| Author |
Subject |
sarah00
Registered User
(8/7/00 10:11:21 am)
Reply |
some
thoughts...
boring days at work lead to random
thoughts, i suppose... but i was remembering some conversations that
my friends and i had during the year:
i either heard or read
a comment that said something to the general effect of, "it's good
to admire and recognize qualitities in other players, but none of
those players should be your 'favorite' players, as you yourself
should be your own favorite player." do you agree with
this?
another thought -- everyone seemed really surprised
that a few of us has 'favorite' instruments OTHER than the ones we
played. for example, a pianist friend of mine loved the cello the
best, a clarinetist friend of mine - viola (!) the best, and i was
wondering what you guys thought.
also wondering (for those
orchestral players out there) whose baton you've enjoyed being under
the most.
sigh... back to work...
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zambocello
Registered User
(8/8/00 2:37:43 am)
Reply |
Re:
some thoughts...
I never thought about myself as my
favorite cellist. Of course when i play I am convinced of my ideas
more than others, but in the execution.......ah, there's the rub!
I think the cello is one of the most versatile and evocative
instruments and is my favorite, even though I play it. A good organ,
well played is awsome and better than individual instruments is the
synergy of chamber music. If i could listen only to one genre it
would be string quartets.
Favorite conductors? An orchestra
job is my day job so I've played with many. (But can I also be a
Cellist By Night? I play after hours, too.) My most memorable: Max
Rudolf, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Essa-Pekka Salonen, and
Simon Rattle. Zdenek Macal is also a favorite of mine, even though
most people would not put him in the same league as the the previous
5. Also, I enjoyed working with Paul Strauss, a very good musician
with a PERFECT memory. He may have passed on by now. Does anyone
know anything about Paul Strauss?
(In a performance of
Verdi's Requiem i was distracted by a chorister passing out and lost
my place during rests. I was sitting 1st chair and no one else came
in either. Strauss, working by, was able to call out measure numbers
to me to help me find my place! He even rehearsed by memory. He
didn't need the score at all. Not photographic memory, either he
claimed.)
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Bob
Registered User
(8/8/00 6:41:19 am)
Reply |
Strauss
I've wondered what's become of
Strauss too. When he guest-conducted my orchestra (Barber, Bartok,
Rachmaninoff) he not only had everything completely memorized, but
at the very first rehearsal he addressed everyone he spoke to (and
not just principals) by name. It was a little spooky.
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David
Sanders 
Registered User
(8/8/00 10:17:39 am)
Reply |
Re:
Strauss
Never played with Paul Strauss, but
we have had conductors who must spend their entire plane flight over
from Europe studying the names of the players, at least the winds
and principal strings. I find it kind of annoying actually. They
seem to be trying to ingratiate themselves to the "stars" in the
orchestra.
I think I've only played for Zdenek Macal once. He
subbed for an ailing conductor, and I really liked him.
My
favorites have been Solti, Abbado (Claudio, not Roberto), Haitink,
Carlos Kleiber, and a few others who don't come to my feeble mind
right now. Sorry, but I think Eschenbach is too stiff and
uncoordinated to be a really first-class conductor. He's a great
pianist, and a fine musician, but when he conducts, he gets bogged
down and often the music just dies, IMHO. It a great tendency for
many solo pianists-turned conductors, also IMHO. We did the Mahler
3rd with him a couple of summers ago, and I think it lasted an hour
and 48 minutes or something, like 15 minutes longer than a "normal"
performance.
As far as memory, Abbado (Claudio, not Roberto)
conducted Wozzek from memory. I don't remember if he also did the
rehearsals from memory or not. Solti did nothing from memory. As a
matter of fact, at a final violin audition, the committee was
discussing two players with Solti. One committee member suggested
that we give more weight to one player who had played his concerto
from memory against one who used the music. Solti got pretty
annoyed, pointing out the fact that he (Solti) used the music all
the time. That was the end of that discussion.
Oh, and I've
never, never, never considered myself to be my favorite
cellist.
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Laura
Wichers
Registered
User
(8/8/00 11:22:11 am)
Reply |
Re:
some thoughts...
I could never be my favorite
cellist. Regardless of what I want things to sound like, they don't
always come out that way. And none of the 'famous' cellists will
ever be my favorite. Oh, sure, I hear phrases and bits & pieces
of certain performances that are my favorite interpretations, but no
one has yet played anything exactly the way I'd want to hear it
played. Given my ideas change on a daily basis, no one ever will
play it perfectly to my taste.
I love the cello, of course,
but exquisite clarinet playing and hardcore bluegrass fiddling...
gotta love 'em. Oh! And African drumming. Fun, fun,
fun.
-Laura
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zambocello
Registered User
(8/8/00 7:10:11 pm)
Reply |
Eschenbach
Indeed, Eschenbach does strectch
things out. (And was recently taken to task for it by more than one
critic at E's recent Bayreuth debut leading Parsifal. In a recent
series of performances in Houston the opening eighth note pick up to
Tristan und Isolde never took less than 7 seconds. ONE NOTE!) I do
genuinely enjoy his music making, but maybe I am influenced by the
overtime $$$$ ??
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Arno
Merkle
Registered
User
(8/8/00 7:42:39 pm)
Reply |
Eschenbach
Does the opinion that Eschenbach is
uncoordinated and/or stretches things out too much permeate the
entire CSO? Just curious. I happen to find his conducting (at
Ravinia) to be exquisite, some of the best I've seen. Then again,
this is from an audience perspective. I'd love to see what it's like
under his baton. I'm very much aware that there's far more to
leading a group than is apparent from the audience.
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dennisw
Registered User
(8/8/00 7:53:37 pm)
Reply |
Re:
some thoughts...
Sarah,
Interesting quote. I
believe that it is
certainly correct. I can't say I know
why,
but there is a reticence among cellists
to talk about their own
playing in any but
the most self-deprecating
manner.
Actually, I was thinking about this the other
day
when searching for a recording of the
Brahms sonata in e minor
for cello. I remembered
that there wasn't ONE I could find that I
had
ever liked. Next I remembered my own recording
of it many
years ago and reminded myself that that
was my favorite
recording.
I don't play it like anyone else, & I
shouldn't
even try. I like my interpretation &
execution
the best.
Why play
otherwise???
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sarah00
Registered User
(8/9/00 9:13:47 am)
Reply |
to
dennis...
dennis:
very articulately
put. that's an interesting way to look at our individual playing.
however, i wonder if the "self-depracation" is a successful means of
improvement? i remember talking to my previous (and wonderful)
teacher about a performance of mine. at the time, i was happy with
it, but listening to the recording afterwards was incredibly
disappointing. he explained that i should not gain a defeatest
attitude about my playing, but instead realize that my
disappointments were my own way of "teaching" myself and recognizing
what can be improved.
Yes, i agree that every musician should
be able to see some strengths in their playing, but i've never been
able to listen to myself and think, "wow, i am my favorite player."
i suppose that i hold the belief that if i ever reach the day when i
see no flaws in my playing, i will have reached perfection, and that
will unfortunately not happen.
Of course, i have to admit
that i am irritated with those people that are *never* happy with
their performances, and are perpetually drawing themselves (and
their confidences) down. another valuable thing that my teacher had
me do was think of both good points of a performances, as well as
the points to be improved.
-sarah-
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dennisw
Registered User
(8/9/00 1:35:04 pm)
Reply |
Re: to
dennis...
It sounds like you had a pretty good
teacher. He gave
you a balanced view of how, I think, every
serious musician
looks at his own playing. Some things are good
some things
could be better. That never changes.
Sometimes the shock of hearing yourself on a recording can
shatter
your confidence because of the automatic comparison made
with other
recordings we commonly listen to (supposedly by the
MASTERS of the
instrument).
I think you're correct in
saying that the circumspect player who has
an awareness of his
strengths & weaknesses is qualitatively different
from the
player lacking self-confidence. That lack of
self-confidence
blocks the player from discovering his own way of
interpreting the
music and adding his voice to the community of
instrumentalists who
have a real interest in furthering the
craft.
You know, I just heard a live recording of the
Beethoven g minor sonata
as performed by Ms. DuPre in 1970 and it
was truly awful. Choked sound,
too intense, turgid, too slow in
the scherzo, and humorless. And she
was playing on a $3million
Strad. I said to myself "I sound better than that
in my practice
room on my $5k factory cello."
Anyone can have a bad day.
Anyone can make a poor-quality recording.
The beginning of your
career occurs when you discover that your own unique
qualities as
an artist are just as valuable, just as important, and just
as
legitimate as anyone elses.
I used to have a teacher (a
big-name pro) who would pull rank on me all the time,
put me in
my place as a player, and patronize me constantly. He was a jerk.
I'd like to have his head on a platter. Perhaps this has
happened to other cellists too
and maybe it has blocked their
self-confidence. I can't really say I know.
No one needs that
kind of nonsense. Playing is a lifelong process and sooner
or
later we find our own voice.
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