Ears wide open
We're in the midst of preparations for our European Tour - five rehearsals this week instead of the usual 4, and our customary concert schedule has shifted to allow for our travel itinerary this weekend, meaning that we have concerts Wednesday and Thursday rather than over the weekend.
My job as cover conductor on the tour entails being prepared for the extremely unlikely possibility Osmo is unable to conduct, but another function I will also provide is being the pair of ears in the halls as we do our pre-concert soundcheck in each venue. One of the things I'm most looking forward to on our European jaunt is hearing the Minnesota Orchestra in some fabulous halls, including the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Musikverein in Vienna. While I've heard the the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic play their own halls, I've never heard my "home" orchestra in them, and I imagine each will be distinctly different from our home, Orchestra Hall.
Each hall is an utterly different animal; musicians feel it the minute they get onstage. Orchestra Hall has its own acoustical anomalies; you can hear someone unwrapping a cough drop in row 29 from onstage, but you often can't hear people across the stage. Certain sonorities carry better that others, and everything changes completely when there is a sizable audience sucking up some of the reverberations.
I have a pretty unique perspective on our hall, because I'm one of the few people who spends a great deal of time both onstage and in the audience; I certainly get the "stage perspective" during the 30+ concerts I conduct every year, but when I'm covering for Osmo, I'm out in the hall hearing the acoustic from the audience's perspective. Musicians rarely have the chance to listen to the Orchestra from out in the hall - and when they do, they invariably express surprise in "how it all sounds out here".
I try to bring my insights from both perspectives to both parts of my job; when I'm on the podium, I need to remember that, for instance, while the horns may sound rather subdued from my perch, they'll actually carry very well out in the hall, and when I'm out in the hall listening for balances while Osmo conducts, I try to listen for the details that can be heard in the hall that you can't hear on the podium because such a huge wall of sound is rushing towards you!
People often marvel, "As a conductor you must have the best seat in the house"; well, yes and no. Yes, the immense rush of sound with everything coming at you from all directions is pretty thrilling. But, no, because the sound is "unmixed", unblended - halls are built so the optimal sound reaches the audience, not the podium. It takes quite a bit of experience to discern the relationship between what you hear and what it actually sounds like (if that makes any sense).
The challenge for the halls on tour is that I'll have no stage perspective (and presumably Osmo will have no time to amble into the hall and have a listen), so any suggestions I may have for him about balances will have to be taken on faith. It's all part of the experience, and one I'll be taking in with ears wide open.
My job as cover conductor on the tour entails being prepared for the extremely unlikely possibility Osmo is unable to conduct, but another function I will also provide is being the pair of ears in the halls as we do our pre-concert soundcheck in each venue. One of the things I'm most looking forward to on our European jaunt is hearing the Minnesota Orchestra in some fabulous halls, including the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Musikverein in Vienna. While I've heard the the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic play their own halls, I've never heard my "home" orchestra in them, and I imagine each will be distinctly different from our home, Orchestra Hall.
Each hall is an utterly different animal; musicians feel it the minute they get onstage. Orchestra Hall has its own acoustical anomalies; you can hear someone unwrapping a cough drop in row 29 from onstage, but you often can't hear people across the stage. Certain sonorities carry better that others, and everything changes completely when there is a sizable audience sucking up some of the reverberations.
I have a pretty unique perspective on our hall, because I'm one of the few people who spends a great deal of time both onstage and in the audience; I certainly get the "stage perspective" during the 30+ concerts I conduct every year, but when I'm covering for Osmo, I'm out in the hall hearing the acoustic from the audience's perspective. Musicians rarely have the chance to listen to the Orchestra from out in the hall - and when they do, they invariably express surprise in "how it all sounds out here".
I try to bring my insights from both perspectives to both parts of my job; when I'm on the podium, I need to remember that, for instance, while the horns may sound rather subdued from my perch, they'll actually carry very well out in the hall, and when I'm out in the hall listening for balances while Osmo conducts, I try to listen for the details that can be heard in the hall that you can't hear on the podium because such a huge wall of sound is rushing towards you!
People often marvel, "As a conductor you must have the best seat in the house"; well, yes and no. Yes, the immense rush of sound with everything coming at you from all directions is pretty thrilling. But, no, because the sound is "unmixed", unblended - halls are built so the optimal sound reaches the audience, not the podium. It takes quite a bit of experience to discern the relationship between what you hear and what it actually sounds like (if that makes any sense).
The challenge for the halls on tour is that I'll have no stage perspective (and presumably Osmo will have no time to amble into the hall and have a listen), so any suggestions I may have for him about balances will have to be taken on faith. It's all part of the experience, and one I'll be taking in with ears wide open.
Labels: conductors and conducting, osmo, the traveling musician
posted by Sarah at
4:37 PM
2 Comments:
It sounds pretty fun, Sarah. I'm sure you'll provide a great set of ears out in the halls during the tour. It's kind of fascinating to think about all the audience members and past musicians who have sat in the same seats or worked on the same stage, and heard the same sounds being made...the same echoes..the same acoustical anomalies...kinda spooky really, but then I've always taken an interest in historical buildings.
As far as acoustical anomalies in Orchestra Hall are concerned, a number of years ago I was reading liner notes to the Mobile Fidelity cd reissue of the original Vox recording of Ravel's Bolero. This is a recording the Orchestra made shortly after the hall was opened for business in '74. In these liner notes the author and original acoustician mentioned that they noticed a phantom snare drum during portions of the Bolero recording.
Having heard the piece in the hall before and not having noticed anything unusual, I wrote this off as being hyperbole. However in the most recent rendition performed in the hall (summer of 2007) I heard exactly what they were talking about. It sounded exactly as if there was another snare situated in the back of the hall, which there was not. It's really quite bizarre. I believe I was in row 4, maybe a couple of seats in from the left aisle during that performance. In the previous Bolero I was seated just to the left of the right aisle on the main floor, maybe 10 rows back, so not a significant difference in seating...so very strange that I could hear this in one performance and not the other.
This past week I was seated in row 5, just to the right of the left aisle on the main floor and heard no such anomaly during the huge snare drum portions of the Nielsen Symphony No. 5, so I'm not sure if it's something about the way the notes are spaced in the Ravel, or what, but it is fascinating to say the least.
Good luck to all of you on the tour. You'll be fantastic!
I echo Spartacus -- tooey, tooey to you, Sarah, to Sam and everyone on the tour. It's exhausting, but you'll bring such gorgeous music to everyone in London, Germany and Vienna. Wish I were tagging along....
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