News Items
By Matthew Heil
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
In the news:
As you may have already seen, the Arizona Republic's Classics reviewer, Richard Nilsen, had two pieces about The Phoenix Symphony recently.
One is about concertmaster Borivoj Martinic-Jercic's departure to Croatia, to work with I Solisti di Zagreb, as concertmaster and Music Director. Read it here.
The second is an interesting piece about baroque and period musical performance that includes this weekend's conductor, Robert Mealy. It's here.
More information about this weekend's concerts is on the Symphony's main website, www.phoenixsymphony.org.
11 Comments:
That was a short but nice piece on the departure of our concertmaster. I was wondering why there were no quotes from anyone from the artistic side of the PSO besides the man himself.
Some interesting thoughts as we begin to choose a new concertmaster.
www.nobleviola.com/wordpress/2007/03/07/why-no-wage-competition/
dear sonny,
I assure you I am not a horn player in this symphony or any symphony for that matter. However, what is shameful is that the orchestra is asking players to do what they are not prepared to do. Perhaps you and the guy from the paper should consider what goes into these performances. These players are professionals with a set of skills that maybe do not include "historical" fake playing. Do you think this was on purpose. Maybe those people who wave their arms or make a sound that is never heard should think about this before they capriciously subject their players and audiences to things that don't belong.
There is so much wrong with all this I don't know where to start.
sonny,
an interesting post. I was not at the concert so I assume that the problems were serious enough that they deserved mention here and in the paper. My question would be "what would you have done?" Or I suppose as a patron, what would you have liked to have seen happen? If the concert was like a dress rehearsal as you say, what do you think should have happened in the actual dress rehearsal? Should the piece have been cancelled? Were there problems is every piece?
To the person who clearly is unimpressed by our early music endeavor I would like to remind him/her that this repertory is clearly within the expected scope of performable works by a professional musician in a symphony orchestra. The Chicago Symphony plays Handel as do orchestras around the world, like Dallas where I am now. Incidentally, the Dallas Symphony is performing Handel's Messiah next week, at Easter time, which I think is a marvelous idea.
Our early music initiative accomplishes many things.
1) More early music is incorporated into our season planning.
2) Our players are offered the opportunity to expand their current knowledge about performance practices.
3) The Association has a new line of business which may allow us to tour or record.
4) The initiative raises our profile in the national musical community and provides another incentive for musicians to audition here when vacancies occur.
5) Learning about historical performance style greatly expands our performance options for classical composers such as Mozart, Schubert, Haydn and Beethoven.
The list goes on.....
The moral of the story is that the Association is working hard to inspire and challenge our talented musicians and by doing so benefit our musical community. Virtually every industry works to offer professional development opportunities for its employees. Unlike most orchestras we are trying to do the same.
This is another Anonymous...
I am just curious if the horn players were playing natural horns or their modern instruments?
I hope they consider wisely who gets to "play" the shot gun!
Even tho the horns were messy in their solo part, the rest of the evening -- SCA presentation of the Water Music -- was wonderful. After reading all the blogs on the subject I was comforted to realize that my seatmate and I were not the only ones to question the attack and hesitant sound of at least one of the French horns. But the rest of the concert sounds were great and the rising and taking an old fashioned, formal bow of the whole group was truly fun to see. (Even when some of the orchestra forgot to do it...) In the NYT review of a concert in New York today the reviewer says "A messy trumpet solo...was the only blip in an otherwise commendable orchestral performance." For the Phoenix Symphony that could read -- A messy horn solo was the only blip in an otherwise commendable orchestral performance.
I am not so sure how to feel about the review and Maestro Christie's response. First of all, let me say this, bringing in a 'Tutor' is one of the most insulting things I have seen the Phoenix Symphony do to the musicians. Since the style of Baroque music is a requirement for all classically trained musicians at colleges and conservatories, the tutor is redundant and a waste of money. This is something the conductor should convey since there are so many interpretations of style: Length of notes, trills, phrasing, repeats; it is all up for debate and any skilled musician knows this.
And for each of Christie's numbers:
1)Yes, the Chicago Symphony plays Baroque music, (thankfully not with Baroque instruments), but they would never do what Phoenix is doing. The key here is the word "symphony". It is not the Chicago Symphony and Baroque orchestra. Chicago has two very fine Baroque specialized orchestras that are fully professional, one plays on dedicated Baroque instruments, and the other on contemporary instruments. What Phoenix is attempting to do seems to be wearing as many hats as possible. You are the Phoenix Symphony, the bulk of your music should be symphonic inspired. A small portion of Baroque to balance, but no more.
2) Offering your players an opportunity to expand their current knowledge about performance practices?! Does the offer mean it is an option? Probably not. You are forcing Baroque music on the musicians and the Valley whether it is wanted or not.
3) A new line of business which may allow a tour or recording....since when do we need MORE Baroque recordings? And touring? I hope it is only around the Valley, because for this size orchestra, that will be your death. Unless you have proved that it will bring many funds into the organization, which I will be happy to see.
4) The initiative raises your profile in the national musical community and provides another incentive for musicians to audition here when vacancies occur? We all know, where there is an opening, hundreds will apply. Doesn't matter if the orchestra specializes in pops or classical or Baroque. An opening is an opening. And frankly, if I was looking for a orchestral job, I would apply for the strongest groups. Watching the orchestra going down so many different paths and getting diluted along the way doesn't look stable to me. Or, if I wanted to play Baroque, I would look into a period ensemble.
You have a hard thing to sell in the orchestra world, and painting yourself into a corner with this specialized music will alienate your general audience and bring an undesired degree of snobbery to the organization.
"Keep it real" seems to have a problem with the Early Music Initiative, but why?
-Are you uncomfortable that we offer our employees an opportunity to expand their understanding of a segment of music not often well understand nor well explored? The initial ensemble was voluntary by the way, and now members are moving in and out of the ensemble without a problem when they need to rotate out.
We have discussed this ensemble within the ongoing talks about our musician's employment contract and no one has used the term "insulting" to describe having a specialist assist us with this endeavor. My recommendation... get over it.
-The Phoenix Symphony has put a tremendous emphasis on "symphonic inspired" programs, even changing the format of what is now our "MOPS" (Mesa, Orpheum, Prescott, Scottsdale) series to incorporate the full orchestra rather than just chamber orchestra.
-The Early Music Initiative is fully underwritten by two family foundations that see this as a valuable opportunity for us to grow our institution. So yes, it has brought funds into our organization and yes, you should be happy.
-The Juilliard School of Music now has specific curriculum requirements that expose their students to the early music techniques we are introducing to our orchestra. Oberlin offers similar courses and Indiana University has done so for decades. The reality in the orchestra world, particularly in our budget class is that we have to be attractive to auditionees as they ultimately must be to us. In my experience the kind of people that are open enough to learn about this way of playing (the same should be said about modern music "chops") have the curiosity and intellect that we are very anxious to have in the orchestra world.
-Will you be equally upset if we embed a new music ensemble in the orchestra? The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony have. They do many more performances with these ensembles than we do with our initiative. As I said before I find musicians with these types of skills extremely valuable. FYI. The City of Birmingham tours and records their new music ensemble.
-Forcing Baroque music on the musicians and the Valley.... The ensemble was voluntary as I mentioned before and rotates only when necessary. We'd have to look at the very strong ticket sales to figure out how we are forcing this on the Valley audiences. Perhaps you know something I don't?!
-We have devoted some time to this initiative but you make it sound like we are abandoning the orchestral canon. Clearly, if you look at our schedule you'll see that is not the case.
-Developing a new audience base for specific types of programs is in no way alienating our general audience. By the sounds of it you, sir/madame are our general audience and you are coming to these concerts too! Many do and many people who specifically want to hear this music do as well. Companies from far and wide employ this type of strategy, targeting niche categories of consumers within their broader product support.
The whole thing seems sensible to me.
Thanks for writing.
Robert Mealy's future involvement with us hinges upon his very aggressive schedule on the East Coast where he lives. Our players seem happy with him so I am hopeful that he can continue to fit us in.
The beauty of this project is that there are others who can serve in the same capacity once we have some of the basics under our belts. It has always been my plan to have Robert start us down the path and use others as needed to add to the experience. Robert is a fantastic teacher so it made sense for him to introduce us to this "dialect".
This works exactly as it does now with guest conductors. The Music Director takes care of the foundation and guests often bring another perspective.
I wouldn't worry so much about the rotation system. Only a couple of string players have moved thus far. Rotating is a good thing in the end because more of the orchestra is exposed to the process and the technique. This whole project needs to be looked upon as an investment in our players as well as a great performance opportunity for our patrons.
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