Getting The Last Word
There was a funny moment at this morning's rehearsal. Osmo thanked us for our work in the Thursday performance (as he always does at the first rehearsal after a concert,) then grinned and noted that, "I have read in today's Star Tribune that the critic thought that we were not always with the movie. He said there was a band on the screen, and we were not playing when they played. This is so. Chaplin believed that his audience did not need to hear a band to see that one was playing, and he assumed that the people would imagine the sound of the band, which is why we don't play there. But perhaps Chaplin overestimated the imagination of critics..."
Labels: film music, inside the orchestra, osmo
posted by Sam at
1:59 PM
3 Comments:
I loved Osmo's letter to the editor in this morning's StarTribune on the subject - way to go Osmo!
I also loved Osmo's letter to the editor in the Sunday Star Tribune. It seems only logical that if a person is going to review music that he has some familiarity with the score so he can write about the performance with intelligence..... I hope the "critic" takes this all as an educational experience. I think in a metro area that supports major arts organizations including the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, our newspaper could have better review coverage of them.
In fairness to Randy Beard, who wrote the review in question, Chaplin's score isn't widely available, and it did seem a bit odd that the orchestra wasn't playing at that moment. (There's another odd moment when a cop fires several shots at Chaplin, but the soundtrack doesn't kick in for several seconds and then plays only a single gunshot.)
But Cinda's point about the degradation of arts coverage in a metro area with one of the best cultural scenes in North America is well taken. I'm no media critic, but the fact that a whole slew of arts writers have seen their jobs eliminated or handed to freelancers while gossip hacks and redundant columnists stay employed at the local dailies reeks to me of out-of-town ownership with no understanding of the local market.
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