quote:

I remember stories of Peter Mennin (former President of Juilliard) running around the fourth floor trying to keep people from practicing anything but what he deemed appropriate “classical” music.

Here's another similiar story. It was Fall 1980 and one weekend, I had attended a concert at Carnegie Hall to see Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, and Steve Gadd perform (forgot who the string bass player was).

The following week in my theory class, the professor asked us what we did over the weekend. I mentioned the concert and how much I enjoyed it.

Following day I was called in to Mennin's office to discuss my "musical pursuits". He questioned whether or not I should even stay at the school. He also had the audacity to call my parents and complain.

To this day, my father thinks that I did something else to warrant this action from Juilliard. And, to this day, I keep telling him the same story, that all I did was mention the concert in my theory class.

Frank,

BTW - I really enjoyed your thread this month. You gave many of us a lot to think about and it's wonderful that you found time to answer many of our questions!!

I also see that you are going to do the live celebrity chat with myauditions in April, 2006 and I am looking forward to this very much. Just too bad your chat isn't sooner.

Ditto... awesome thread and I too am looking forward to your live chat show.

quote:

Originally posted by Artemis:
Hi Frank, hope you enjoy your vacation !

Like other principals, CM sometimes has to play solos in the orchestral pieces. Some conductors like to control principals' tempo and interpretation even in a concert, perhaps they think solos are just part of the piece and should not contain personal opinion. But sometimes they just put their hands and baton on the music stand. From your experience, which situation happened most ? And people like to discuss Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade as the most interesting showpiece. But not much people would think of Saint-Saens's Danse Macabre which I think CM is very important in bringing the right touch to the whole work. What do you think and what pieces do you like most ?

Hi Artemis,

In my experience, the best conductors always allow the orchestra a certain amount of freedom (including any Principals that may have prominent solos to play). I think one of the more elusive challenges for any conductor is to strike a good balance between getting their particular interpretation across while still allowing the ensemble’s individual characteristics and attributes to come through. Having every note dictated or controlled generally does not achieve this, but there are certainly some conductors for whom that concept is difficult to grasp.

Of course, if a Principal is playing a solo that is completely at odds with how the conductor sees/hears it, then it’s a problem that can hopefully be resolved with some compromise on both sides, and preferably in a professional fashion that doesn’t create a bigger problem in a rehearsal or concert. As far as your final question, obviously the CM would play a major overall role in a piece such as Scheherazade or Danse Macabre. But that role is always more or less prominent and compelling depending on the overall chemistry between the orchestra and the person on the podium. Basically, I think most orchestras want a vibrant and decisive artistic approach from the conductor (no matter what the piece is), but they also want to maintain some sort of individuality; and of course they want to be treated with respect. This is a surprisingly difficult goal for many conductors to achieve, for a variety of reasons.

Frank

"It was Fall 1980 and one weekend, I had attended a concert at Carnegie Hall to see Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, and Steve Gadd perform"

Wish I'd seen that one. I've been sadly following M. Brecker's health issues lately, and hope he recovers quickly.
Your story is ironic to me- I once questioned whether I should stay at Juilliard after participating in a performance of one of Peter Mennin's works.

Frank
ps many thanks for the kind words, and I hope you'll tune into the chat.

Thanks Frank again for the sharing.

But, how come the live chat will be at 7pm EST ? ~~~~~~~

quote:

Originally posted by Artemis:
Thanks Frank again for the sharing.

But, how come the live chat will be at 7pm EST ? ~~~~~~~

All the chats are at 7PM, since that seems a sensible time for those in the US. If you can't tune in, maybe transcripts will be available later on. Hope you make it-
Frank

Bow wow and musician: were either of you in Gordon Hardy's L&M class in 1979-80? I remember asking Gordon to stay after class one day and I played for him my own personally composed take on PDQ Bach (Peter Schickele--another alum)--my own set of variations on a folk tune--taking snippets of the most popular repertoire and placing them cohesively into the folk tune in variation form--well, Gordon wasn't quite sure what to make of it--and if you mentioned jazz, you were a Philistine! Ah, Schumann!! He taught a good class, though.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeffrey Biegel:
Bow wow and musician: were either of you in Gordon Hardy's L&M class in 1979-80? I remember asking Gordon to stay after class one day and I played for him my own personally composed take on PDQ Bach (Peter Schickele--another alum)--my own set of variations on a folk tune--taking snippets of the most popular repertoire and placing them cohesively into the folk tune in variation form--well, Gordon wasn't quite sure what to make of it--and if you mentioned jazz, you were a Philistine! Ah, Schumann!! He taught a good class, though.

Hi Jeffrey- you took a class with Schumann?
Anyway, I started high school in '79 in CA, so I couldn't make L&M that year. Long live the Philistines. Gordon, too.
Frank

quote:

you took a class with Schumann?

In my last life before Gershwin was my teacher--say, I met up with him recently--he wanted to add a verse to "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"--goes something like, 'You say Niagara, and I say Viagra; I'll take Niagara and you'll take Viagra; Niagara, Viagra, Viagra, Niagara, let's call the whole thing off!' Now be nice readers!!

quote:

Originally posted by Bow wow:

All the chats are at 7PM, since that seems a sensible time for those in the US. If you can't tune in, maybe transcripts will be available later on. Hope you make it-
Frank

6am in Hong Kong, if it's EST not EDT in the U.S.

In case anyone is interested, Drew McManus did an interview with Frank Almond on the Partial Observer website.

Follow this link

Thanks ThreadHead.

If you're interested in a little more of what Frank Almond has to say about the Milwaukee Symphony's new iTunes deal, you can find some of his quotes in a few articles I published several weeks ago:
http://www.partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=1644
http://www.artsjournal.com/adaptistration/archives/2005...using_the_r_wor.html

Best,
Drew

Thanks Drew for your great articles.

quote:

Originally posted by Artemis:
Thanks Drew for your great articles.

You're very welcome.

Best,
Drew

Looking forward to the celebrity chat with you on April 3rd.

It's a pity that I cannot join. Enjoy everybody.