Well, the first of our subscription concert weekends is done, and I’m left curiously unaffected. Maybe it’s always been this way – it’s just the range of emotions that I go through during the process of rehearsing and performing that has changed as the job has changed.<\/p>\n
When I first came here in 1995, I had played in three different college\/conservatory orchestras (University of Puget Sound, University of Maryland, Peabody Conservatory), one youth orchestra (Tacoma Youth Symphony), and three regional professional orchestras (Tacoma Symphony, Fairfax Symphony, Maryland Symphony). Plus two summers and Tanglewood Music Center in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and three summers at the National Orchestral Institute in the Washington, D.C. area.<\/p>\n
So, while I wasn’t completely inexperienced, I was still green by major professional orchestra standards. I didn’t earn a salary in my previous jobs, they were freelance gigs with some tenure provisions, and they paid by the rehearsal and concert (known in industry parlance as a “service”). And the amount of repertoire that they would perform in a season might encompass 15 to 20 works, rather than the 60 or more that we learn each season here at the OSO.<\/p>\n
In any event, I spent a lot of time listening to new pieces that were coming up, studying scores if time allowed, and practicing my ass off to make sure that I was prepared for the first rehearsal. The speed with which the orchestra seemed to polish new programs was astonishing to me! Just four rehearsals in the span of a week, and we were ready to perform. Contrast this with college orchestras, where an entire semester can be spent learning a single program, or summer festivals, where there are often twice as many rehearsals in the same amount of time. The atmosphere in rehearsals was generally very relaxed. Jimmy was not a taskmaster. He generally allowed the orchestra to find its own way to the final version that he wanted, and was very non-threatening. This has its good points and bad, the performances were often much more expansive and relaxed, but at the expense of ensemble precision, intonation, and any real sense of urgency. Still, there are some performances that I remember very much to this day as being very satisfying and enjoyable.<\/p>\n
Much has changed in the intervening 11 seasons between then and now. It would have been unthinkable to present Also Sprach Zarathustra on the opening concert of the season and to expect much in the way of virtuosity when I first arrived. Now, however, the Strauss came together as well or better than the Heldenleben which ended last season. Clearly, the orchestra is sounding very good – technically speaking. We’re executing what our music director wants us to execute, and we’re doing it better with each passing year. However, I miss an element that I have always prized when working with my favorite conductors, and that is the element of give and take. I love it when the orchestra as a whole, or a section of the orchestra, is able to play something in “their” way and have the conductor integrate it into their vision, meeting half-way or at some other hard to define point in the interpretive spectrum. As good as we sound right now, I feel like we’re never able to just pull the cork and let the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, like we were able to do last season with Itzhak, and several seasons ago with Yakov Kreizburg.<\/p>\n
I worry, because as things stand, we can achieve excellent technical performances with Carlos, but when someone with less technical command of the stick comes in, we’ve lost some of our ability to think on our own – it takes a rehearsal or two, if ever, for some of the self-confidence to come back. In seasons past, we’ve been encouraged by Carlos to not be “so nervous” at the first concerts of a series, to play out more and be more assertive. I find this hard to do, however, when during rehearsals the most common comment is “no” and the unspoken edict is “do it my way”, rather than something a bit more open and collaborative.<\/p>\n
Do I regret any of the changes that have happened over the past three seasons? No, not at all. But I do think that there must be a way to have the best of both worlds as the relationship between the orchestra and our music director continues. I hope that it continues to deepen and grow, and that as the constitution of the orchestra’s membership continues to change, we find and regain some of our confidence in our experience and musiciality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, the first of our subscription concert weekends is done, and I’m left curiously unaffected. Maybe it’s always been this way – it’s just the range of emotions that I go through during the process of rehearsing and performing that has changed as the job has changed.<\/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":[86,55,62,3656],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-conductor","tag-orchestra","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-7i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/26\/adventurous-programming-and-why-you-should-care-about-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":0},"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":255,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/26\/why-orchestras-have-an-image-problem\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":1},"title":"why orchestras have an image problem","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just happened upon this short article about the departure of the executive director of the Tacoma Symphony (which was my first professional gig when I was in undergrad at the University of Puget Sound) - here, you read it in its entirety, and tell me what jumps out at\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":1005,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/06\/new-faces-at-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":2},"title":"new faces at the oregon symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Four new musicians will be joining the Oregon Symphony next season - here's the rundown on each of them (courtesy of the Oregon Symphony's Carl Herko): Mark J. Dubac, second clarinet - Dubac has been principal clarinetist with the Green Bay Symphony in Wisconsin for the past two seasons and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5380,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/01\/new-musicians-join-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":3},"title":"new musicians join symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a spate of auditions at the end of last season, and the results netted us three new musicians who are all now settled in Portland and playing with the orchestra.\u00a0 They are Principal timpanist Jonathan Greeney, oboist and English hornist Kyle Mustain, and violist Silu Fei.\u00a0 Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/jonathangreeney.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13903,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/09\/15\/performer-bios-suck\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":4},"title":"performer bios suck","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I was just reading an\u00a0editorial by David Lister from The Independent wherein he decries the amount of useless information that he sees in performer bios in concert programs. And I totally agree. He asks why these bios are so horrible for the average person. I would answer that it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/blah_blah_blah_by_summerdaze13-d4qzr8r.jpg?fit=591%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/blah_blah_blah_by_summerdaze13-d4qzr8r.jpg?fit=591%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/blah_blah_blah_by_summerdaze13-d4qzr8r.jpg?fit=591%2C591&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5708,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/06\/oregon-symphony-welcomes-four-new-musicians\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":5},"title":"oregon symphony welcomes four new musicians","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After a series of auditions held this past Fall, the Oregon Symphony will welcome four new musicians to its ranks after the winter break concludes Friday.\u00a0 With violist Silu Fei, timpanist Jonathan Greeney and English hornist Kyle Mustain already here (and sounding fantastic), this brings our number of new musicians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Ted-Botsford-200x337.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\/452","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=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}