What does make an orchestra "good" or "bad" or "mediocre" or "great"? It seems like it should be a simple matter: better orchestras play with more precise and adaptable rhythm, pitch and dynamics than lesser orchestras do.

But we've all been to a Big Five orchestra concert which was severely lacking in one or all of those things, at one time or another (a Philly "Messiah" performance lurks in the terrifying sewer reaches of my distant student memories). I'm sure that many of us have been to obscure orchestra concerts which were exhilarating and relevatory and life-changing, too.

I think that the defining attribute of a great orchestra, or even just a dependably good one, is esprit de corps. To paraphrase Kurt Cobain, a great orchestra smells like teen spirit. Many of the top orchestras in this country have a direct lineage of their membership that goes back to the very formation of the orchestra. The most celebrated orchestras in this country have a very clear teacher/student lineage that is remarkably unbroken. People in good/great orchestras have had a common musical language which was learned before they entered the orchestra, and was reinforced by a music director of relatively long-standing who was often fully resident with the orchestra (rather than a jet-setting guest conductor with which almost every orchestra of any level is saddled today).

Why is this the topic of my column this week? Well, this past week we learned that our new concertmaster of two years, Amy Schwartz Moretti, was leaving at the end of the season to become Director of the Robert MacDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. This was a stunning blow to many in the orchestra. Truth be told, I don't think anyone really expected that Amy would stay as a 'lifer', but two years was a remarkably short time to have someone of such talent in the chair (even by her own admission - she was intending to stay longer than this, but the opportunity arose, and after much agonizing, she took it) and clearly she had much more to offer the orchestra and the community than the great things she'd already brought in her brief two year stint with us.

What is interesting to me about this is the pre-announcement vs. post-announcement state of the orchestra that I have observed. The beginning of this season started pretty auspiciously for us - the playing standard was quite high even after our long summer break (approx. June 5 to August 25) and our first run of subscription concerts and rehearsals the previous week were notable for the high spirits of the orchestra and the high standard of playing from nearly every position in the orchestra.

Then, the announcement. Poorly timed, I think, at the inception of the first rehearsal of our next classical series. The rehearsal was pretty much a wash - many stunned faces, lots of tears and depressed looks at the break, and stoic professionalism for the rest of the rehearsal.

Now, it feels like our game is off. We have been shaken to our core, which I wouldn't have believed possible before this, but the swagger is gone, and the customary self-doubts that are endemic to our orchestra have started to resurface. This brings to mind a tangent on the state of our orchestral psyche: we've been just "ok" for so long, that we're loathe to admit that we might actually be truly world-class for the first time in our history. People come and hear us with a good conductor and they are stunned that we're basically the same group that they heard five years ago (though not the same one as 10 years ago, for sure - turnover has taken care of that). So when something happens that is "bad", we blame ourselves first, then if we really have incontrovertable evidence to the contrary, we grudgingly admit that we are pretty darn good and that is wasn't our fault. This may be the phase we're in right now, and another week or so will smooth the way to a continued recovery and looking forward to a bright future.

UPDATE: In light of some questionable speculation on the message boards, consider the following from the blog of the music critic of The Oregonian:

quote:

The call to concertmaster Amy Schwartz Moretti came out of the blue, in April. This might come as a shock, said the caller, the distinguished violinist Robert McDuffie, but I might as well ask right out.

Would Moretti like to be the director and resident violin professor of a new, elite, string school at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia?

Moretti, 31, had just finished her second season as the Oregon Symphony's concertmaster. The job fit like a glove and she and her husband, jazz drummer Steve Moretti, both liked Portland. They had no plans to leave. In addition, Amy Moretti had quickly embraced Portland's larger music community, performing with Chamber Music Northwest, leading the Oregon Symphony String Quartet and performing with other local groups. I have to think about it, she told McDuffie.

She wrestled with the idea all summer, she said, listing pros and cons, but even that didn't help clarify her thoughts.

"It meant leaving a career I've known all my professional life," she said. "But it would also open doors for solo and chamber music, more freedom in my schedule."

Last week, she revealed her decision to accept the Georgia job. "It was a tough summer," she said. "It was very emotional to figure out what I wanted to do."

Moretti will begin her Georgia job in January, but continue to play several -- but not all -- of her previous concerts with the Oregon Symphony through the end of the season, in May.

In her new job, she will teach violin to a handful of highly talented students at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, leaving her time for more solo and chamber music.

Her decision to leave Portland was doubly hard, she said, because it meant uprooting her husband, again. It wasn't easy to tell her boss, either. She phoned music director Carlos Kalmar earlier this month, at his home in Vienna. "He was surprised," she said. "He was also concerned that as a performer, was I giving that up?"

Moretti, who joined the Oregon Symphony a year after Kalmar took over as music director, brought multiple skills to her position, playing a key role in the maestro's plan to improve the orchestra. The musicians admired her amiable leadership, keen rhythmic style, ability to demonstrate the conductor's wishes and willingness to collaborate in performances outside the orchestra.

"I feel like I've lived the orchestra," she said. "It's been my family. I love living in the Northwest. I love the lifestyle. I thought I was going to be here a long time, but you never know what life throws at you. This is a curveball I didn't want to pass up."

But her ties to Portland are hard to cut. "We may buy a one-bedroom apartment and keep a drum set here," she said.

We might also see her back in Portland as a soloist with the symphony, and possibly with other local groups, she hinted.

-- David Stabler

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