite a few audience members that they were perplexed by David Stabler&#8217;s pan of the Oregon Symphony&#8217;s season opening classical series concert.\u00a0 There has also been the usual grumbling from within the orchestra about the review &#8211; not just in its conclusions, but also its tone and strange grammatical choices.\u00a0 There&#8217;s not much to be gained in rebutting a critic, and here&#8217;s why:\u00a0 it&#8217;s just one person&#8217;s opinion.\u00a0 No matter how astute, august or erudite a critic might be, their criticism basically boils down to one thing: it&#8217;s their opinion.\u00a0 They can back it up with all manner of historical insights, theoretical analysis, and what have you, but it&#8217;s basically a subjective opinion.<\/p>\n<p>My conclusions from this opening round of concerts are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We have fallen down to just about the minimum complement of strings for the repertoire that we play, especially cellos and double basses.\u00a0 The Schnitz is not a bass-friendly hall, and there&#8217;s only so much you can do with reduced string sections.\u00a0 If you hear the Berlin Philharmonic and think that they&#8217;ve got this rich, velvety sonority &#8211; it&#8217;s not just that they&#8217;re a great orchestra: they have 12 cellos and 10 double basses.\u00a0 You need numbers to achieve a certain sonority (as well as a great hall, which Berlin definitely has) and it cannot be made up for in any other way.<\/li>\n<li>We&#8217;ve become a very flexible orchestra.\u00a0 We are aware and ready for just about anything that Carlos or our guest soloists can throw at us at this point.\u00a0 In the encore (Brahms&#8217; Hungarian Dance #5), there was a lot of spontaneity going on on stage, and this just wasn&#8217;t as possible to do with a high degree of precision and virtuosity a few years back.<\/li>\n<li>Our winds are truly world-class.\u00a0 There were so many moments, especially in the piano concerto, that were breathtaking, both from our solo principal winds, and from the whole wind choir in general.\u00a0 We&#8217;re so lucky to have these great wind players here, and I hope that we can keep them for years to come (and that will require making salaries competitive with peer orchestras).<\/li>\n<li>The strings are really developing a &#8220;big orchestra&#8221; sheen.\u00a0 In the coda of the last movement of the piano concerto Monday night, the violins just sounded exquisite.\u00a0 There was that sheen to the sound that one only hears from the top rank of orchestras, and it is so gratifying to hear it blooming on a regular basis here.<\/li>\n<li>The violas succeeded in getting a laugh from the Sunday and Monday night audiences in the last movement of the Bart\u00f3k <em>Divertimento<\/em> &#8211; the swooping upward glissando in the mock waltz section got open laughs from some of our audience members, and that made all of us smile &#8211; it&#8217;s the best sort of viola joke!<\/li>\n<li>We need more butts in seats.\u00a0 The audience presence Saturday night was depressingly low, and it did pick up (through word of mouth and through the ticket stub exchanges) the next two nights.\u00a0 We play to a very large hall &#8211; too large for what we can sell for all but the biggest soloists &#8211; maybe we need to cut from three classical concerts per series to two?\u00a0 All I know is that when the hall is over 85% sold, there is a tangible change in the atmosphere &#8211; it really becomes an &#8220;event&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve heard from quite a few audience members that they were perplexed by David Stabler&#8217;s pan of the Oregon Symphony&#8217;s season opening classical series concert.\u00a0 There has also been the usual grumbling from within the orchestra about the review &#8211; not just in its conclusions, but also its tone and strange grammatical choices.\u00a0 There&#8217;s not [&hellip;]<\/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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_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":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":[2],"tags":[3668],"class_list":["post-3206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-oregon-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-PI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/12\/07\/critics-critiqued\/","url_meta":{"origin":3206,"position":0},"title":"critics critiqued","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I found this link via The Oregonian's classical music critic David Stabler's blog. Very interesting reading. Basically, Time Out New York put together a panel of critics to evaluate the major critics in New York City in all major areas, including classical music. Our own colleague in the blogosphere, Alex\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","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":5133,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/02\/why-recordings-matter\/","url_meta":{"origin":3206,"position":1},"title":"why recordings matter","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Basically, look at the response of the New York Times critic to the just-issued recording of Glass' Orphee by the Portland Opera.\u00a0 It is recognition on an international level to the work by Anne Manson, and the Portland Opera and its orchestra.\u00a0 Tomassini essentially gives the recording credit for bringing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;opera&quot;","block_context":{"text":"opera","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/opera-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/07\/stablers-must-see-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":3206,"position":2},"title":"stabler&#8217;s must-see list","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregonian classical music critic David Stabler has posted his list of 10 guest artists that he'd like to see at the Oregon Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 It's a good list - I'd add Jonathan Biss, pianist; Tabea Zimmerman, violist (I know, I know...); Janine Jansen, violinist; and Daniel Barenboim, conductor\/pianist, among others...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":513,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/03\/how-not-to-fix-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":3206,"position":3},"title":"how not to fix the Oregon Symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last two years, the coverage of the the Oregon Symphony in the local press has become more sporadic, and when it does happen, much more pessimistic, and maybe a little bit cynical. First, an outline of what constitutes the press in Portland, Oregon, for those of you who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;appreciation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2698,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/15\/2698\/","url_meta":{"origin":3206,"position":4},"title":"oregon symphony &#8216;crisis&#8217;","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Classical music critic from the Oregonian, David Stabler, gives a short, not-so-sweet synopsis of the state of the Oregon Symphony at the end of the 2008-2009 season: The symphony in crisis","rel":"","context":"In &quot;fundraising&quot;","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6323,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/06\/more-coverage-for-carnegie-visit\/","url_meta":{"origin":3206,"position":5},"title":"more coverage for carnegie visit","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The New York Times' music critic James Oestreich has written an article today about the Spring for Music Festival, which is presenting the Oregon Symphony and six other orchestras from around the US and Canada starting this evening with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Here's the excerpt about the Oregon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/iStock_000005888672XSmall.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206","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=3206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}