A tour I will never forget

I did promise at the end of my last blog post that the next post I would write would be about pianists. I’m afraid that will have to wait as the last ten days have been so exciting and different and therefore worthy of an extra blog post! Settle down for a very long yet hopefully, riveting read..........

On March 10^th the CBSO left Birmingham to embark on one of its longest tours for years. Seventeen days with 13 concerts all over Europe, with our Music Director, Andris Nelsons. For me, this tour would involve conducting off-stage in a performance of Tristan & Isolde in Paris and then playing violin for the remaining 12 shows.

Whilst on tour with the CBSO I am often asked to go out into a hall and check the balance of the orchestra for Andris. We also often swap these roles with me conducting and Andris going out into the hall and hearing things for himself. It is a role that I am comfortable with and thoroughly enjoy. It means I need to be familiar with all of the scores but not necessarily “note perfect”. For instance, Andris asked me in advance to conduct two specific bits of Tristan in the rehearsal so that he could go out into the stalls of the Theatre Champs Elysees and hear how the opera sounded. It gave me time to quickly study those passages before I helped out.

The performance went very well indeed. I ended conducting quite a long way away from the stage in a stair well out near the artists entrance!

The next time I was asked to help was in the famous Musikverein in Vienna. I listened in one rehearsal and then conducted bits of Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloe in another rehearsal. I do at least have evidence that I have conducted, if only briefly, in the world’s most celebrated concert hall!

And so, as we neared the end of the tour, all seemed well. The audiences had received us well, concerts had been very well attended and the orchestra were in fine form, on and off the platform! And with three concerts to go we had reached Dortmund.

Having arrived, I went for lunch with my good friends of the lower brass. I then got a phone call from Andris asking me where we were all eating and I guided him to the restaurant. We chatted and all seemed fine - he had just bought some new clothes for his baby daughter, Adriana and seemed in fine spirits. I returned to the hotel to have a shower before the 18.45 - 19.15 rehearsal.

I left the hotel at 18.05 and my phone rang. The call was from Stephen Maddock, CEO of the CBSO. The thrust of the conversation was that little Adriana had been rushed to hospital and that Andris was going to fly home as soon as possible but probably tomorrow. Would I mind conducting the last two concerts of the tour? After mentally working out the repertoire and how much time I had to learn some of it, I agreed and then asked what was happening that night. At that stage Andris was still conducting that night in Dortmund!

By the time I had got to the hall, it had changed! Andris was now not going to conduct that night as he had to go immediately to Frankfurt in order to catch the earliest available flight home. I had 20 minutes to get my head around conducting the concert that night. As it happens, I had conducted two thirds of that nights programme before - both Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and Sibelius Symphony No.2 were pieces I had conducted fairly recently. The only problem was the opener I had rehearsed Britten's Four Sea Interludes with the CBSO YO a few years before but never conducted them in concert.

Two minutes before the short seating rehearsal, I met with the soloist for the Beethoven, Rudolf Buchbinder. We had worked together before and in 30 seconds we discussed two places in the concerto and then he said that it would "all be fine"! I then rehearsed the CBSO for 30 minutes, mainly on the Britten but also in a couple of corners of the Sibelius. Then 45 minutes to relax and then it was concert time!

The problem was that I had so little time to get my head around the change of role! Firstly flicking through the scores and making a few discreet notes for yourself. Then trying to get as much water inside me as possible - I find I need much more water to cope with the added activity that conducting demands than when I am playing. Then just trying to keep focused while all around you people are flying about making sure that everyone knows what is going on. Both the CBSO management and the Dortmund concert staff couldn't have been more helpful and I thank them for keeping everything seemingly low-key and stress-free for me.

That night I experienced a level of support and collective will from the CBSO that I have never experienced with any other orchestra ever! They played superbly and with real panache, swagger and power. Rudolf Buchbinder was incredible and so supportive - always glancing up at me and smiling and coupled, as ever, with the most beautiful of touches at the piano you will ever wish to hear. The audience seemed to like it - a standing ovation! To top it all off, free beer for the orchestra afterwards from the Konzerthaus.

The following day was a 4 hour coach trip to Heidelberg. Often the conductor on a tour will travel between concerts in a limo but I have to say I was happier on the coach on this particular occasion, and here is the reason why.
The previous night had been a whirlwind that had happened so quickly that I had not got time to be nervous. Now I had 4 hours to sit and digest four scores I had never conducted before and some nerves were starting to appear! I wanted to be somewhere familiar, somewhere I could relax and divert my attention should I need to. The back of the bus was the ideal spot, with my friends around for company and not just sitting in a car on my own worrying myself stupid!

So what did I need to learn in those 4 hours? I didn't need to "learn" anything - I needed to see the scores for the following pieces, which I was due to conduct over the next two nights,

Wagner - Prelude & Liebestod from 'Tristan & Isolde'
Debussy - La Mer
Mahler - Kindertotenlieder
R.Strauss - 6 songs for Jonas Kaufmann and orchestra

I had played all of these pieces earlier in the tour and most of them many times over the last 20 years in the CBSO. The music was clear in my head. What can put you off however is never having seen them on paper and, more importantly, seeing someone else's markings on a score.

Andris, like myself, is a voracious marker of scores but his style differs from mine in so many ways. Conductors have many different ways of marking things in scores, almost to the point where you have your own "code"! This is the place where a conductor writes down his thoughts on balance, tempi, historical references etc. - and his scores are no different. The biggest difference was that they were all in Latvian! Conductors also have their own language of lines, squiggles and geometric shapes all of their own - what I had to do was try to decipher Andris's code whilst keeping my own thoughts on the music as clear as possible!

We had an hours rehearsal in the lovely hall in Heidelberg but this time I had to squeeze in two pieces I had never conducted before at all - the Wagner and Debussy. We also had to give the radio company a little of both the Britten and Beethoven for their balance engineer and, in such a tight hall, this was a necessity!

The orchestra again played superbly and Rudolf was the dictionary definition of cool again! Having listened to the broadcast (sadly I cannot find a link to it) the highlight was probably the Storm from the Sea Interludes which prompted a "Whoop" from one lady in the audience!

And finally, Baden-Baden. The same symphony (Sibelius 2) but the whole first half was taken up with Mahler and Strauss, sung by superstar tenor, Jonas Kaufmann. Frankly I was nervous about meeting him but he was such a lovely man and so helpful, singing during the one hour rehearsal and happy to help explain corners and tempi with me as much as I wanted. He arrived with messages of support from both Simon Halsey and Simon Rattle, who he had been working with the day before.

That concert will live with me forever. The CBSO played the Sibelius with extra zeal and vigour and again accompanied like stars. The concert however will be remembered for the actions of one particularly excitable member of the audience! After the first song of the Mahler, this particular music lover shouted to Kaufmann asking him to step forward so that the whole audience could see him. He was standing like this, (picture of the actual concert, courtesy of Badisches Tagblatt)

Jonas seemed visibly and rightly disturbed by this but chose to address the person concerned. The gist of what he said was, "Sorry you cannot see me but we need to stand like this so that the conductor and myself can see each other and the conductor can see the leader". This drew a justified round of applause from audience, orchestra and myself! How he then managed to sing the rest of the first half so beautifully after being disturbed like this is beyond me? It was sublime singing of the highest calibre.
I shall cherish his hug at the end of that half - it meant a lot to me as someone who had been quite nervous earlier in the day but by the concert had just decided it was better just to have a ball and make music with this great tenor as best I could.

Two more concerts back home followed, one in Manchester and one at home in Brum. I am still overwhelmed by the personal votes of confidence and best wishes from my colleagues during these concerts and also amazed at the level at which they played over these 5 concerts - just staggeringly good! But of course all of this pales into insignificance compared to the feelings we all have towards Andris, Kristine and little Adriana. All of us at the CBSO, as well as our loyal supporters, wish them all the best for a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing all three of you in Birmingham as soon as we can.


Next time, pianists!! It will be shorter next time, promise..........

Mike Seal

Why Mahler, why??

Over the last few months I have been studying and then rehearsing Mahler’s Symphony No.10 and one particular movement has caused me more sleepless nights than any other – the second movement Scherzo. It is a question that I am sure almost every conductor who has performed or studied the Deryck Cooke performing version of Mahler 10 has asked – why? Why did he write it as he did?

For those of you who don’t know this movement, here it is, played by one of the foremost advocates of the Deryck Cooke version and arguably, its greatest interpreter, Sir Simon Rattle.

So, you may ask, what is the problem?

I did a cursory count (and excuse me if my numbers are not 100% accurate, but you’ll get the drift) and the statistics are as follows,

522 bars long
344 bars of 3/4
109 bars of 4/4 or 2/2
51 bars of 5/4
18 bars of 2/4
10 bars of 3/2

In these enlightened days of the 21^st Century, post The Rite of Spring, these figures should not be shocking. But in 1909/10, these figures would have been a shock, had the world ever got to see the score for Mahler’s 10^th Symphony. Most of these time changes appear in the first and last thirds of the movement, but even taken as an average, the scherzo changes time, on average, every 2.77 bars (the 3/4 tally divided by the total of the rest). 

Before we answer the question of “why”, we ought to look at the evidence – how much of this Scherzo is Mahler and how much is Cooke? The preface to the printed score clearly states that this movement was laid out in full score but was sketchy at best. Cooke himself says in the preface the special difficulty with this movement lies in connection with the multifarious changes of time signature. Mahler wrote hardly any specific time signatures and Cooke just had to establish them from the notation.  A facsimile page of the short score shows that Mahler was clear in his intentions – every bar is clear as to how many beats are in it.

The question of the scoring is different, and one I will not dive into in this post. This Scherzo does seem to have needed more “fleshing out” than the movements either side of it but I believe it had little or no bearing on the time signature issue to which I refer.

So, why after many years of composition did Mahler suddenly write a movement so complicated in meter and so far advanced for its time? In the previous symphonies he had only ever once got close to writing music like this, that being in the Scherzo of this Symphony No.6. But in that movement the use of different time signatures is used in a different way – he lengthens and shortens the phrases with time changes but during the more relaxed and reflective sections. These time changes make the music seem poised, thoughtful and at times, hesitant. The bulk of the rest of that scherzo is, more often than not, in 3 but almost always driving and relentless in feel.

Here are a couple of my theories.

Firstly, in the Scherzo of No.10, the reflective music is almost always in 3. The middle section is a sort of Ländler with its theme being derived from the first subject of the opening Adagio. To me it harks back to Austria and is a haven amidst the more complicated ‘modern’ music that surrounds it which could represent New York. He was writing this symphony whilst being thousands of miles from home in what would have been a fairly alien environment. Maybe the shock of the new infiltrated his psyche and led to the outer sections feeling more jagged and terse, with its feeling of uneasiness?

Secondly, maybe he just wanted to take his macabre Scherzo writing one step further? All of his scherzo movements have moments of the macabre, sometimes mixed in with aggression and sarcasm. He might have had in mind some sort of lopsided, three-legged dance that was out of control from the start and only in the central section is some sort of normality reached!

But I finally come to the reason for this post. I have a third theory and I believe it might hold some water. During his time in New York, Mahler had dealings with another conductor ,Arturo Toscanini. It must be remembered that Mahler had gone to New York to mainly conduct at the Metropolitan Opera and ended up conducting far less opera than was at first envisaged! This was partly down to the Met changing management and hiring Toscanini, meaning that Mahler was slowly squeezed out, ending up conducting the New York Philharmonic.

There seems to be little evidence of Mahler actively personally disliking Toscanini or vice versa. But in these early days of the 20^th Century, Toscanini was making big noises over at the Met and the world of the “star” conductor was being born. There would have been the obvious comparisons made in the press between these two great conductors. So maybe, just maybe, Mahler wanted to show the world that he was still the best conductor out there and the best way to do this was to write himself the hardest piece to conduct yet written!

And, let’s face it, that is exactly what he did. Up until that point, no piece of music I can think of has that many time changes in it over such a short period of time. In that short Scherzo Mahler would have shown the world that he was still the force to be reckoned with and that he was to still be taken seriously.

It is not my belief that this last theory was the main reason for the use of many different time signatures. I'm sure he was not that interested in showing off! What I am saying is that he was pushing the boundaires of both harmony and meter in this symphony and that maybe he was also trying to push the boundaries of conducting at the same time? The result would have been that the world would have seen conducting like this for the first time and he would have been the pioneer.

It would be great to show you a YouTube clip of a conductor conducting this from the orchestra’s point of view but sadly it does not exist. There are two complete performances on YouTube, one by Inbal and another by Lintu. There is also this clip of the scherzo in question featuring Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic. During all of these clips, you clearly see the orchestra at times counting like mad! As someone who has both played and conducted this movement, it is also no surprise to me to see real “signs of relief” at the end of all of these clips! I can tell you that it is one of the hardest things I have ever had to conduct technically, if not THE hardest!

Hopefully you might agree with one, two or even all three of my theories. Of course if Mahler had lived a few years longer he may have revised his original thoughts and written something a little easier and less revolutionary?  In the end it doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with me – the world should be thankful that Alma Mahler allowed Deryck Cooke to complete his performing version and the world got to hear one of the greatest pieces ever written, at the very least one of the toughest challenges for any conductor!

Next time, my thoughts on how to accompany pianists in concerti and why this is harder than it at first appears.

2011 - A Review

As we enter 2012 I thought I would look back on 2011 and give you some thoughts on what was for me, a rather exciting year. Firstly some statistics for those of you, like me, who enjoy such things!

My 2011 consisted of

41 concerts (two of which were recorded for a ‘live’ CD)
26 different soloists
10 different orchestras (4 of which were ‘new’ orchestras)
3 recording sessions

Boiled down to those numbers, it doesn’t seem a lot. What I can tell you is that during those 41 concerts I conducted over 160 different pieces of music ranging from a 4 bar long piece of Weber to Britten’s War Requiem. This of course all has to be studied and I shudder to think how long this adds up to in hours spent in my study!

So, what were the highlights? Like all “end of year” reviews, I’ll categorise them.......

Favourite ‘new’ orchestra

I worked with 4 new orchestras last year (and two new choirs) and had a great time with all of them. My introduction to the Royal LiverpoolPhil was in a Family concert presented by my old friend, Alasdair Malloy, and we had a great time frightening the audience at Halloween.
I also travelled twice to meet new friends and had a brilliant week in Oslo with the Norway Radio Orchestra in a concert of Bollywood/Pakistani/Norwegian/Pop music for Norwegian TV. I will write more about this concert in a future post but they were so friendly and welcoming but also so patient dealing with the logistics of rehearsing with 2 pop groups, 4 different drummers (2 Dhol, a rock drummer and a table player), 4 singers, a choir, Indian violin and sitar! Here is a link to that concert.
I’ve told you all about my visit to Argentina and I am happy to say I will be returning back to the Teatro Colon in 2012 to work with them again. Better go on a diet before I get there then.....

But my favourite new orchestra was the BBC Symphony Orchestra. We did a concert of highlights from the upcoming 2011 Proms season in the middle of Westfield Shopping Centre, to an audience of thousands. They played fabulously (especially considering that the ambient noise of the shopping public was deafening!) and were so friendly and helpful. I’m looking forward to seeing them again for a recording session in February.
And mentioning recordings, during the rehearsals for Westfield, we had time to ‘rustle this up’ for Auntie Beeb........

Favourite Soloist

This is a tricky one. I was lucky in 2011 to work with new friends, old friends and also soloists that I have always dreamed of working with.
Of the new friends, let me praise two singers that I believe have great futures, Matthew Sandy and Susanna Hurrell. I shall be keeping my eye on them and trying to find opportunities to work with them again soon!
It was great to see old friends like Guy Johnston and Chloe Hanslip again. It is nice to share a stage with someone you get on with and, at least as far as I’m concerned, you have some sort of telepathy with! The same goes for HelenWithers – her performance of Marietta’s Lied with BSSO in December will live with me forever.
I had always wanted to work with Mark Holland and Keel Watson and they didn’t disappoint. Great performers who are should be heard more often.

My soloist of the year though has to be Peter Donohoe. We worked together twice (Liszt 2 and Rach 3) and for me he ticks all the boxes. He is always searching for the heart of the music, often challenging ’traditions’ and demanding excellence. He is also very supportive and is quick to praise, but only if praise is deserved. I have learned so much from working with him and can count him now as a good friend.

Favourite new piece

There have been many this year.  I conducted Frank Bridge’s The Sea twice last year and think it’s a shame it isn’t performed as often as the ‘French’ version. Conducting Janacek’s Taras Bulba with the CBSO was a dream that will live long in the memory. The amazing orchestration of the 14 year old Korngold in his Schauspiel Overture is something I shall be showing to audiences a lot more frequently.

I would also like to make a special case for the Violin Concerto by Carl Nielsen. Not a new piece to me as a violinist but I conducted it for the first time in 2011 in a fantastic performance with the CBSO Leader, Laurence Jackson.
But the winner has to be Elgar Symphony No.2. I stood in at late notice for Vassilly Sinaisky with the CBSO in October for three performances of Elgar 2 and it was a life-changing experience. To have the chance to do a piece like that 3 times is not something normally afforded to me and I loved it. It’s a piece I feel is in my blood and after that week it is now etched into my bones!!

And finally (Yes, I know it has been a long post – just one more!)......

Favourite concert

What could it be? So many to choose from......

It so nearly was Elgar 2 with the CBSO. It could easily have been the recording of Nielsen 2 I did with the Ulster Orchestra. A concert with the City of Birmingham Choir and the BSSO featuring Carmina Burana came close. Did the winning concert include working with Katie Derham, Sir Anthony Hopkins or Ant & Dec?

No!

My favourite concert was with the Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Birmingham Town Hall on July 1^st 2011. We gave a performance of Britten’s War Requiem which shone out for me last year. Why?
Well, it was another cancellation, this time stepping in for Elgar Howarth. I learned the score in a week and then set about organising the ten days of rehearsal. It was the first time I had conducted something that big and been involved from the very start. Piano rehearsals, chamber orchestra rehearsals, chorus, open lecture rehearsals and finally performance – I just loved it!
The performance itself was an emotional event and unforgettable for me. The whole Conservatoire was involved in one way or another and it was this sense of togetherness that shone through.

So that was that – 2011 all over and 2012 is ahead. Lots more concerts, lots more study, lots more fun.

My next post will be along soon when you have decided what it will be about! Your choices of titles are....

When is music bad for you?
Pianists – how to turn the nightmare into a dream!

Until then, best wishes and have a prosperous New Year.

Mike Seal

Never work with kids or amateurs?

When I first started conducting, I was told a story by a conductor who regularly works with amateur orchestras. He had been advised by a very well-known British conductor to stop working with amateur and youth orchestras as it would harm his conducting. The argument was that it would change the way he worked with and reacted to, professional orchestras. I might add that the conductor who told me this story thought the advice was rubbish, but I thought it might be a  good idea to look into why this advice is total drivel!

[DISCLAIMER – For the remainder of this post I shall refer to all non-professional musicians as “amateurs” and all members of Youth Orchestras, juveniles, young people etc, as “kids”. It is not meant in any way to be derogatory, I am just being lazy and cannot be bothered to type out all the alternatives!]

So, where was I? Oh, yes, why should a conductor avoid working with kids and amateurs? Well let’s take the major thrust of this argument, that it changes the way you work with professional orchestras. Well that point is all about......

ATTITUDE

The easiest way to avoid any problems swapping between the many types of orchestras is to treat them all alike! Treat any orchestra as you would wish to be treated. If you treat them with respect there is a greater chance that they will treat you with respect.

I have been conducting the Sinfonia of Birmingham for nearly 10 years now and we have a great working relationship. It is based on trust and on the premise that we are striving to achieve professional results. Sure, there are times when those results might seem difficult to achieve but treating them like amateurs isn’t going to help! I fact the opposite is true – the more you expect them to behave, play and perform as pros, the more often it happens.

This sort of leads on to the next point - if you expect them to play like professionals, you should conduct like one, never compromising your.....

TECHNIQUE

Another point used against working with kids and amateurs is that your technique will suffer. Will it? Really? Well looks look at why it might suffer.

When I started at the Sinfonia I made it clear from Day 1 that I expected them to play together as an orchestra and not rely totally on my beat to do so. I wanted them to listen more, be more aware of what is going on within the orchestra and then use those tools to play together and not rely on sticking rigidly to my beat. This is not because I cannot beat in time, but because I wanted them to be able to play as a group autonomously (as all the great orchestras do) and then react to my balance and phrasing gestures etc. It is exactly the same attitude I take with me into the CBSO Youth Orchestra and the Birmingham Schools Symphony.

It doesn’t mean I try not to be clear – far from it, but it does mean I don’t just stand there and impersonate a drum major! It is often a phrase I use ( and sometimes a gesture I use ) to remind them to listen harder and play together.

So if I use a professional attitude and my technique is no different, what am I going to gain by conducting kids and amateurs? Where are the.....

POSITIVES

First of all, unless you are one of those conductors who is either a young competition winner, an international soloist who instantly declares that he is now a ‘conductor’ or a young whizz-kid with a major conductor overseeing your every move, you need to practise with somebody! You need to not only get used to rehearsing and shaping a performance, you need to practise your technique ‘in battle’ and surely the more you do it, the better it gets.

And during those rehearsals you will have plenty of chances of learning how to get the results you require. You will encounter every rhythmic problem known to man, I guarantee! You will have to learn quickly how to tune a woodwind or brass chord. You will have to learn something about bowings and how the bowings can enhance or ruin a performance.

You will also have to learn how to get the sound you want. Yes, you can stand in front of a professional orchestra and ask for the sound to be “more ethereal”, “more stentorian” ( I had to look than one up in a dictionary, which is more than the conductor who used had done!) or “more like bathing in chocolate” – chance are all of those phrases will get some change in sound. If you used those phrases with a Youth Orchestra or amateurs you might also get a change in sound but you have to know how get it technically if those phrases and metaphors don’t work. If you don’t know how to get the sound to change technically you will struggle – you will just end up sounding like you’ve swallowed a thesaurus and the sea of blank looks will get bigger!

Then there is the question of repertoire. I can tell you that when you spend an intensive week long course or a whole term on one programme, you know it, backwards! It is also a great place to try out repertoire before you take it into a pro orchestra – a trick the great conductors have used and are still using.

To be honest the positives are endless – so are there any......

NEGATIVES

The only one I can think of is the fact that some managers and agents will look down their noses on some conductors for working with kids and amateurs. I am convinced this happens and I am equally convinced that some conductors would benefit greatly by doing more YO and amateur work.

I shall finish with one final statement, one I have using since I first conducted. Working with amateur and youth orchestras is an amazing experience, one that is  full of energy and commitment – there will always be times in the performance when the orchestra sounds like the Berlin Philharmonic – you just don’t know when and for how long!

What's new, Buenos Aires OR how many steaks does it take to get into the Colon?

So what was I doing in Buenos Aires , other than eating lots of these.....

Virtually all conductors spend a lot of their time ‘guest conducting’ –  travelling the world conducting orchestras with which you have no official position for anywhere between 3 days and two weeks and then moving on to the next town or city and doing the same. In my relatively short career I have done a small amount of guest conducting but it something I enjoy and it is something I want to do more often.

If one is lucky enough to have a full diary, a conductor could make sure that he only guest conducts with orchestras he has a real empathy with and in cities he enjoys visiting. But early in a career a conductor can find that either he and the orchestra don’t ‘hit it off’ or he has to spend up to a week in a city that he doesn’t enjoy being in. Or worse, which I have to admit has happened to me once, BOTH!

Whether chatting with some players in the Ulster Orchestra over a pint of Guinness, exploring the delightful town of Odense between concerts or just catching up with people I’ve known for years in Bournemouth or the BBC Symphony, some trips are always enjoyable. The precarious nature of our business does sometimes throw up the occasional place that you would love to return to yet the orchestra would be happy if they never saw you again, but that’s another post for another day!

My favourite guest conducting trip has to be to Buenos Aires. I have been there three times now and loved every trip I have made. I was invited initially in 2008 to conduct the Buenos Aires Philharmonic in a one-off pre-season concert. I have to admit to have been slightly scared by the prospect of rehearsing and working in Latin America – I had heard it could be somewhat different from the well-behaved rehearsals I was used to! This was heightened after my first meeting with the orchestra’s General Manager who warned me over a pre-rehearsal coffee that if the orchestra didn’t like me, there would probably be riot within 30 minutes! Fortunately we got on very well and my nerves soon went.

Whilst we rehearsed in the Teatro Colon, the concert itself had to be in a different venue as the theatre was undergoing refurbishment. I had played in the Colon in 1997 with the CBSO and Simon Rattle and remembered it as being both acoustically fabulous and visually stunning. A return visit one year later as part of the main season came along but again I missed out on the Colon, this time conducting two all-Mendelssohn concerts in the Teatro Coliseo.

My contact over in Argentina is the same man who warned me about the potential riot and that, “rehearsals will not be what you are used to – you are in Argentina, you know!” His name is Eduardo Ihidoype and he has since become a firm friend. We have something in common – he had been for many years the 2^nd Clarinet/ E flat with the Philharmonic but had latterly ‘swapped sides’ and become their manager. We chatted about the difficulties of doing both jobs as he, like me, was still playing now and again with his colleagues in the Philharmonic. 

Well it was Eduardo who invited me to go to Buenos Aires again last month but to conduct a different orchestra. Would I be willing to conduct the Orquestra Academica del Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colon, with the concert in the Teatro Colon? Just so long as I didn’t have to remember the full name of the orchestra, my arm had been twisted!! I was finally going to work in this great opera house...

Eduardo had moved from the Phil to run the Instituto at the Colon. It is an organisation that gives further study and opportunities to students from 18 to 25. It not only gives lessons to orchestral players but also has faculties in Opera, Dance, Drama and Art. The benefit to the Colon is that they can nurture the best young talent and then draft them into the Teatro Colon as orchestral players in the opera, or chorus singers, stage builders, scenery painters etc. The Instituto orchestra consisted of about 40 players aged between 18 and 27, with about half already getting professional dates with the Phil or the Colon orchestra.

I can tell you that they can play! They all had good technical ability and they are all good players in their own right. The problem lay in getting them to play together! A lot of time was spent just working on rhythm and ensemble – something that I am particularly fastidious about – before we could get to the finer points. It seems that a lot of time is spent teaching their musicians to get to a very high level of technical ability but they are not trained in the art of orchestral playing from an early enough age. The problem is still there in their professional orchestras, not as pronounced, but still there.  But once the “nuts and bolts” have been worked on , there is a real spirit and commitment in their playing that comes shining through and makes all the work worthwhile.

The concert went well – I was glad about this as I had been to see the opening night of Wagner’s Lohengrin the night before and the audience in the Teatro Colon are pretty hardcore. They like to sit there in total silence throughout (much hissing and admonishment should you make a sound!) and if they don’t like you, they let you know it! The conductor and Lohengrin received full-throated boo’s, something I was anxious to avoid! But we were well received and the orchestra were very happy, or so they told me when they whisked me off for beers and steak after the concert!

Here is photo taken of the end of the concert - who is that bald bloke in front of the orchestra???

And a quick resume on Buenos Aires? Well I think it is the mixture of Spanish / Italianate architecture, tree-lined avenues, big city hustle and bustle, all mixed in with that Latin American feel that I find so exciting. Oh, the food helps, as does the Malbec red wine and one of my favourite beers, Quilmes, and the endless amounts of dulce de leche..........

Maybe some of my Argentinian experiences and stories will make another post – they are too long and wordy to add to this post but you might find them interesting??

So that was that! Belfast, Brum and B.A. – three different projects with three great orchestras and three great experiences. What’s next, you may ask? Well, it’s all up on my website but in short, it doesn’t get any less interesting! A residential course in Shropshire with the Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra, the CBSO share the stage with The Enid and the final of the Dudley Piano Competiton – I am sure I’ll find something to tell you about from that little lot.....

Until then, please post a comment or two and please suggest future post topics. I have few ideas, what do you think of these potential subjects?

•   Do conductors have hobbies? And if not, why not? 
• “Never work with kids and amateurs” – true or bollocks? 
•  Batons – Yes, No, if so, which? 
•  Time – the use of it, misuse of it and what some conductors use to tell the time!

Belfast, Birmingham and Buenos Aires - PART 2

Part II of my trip through major cities beginning with B took me back home to Birmingham. Friday consisted of a four hour rehearsal with the CBSO prior to Saturday’s performance at Artsfest, Birmingham’s free arts festival, which annually takes place over the second weekend in September. The CBSO and I usually give an outdoor concert on the Saturday evening which culminates in a fireworks finale.

These concerts are great fun. The audience often number into the thousands and they cheer and applaud very enthusiastically, often after a little lubrication of the throat! It is one of our chances every year to perform to the Birmingham public for free and showcase the orchestras’ talents as well as thank them for their support throughout the year. The orchestra also use it as a chance to advertise the upcoming season and highlight some of the programmes the CBSO will be performing. A great idea and one I think has been successful over the years.

This leads me however to discuss the ‘fireworks concert format’ and the pitfalls within for the conductor. As I said at the end of my previous post, I really do believe it to be almost a conducting ‘exam’! I shall explain why...

Let us take the programme we did this year. Here it is in full,

Beethoven – Egmont Ov.
Dukas – The Sorcerors Apprentice
Barry – Goldfinger
Barry – Diamonds are forever
Puccini – Doretta’s song from ‘La Rondine’ (Soprano – Maureen Brathwaite)
Prokofiev – Wedding and Troika from ‘Lte Kije Suite’
Sibelius – Finlandia
Tchaikovsky – Waltz from ‘Swan Lake’
Puccini – El lucevan el stelle from ‘Tosca’ (Tenor – Joseph Guyton)
Puccini - ‘O soave fanciulla’ from La Boheme

Berlioz - 'Un Bal' from Symphonie Fantastique
Mussorgsky – The Great Gate of Kiev from ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’
Wagner – The Ride of the Valkyries

Great music to conduct and much fun to be had! But let’s look at it again and see where the problems might lie.

Firstly, just learning all of this takes quite a lot of time, if you do not know all of it already, of course! But even if you do know it, it is always worth spending a little time reminding yourself of how it goes, where the problem corners might be etc. Often with this particular concert the programme is not finalised until quite late, usually down to the fireworks company, which means that you have to learn it all at a fast pace, which is never ideal.

Secondly having absorbed it all, the rehearsal period is often quite short. I am lucky with the CBSO in that I now get a rehearsal the day before and then a small rehearsal on the stage on the day of the concert. This is necessary as in previous years we have lost up to 90 minutes of rehearsal time due to weather or the stage not being built! But even with this luxury, one has to have clear gestures regarding balance and tempo as often there is simply not the time to stop and talk about it. And regarding balance, we move on to the third point...

From my seat in the Second Violins I have often watched conductors (who shall remain nameless!) painstakingly balance the CBSO, often trying to produce “ethereal” and “magical” effects that quite frankly are never going to be heard! Whether you are playing to 3000 enthusiastic Brummies in Centenary Square or 10000 revellers in the back garden of a stately home, two things have to be considered. Firstly you are playing outside, usually in a glorified tent and secondly, the orchestra will be amplified and it highly likely the sound engineer’s last gig was with a rock band! In an ideal world the conductor should have the time to go out and listen to the sound quality and make suggestions to the sound engineer about balance but it is very unlikely. And when the fireworks start, all they are going to do is turn it up to eleven!

I remember one CBSO conductor giggling during the 1812 Overture as he couldn’t hear anything, and vividly remember trying to play the ‘Danse Sacrale’ from The Rite of Spring with Simon Rattle as a fireworks company showed off their entire catalogue all at once!

I am not saying you shouldn’t balance the orchestra at all, that would be foolish. What I am saying is that you need to be ready to change dynamics and balances depending on the level of pyrotechnic mayhem and sound quality you encounter on stage. For instance, the amplification for Artsfest usually comprises of many microphones individually placed near the Wind, Brass and Percussion and one big mic over the Strings. This of course is far from ideal and leads to having to make some subtle changes. The start of Dukas’ Sorcerors Apprentice has a pp string pizzicato followed by multi divisi violins. Great in Symphony Hall but these notes will not be heard unless you ask them to play louder. Likewise with our two great soloists from Birmingham Opera – a friend who had gone out to listen told me the orchestra could not be heard whenever they sang as the sound guy had turned them up and us down!

And then finally, there is the element of the unexpected. What do you do when the stage is not built yet, how do you handle a situation where the sun is blazing into “the tent” and varnish is starting to melt? When do you stop playing because the rain is now blowing into the tent? These are all situations I have faced and last Saturday the latter was the problem. It rained so hard during the Dukas (yes, ironic timing!) that I was conducting whilst watching Artsfest and CBSO managers having very earnest discussions just offstage, waiting for a signal. As it happens, the rain abated and we carried on.

All of this brings me to my final point. It is this very type of concert that most up-and-coming conductors get offered (or a Family concert which has as much repertoire and different styles of music but at least indoors!) as a first gig with an orchestra. And in so many ways, they are the hardest concerts you ever do! They are exciting and exhilarating yet challenging and frightening. I wouldn’t miss them for the world but they are the equivalent of a conducting exam. 

I understand why orchestras do this – they want to try a new conductor they have heard about and want to see him in action. The conductor wants to work with new orchestras and hopes he can show them his qualities and attributes during the time he has with them. In many ways the conductor could show an awful lot more of his skills and passion for music if they had been booked for a normal “Overture, Concerto, Symphony” concert in the luxury of the concert hall but often this could be a risk the orchestra are not willing to take. They hope to see enough potential in a new conductor from one of these concerts and then maybe book them for something more prestigious.

The drawback for the conductor is that if you are good at,

1. Managing the time efficiently
2. Being clear with your gestures so as to balance and get your point across without need for long diatribes and lectures to the band
3. Coping with any problems that might arise and doing so with a smile on your face

then there is a real danger you will be pigeonholed as being the man they turn to for their ‘conducting exam concerts’ and never quite get to the next stage. Whilst it is great that orchestras can feel they can turn to you for these qualities, most conductors want to be inside conducting those great orchestras without fear of rain, pyrotechnic displays or sound engineers!

Here is a clip of the end of our concert last week.

Thanks for reading and, as usual, all comments are welcome.

Next time, Buenos Aires!

Mike

Belfast, Birmingham & Buenos Aires - PART 1

The life of a conductor can often be a varied one, especially when one is starting out on a career. Not many fledgling conductors have the luxury of jetting into an orchestra, performing a concert(s) consisting of overture, concerto and symphony, and then jetting off to the next venue and doing much the same again with a new group of musicians. The fledgling conductor often finds that he has to take on many different types of project and be ready to adapt to any situation.

As luck would have it, over the last 10 days I have had three distinctly different projects to handle. This post will deal with my trip to Belfast to conduct the Ulster Orchestra for two days – but hot on its heels will be my thoughts on conducting in Birmingham and Buenos Aires. Three different cities, orchestras and projects, each with their own problems, solutions and joys.

This was the third time I had worked with the Ulster Orchestra but, barring one rehearsal day 18 months previous, the first time I had worked with them in their home, the Ulster Hall.

The first time I worked with UO was in January 2009, at a time when the Ulster Hall was being refurbished and the orchestra was rehearsing in many different venues around Belfast. During my stay I chatted to several players, usually over a pint of ‘the black stuff’, who almost unanimously agreed that they couldn’t wait to get back ‘home’ and play in the Ulster Hall again.

Well, two and a half years on and they are firmly back home and what a home it is! A conventional shoe box shaped hall with a really clear, bright and lively acoustic which, during the ‘dark days’ of playing in converted churches and other all-purpose venues, they must indeed have longed for!

Having said that, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any acoustic ‘anomalies’, but I will come to those later.

The lions’ share of the project was to rehearse/record Nielsen Symphony No.2, The Four Temperaments. This really was a joy for me – one of my favourite symphonies and one I had conducted a lot before. The first task on Day 1 was to rehearse the orchestra in readiness for the following days recording session. We were allotted 4 hours to record both the Nielsen and the incidental music and overture from Weber’s Turandot. This means everything needs to be rehearsed and in order so that during the sessions we can all focus on getting the best performance in the short time available.

At this point I must say that rehearse/record is not the ‘ideal’ way to make a recording! I have sat in countless recording sessions, of all types, and there better ways. Ideally one would like to make a ‘live’ recording in the concert hall of your choosing after having performed the piece many times previously over an intense period. This is the way that many of Sir Simon Rattle’s later recordings with the CBSO were done and is the preferred way of the CBSO to record under our new Music Director, Andris Nelsons. I don’t care what you say, something happens in a concert that never really happens in the artificial conditions of a studio recording. Of course, unless you have a record company ready to go, and willing to record the repertoire you programme ( or vice versa ), this way of recording is a luxury that rarely happens.

The next best option is to record in a ‘studio’ ( often a concert hall ) after having performed the piece in concert. Many great recordings are made that way and the luxury here is that the rehearsing is already done, the piece has been performed, many mistakes are ironed out and many interpretive ideas have been tried and tested by conductor and performer alike. There is also often many more hours allotted to get the thing ‘in the can’. The conductor has more chance to go and listen to takes during the session time or overnight, the recording engineer has more time to get just the right balance and quality of sound. The orchestra is less pushed for time, meaning more breaks between takes, getting less tired and being able to produce better results. I don’t know an orchestral player who doesn’t go to one of these sessions armed with a book, newspaper or iPhone loaded with games, such is the amount of time sitting around!

Finally we come to the ‘rehearse/record’. It is the least favourable of all the scenarios but sometimes time and money insist that it is the only option. The great thing about the orchestral player, and one I think the UK is proud to be probably the best at, is that they know the game! They know we have 4 hours to make a recording of a 30 minute symphony and 20 minutes of incidental music and to make it sound as good as scenario 1. And true to form, the UO did just that – during the many takes we made they kept their levels of concentration up to the highest degree with a friendly yet professional manner and we got the job done.

As I mentioned, the recording process did throw up a couple of acoustic anomalies. Because of the way the stage is built, the brass are up quite high over the strings and as the hall is so responsive, it can be quite difficult to balance the orchestra correctly in many passages. It has to be said that Mr Nielsen doesn’t help – in the early stages of his career he often just marks the entire orchestra fff which leads to having to mark the brass down. The problem is that they can only go down in dynamic so far before they feel they can’t play freely or even at times feel like they are not wanted! This couldn’t be further from the truth yet due to the halls layout we did have to be careful. The flipside to this is that in many acoustics the Woodwind struggle to be heard – not in the Ulster Hall. They come over clear and clean with any trace of needing to force their sound. When I went to listen to some takes during lunch, both Marie Claire, the BBC producer for this project, and myself agreed that the balance was clear and that the orchestra were sounding very well over the speakers. Let’s hope that transmits over the airwaves when the BBC use these recordings sometime later this year.

Going back to different types of recording, one ‘throw away’ comment from a player really got me thinking about the process, attitudes and approaches to rehearse/record. This player said,

“It’s only a studio recording, not a CD!”

As I said, a ‘throw away’ comment. But it left me bristling inside because, for me, it was more than that. This was my chance to get down on tape my interpretation of a well-known symphony with a top-class orchestra and it meant the world to me! I am a firm believer in the fact that a recording can only ever be a snapshot of your musical thoughts on a work – a thought frozen in time as, later in life, my thoughts on Nielsen 2 are bound to be different. But at the moment, that is how I believe it should go and I was taking it very seriously.

So should there be a difference between a ‘studio recording’ and a recording for commercial release? No, not in my eyes. Every time we make a sound we are there to be judged technically, musically, interpretively etc.

It wasn’t a comment I took to my heart – I am used to the ways of the hardened UK orchestral player! But it did lead to the formation of this post and thoughts on recordings....

Next time (and probably quite soon as I have a lot of free time here in Argentina!) a look at another aspect of an up and coming conductors career – the outdoor fireworks concert OR, as I like to call them, the conducting exam!

As usual, all comments welcome, good or otherwise!

Until the next time, I'm off for a rehearsal and then one of these - cannot wait!

Mike Seal