SLSO Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews will be performing Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto in the 0708 season. Also on the “Keeping Secrets” program is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, Roberto Abbado conducting. This is one very hot pick for both musicians and staff.
I missed out on the Henchmen’s descent into the underworld of Powell Symphony Hall on Wednesday. Mike Lynch (stage manager) had told me about it the day before, but I got caught up writing copy on the eventful day. They'll be going down again, Mike said on Wednesday afternoon, looking fit and able after the harrowing journey. Brave souls are the Henchmen.
Monday I took an afternoon walk in the St. Louis humidity and saw:
My colleagues have returned from the American Symphony Orchestra League conference in Nashville. The highlights included barbecue at Jack’s and Earl Scruggs at the Ryman. I am honored to work among people who know what to do in Nashville.
Also, the ASOL will now be known as the League of American Orchestras. A souvenir pin that was brought back to me reads: “We’re no longer ASOL (s).”
I had not planned on doing 0708 SLSO hot picks from the trombone section back-to-back (see previous post), but then, I rarely plan anything. Here is Principal Trombone Tim Myers with what he's looking forward to, or as he explains it, what he'd buy tickets to if he wasn't on stage:
Trombonist Stephen Lange sent me his hot pick for the 0708 season in the form of a brief narrative:
A few carloads of staff have left for Nashville and the annual American Symphony Orchestra League conference (inelegantly known as ASOL). Those of us who remain are more than happy to be here. I’ve been left with a goldfish to feed. I also spent much of the afternoon listening to Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate and then Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, which is 2/3rds of the program "Child Light" in November (in early polling of staff and musicians, that program is in the top 5 hot picks with a bullet). What need a trip to Nashville when you have music in which heaven is the destination?
On my first day back at work I’m informed that David Robertson is in the hall and a Board of Trustees meeting is being held. You know what that means: look busy.
And I have been so busy that it wasn’t until late in the afternoon that I took a stroll down to the foyer and walked across the scrumptious new red carpet. I felt princely.
I will be off to my own private Idaho as of Tuesday, June 12.
This morning I encountered the ennui of discarded carpeting, great stacks and rolls of red carpet in the alley adjacent to the hall. A crew is continuing the removal of the old and the installation of the new. All will be red and swank come fall. But all that sad old carpet, beyond use…
I recently asked a number of musicians and staff about their top picks for the upcoming 0708 season. You’ll be seeing their selections show up on eminders and on the website and in other promotional materials, and of course here on the blog, through the rest of the summer and during the season. And I’ll be asking more musicians and staff to contribute once I get all that I’ve received sorted out. Many thanks to those who’ve contributed and many thanks to those who will.
I actually needed another day to get over the weather, but I was able to enjoy the Proustian pleasures of illness (thanks to my sweetly ministering wife): bed and books and ideas orbiting around. I was able to re-read Dave Hickey’s provocative take on beauty, The Invisible Dragon, and went browsing through his collection of essays on art and democracy, Air Guitar. That set me to re-reading his brilliant discussion of the life and art of the jazzman Chet Baker, “A Life in the Arts,” and I came across this poignant description of what musicians do when they are working together “in real time” (which means, in part, making music rather than making history or fame or a career – which is what Chet Baker did). Although Hickey is writing about jazz and pop, it sounds very reminiscent of what SLSO musicians have told me about what happens on stage sometimes: “…the song plays the music and the music plays the player and that, consequently, the song, as played, is not a showcase for the player’s originality, but a momentary acoustic community in which the players breathe and think together in real time, adding to the song’s history, without detracting from its integrity, leaving it intact to be played again.”
I am under the weather today. I hope to be above the weather tomorrow.
So how many singers have Amy Kaiser and Richard Ashburner listened to over the last couple weeks of Saint Louis Symphony Chorus auditions? Richard gave me this estimate: Wednesday night they held auditions for four hours at Powell Hall. “That’s one singer every 10 minutes,” Richard calculated.
