2007 Highlight Reel, Part Three
Wrapping up my favorite concerts of the year, two in particular stood out this past fall...
9. Shostakovich Violin Concerto w/Lisa Batiashvili - October 6, Orchestra Hall
Orchestra musicians and soloists have an interesting relationship. More accurately, we generally have a complete lack of a relationship. We (orchestra players) are always in the same place, the same city, playing on the same stage with the same people. They (soloists) are nomads, wandering the Earth and performing with nearly any orchestra that will have them. We usually see them for only an hour or two of rehearsal before the performance, and unless one of us grew up with the soloist du jour, there isn't a lot of personal contact backstage - they stay in their dressing rooms, we in our musicians' lounge.
So when a soloist's performance causes an orchestra to buzz for days on end, it's an event. And Lisa Batiashvili's debut with the Minnesota Orchestra this fall was one of those times. Her Shostakovich was brilliant, yes, but more than that, her overall musicianship and stunning technique had many members of the orchestra excitedly telling each other, "We ought to get her back to play [ridiculously difficult and exciting concerto x] next time!" From the reaction of the critics and audience members in attendance (and at least one reader of this blog,) it was evident that everyone was in agreement. I suspect we'll be seeing Lisa again as soon as she has an open date in her schedule.
10. Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 (Italian) - November 21, Orchestra Hall
I really don't know why we bother having concerts the week of Thanksgiving. Very few people come to them, and having to play the night before and night after the holiday merely insures that none of us ever get to travel to spend the holiday with family out of state. Furthermore, there have been years in which the programming seems directly at odds with the festive spirit of Thanksgiving week (the year in which we engaged Oliver Knussen to conduct a concert of his own highly complex and difficult music stands out in particular.)
But this year, Thanksgiving week saw us playing an up-tempo program culminating with one of my favorite symphonies, led by the conductor who always leads the field whenever Minnesota Orchestra musicians are polled on the subject of who we should consider hiring as a principal guest conductor. I've blogged about Gilbert Varga before, and I've honestly never heard a musician say a bad word about him, which is pretty rare for a conductor. The level of respect that we have for him is so high that, early in the week, when he didn't like the way we were playing the first movement of the Mendelssohn, not a single person appeared to take any offense at all when he snapped, "You're too good an orchestra to be playing it like that!" It wasn't an attack, it was a statement of fact wrapped up in a backhanded compliment, and because we know and respect Varga, we all took it as exactly that.
Largely because of Varga's uncompromising insistence on quick tempos and intense drive, the Mendelssohn had an unmistakable intensity and brilliant shine to it, and I had a fantastic time playing it all week. Even in the hands of good orchestras, the first and last movements of the piece are too often sloppy and rhythmically lazy, and a turkey hangover could have made things even worse, but Varga's enthusiasm is decidedly infectious, and prevented any such pitfalls. I don't think we've ever played a better Thanksgiving concert in my time here.
So that's my list, and you're all welcome to chime in with your own favorites (or busts) of '07 in the comments. The orchestra reconvenes next week, when we'll spend five days making the last recording in our cycle of Beethoven symphonies before starting up the concerts again. The coming month will feature a two-week mini-festival of great film music (culminating with a full performance of Shostakovich's score for Battleship Potemkin with the film playing on a giant screen behind us); a pops show hosted by Star Trek star George Takei; a children's concert focusing on Scheherezade; and of course, our next Inside the Classics concert, featuring Peter McGuire on the Tchaikovsky violin concerto on January 30 & 31. Hopefully, we'll see you all there!
9. Shostakovich Violin Concerto w/Lisa Batiashvili - October 6, Orchestra Hall
Orchestra musicians and soloists have an interesting relationship. More accurately, we generally have a complete lack of a relationship. We (orchestra players) are always in the same place, the same city, playing on the same stage with the same people. They (soloists) are nomads, wandering the Earth and performing with nearly any orchestra that will have them. We usually see them for only an hour or two of rehearsal before the performance, and unless one of us grew up with the soloist du jour, there isn't a lot of personal contact backstage - they stay in their dressing rooms, we in our musicians' lounge.
So when a soloist's performance causes an orchestra to buzz for days on end, it's an event. And Lisa Batiashvili's debut with the Minnesota Orchestra this fall was one of those times. Her Shostakovich was brilliant, yes, but more than that, her overall musicianship and stunning technique had many members of the orchestra excitedly telling each other, "We ought to get her back to play [ridiculously difficult and exciting concerto x] next time!" From the reaction of the critics and audience members in attendance (and at least one reader of this blog,) it was evident that everyone was in agreement. I suspect we'll be seeing Lisa again as soon as she has an open date in her schedule.
10. Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 (Italian) - November 21, Orchestra Hall
I really don't know why we bother having concerts the week of Thanksgiving. Very few people come to them, and having to play the night before and night after the holiday merely insures that none of us ever get to travel to spend the holiday with family out of state. Furthermore, there have been years in which the programming seems directly at odds with the festive spirit of Thanksgiving week (the year in which we engaged Oliver Knussen to conduct a concert of his own highly complex and difficult music stands out in particular.)
But this year, Thanksgiving week saw us playing an up-tempo program culminating with one of my favorite symphonies, led by the conductor who always leads the field whenever Minnesota Orchestra musicians are polled on the subject of who we should consider hiring as a principal guest conductor. I've blogged about Gilbert Varga before, and I've honestly never heard a musician say a bad word about him, which is pretty rare for a conductor. The level of respect that we have for him is so high that, early in the week, when he didn't like the way we were playing the first movement of the Mendelssohn, not a single person appeared to take any offense at all when he snapped, "You're too good an orchestra to be playing it like that!" It wasn't an attack, it was a statement of fact wrapped up in a backhanded compliment, and because we know and respect Varga, we all took it as exactly that.
Largely because of Varga's uncompromising insistence on quick tempos and intense drive, the Mendelssohn had an unmistakable intensity and brilliant shine to it, and I had a fantastic time playing it all week. Even in the hands of good orchestras, the first and last movements of the piece are too often sloppy and rhythmically lazy, and a turkey hangover could have made things even worse, but Varga's enthusiasm is decidedly infectious, and prevented any such pitfalls. I don't think we've ever played a better Thanksgiving concert in my time here.
So that's my list, and you're all welcome to chime in with your own favorites (or busts) of '07 in the comments. The orchestra reconvenes next week, when we'll spend five days making the last recording in our cycle of Beethoven symphonies before starting up the concerts again. The coming month will feature a two-week mini-festival of great film music (culminating with a full performance of Shostakovich's score for Battleship Potemkin with the film playing on a giant screen behind us); a pops show hosted by Star Trek star George Takei; a children's concert focusing on Scheherezade; and of course, our next Inside the Classics concert, featuring Peter McGuire on the Tchaikovsky violin concerto on January 30 & 31. Hopefully, we'll see you all there!
Labels: musical dorkery, osmo
posted by Sam at
2:54 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for sharing your year's highlights - I enjoyed reading them.
I also count the Shostakovich Violin Concerto as performed by Lisa Batiashvili as one of the highlights of my concert-going year; and shortly afterwards I was fortunate to hear Leila Josefowicz' amazing rendition of the Adams concerto with the SPCO. It was a very good year for violin performance in the Twin Cities!
Thanks for sharing your highlight reel!
I loved Stephen Hough's Brahms Second Piano Concerto last spring, John Adams' "My Father Knew Charles Ives," the Sibelius 4/Beethoven 5 concert, the Sibelius 2 concert, the Beethoven 7 concert was especially outstanding and the Composer Institute -- Bravo!
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