Symphony Orchestra Page
Reference Recordings
Tchaikovsky: https://youtu.be/ReddbQtQ0mA?si=hTHA5RPA9GnKlqct
Shostakovich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KMZOqOnmBE
Still: https://open.spotify.com/track/1FfUtjMoGL6IN8DnVaw4NL?si=c3aa9da87fa24380
Saint-Saëns (mvt. I): https://open.spotify.com/album/18helfICKnVjfO9v43SWPI?si=NzwTOMIATn2g9Yk_HiSqog
Messages
Greetings Symphony Members!
I am very excited for the new cycle of music and rehearsals that we've just begun! I am sharing some resources about the music in our folders.
There are many recordings of the Shostakovich Symphony -- and many diverse interpretations despite Shostakovich's very clear markings in the score. You're encouraged to check out as many of them as you care to. Below is a link to a performance conducted by Rudolf Barshai which I share because Barshai was a great musician and a wonderful string player -- founder of the Borodin Quartet in the USSR and who played on many important occasions and made many important recordings. He's also the founder of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra (which I later conducted many times, so I have a soft spot for this legacy). And, most importantly, Barshai knew Shostakovich well. Shostakovich wrote his 14th Symphony for Barshai's orchestra and they gave the premiere in 1969. Barshai also made the arrangement of the 8th Quartet for string orchestra, which the composer approved and published as one of his own opus numbers! So, if you value experience that brings you close to the source, you can hardly do better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KMZOqOnmBE
There are also many performances of the Symphony composed by Still. Of the ones I have heard, I am impressed by the playing and pacing of the one below, which is why I recommend it. As I mentioned, I am waiting to receive a recording conducted by the composer and if that seems worth sharing, I will pass that along. Until then, this one is a good model.
https://open.spotify.com/track/1FfUtjMoGL6IN8DnVaw4NL?si=c3aa9da87fa24380
And, for the Saint Saens Concerto, there are, again, many fine recordings. Here's one by famed English cellist, Jacqueline DuPre.
https://open.spotify.com/album/18helfICKnVjfO9v43SWPI?si=NzwTOMIATn2g9Yk_HiSqog
-- Listening to the music is a key to understanding how your part sounds and how it fits into the whole.
-- Listen with your part.
-- Mark in cues for better orientation for who you play along with and who you follow or lead.
Let's make steady progress on this music! See you Saturday!
Mark
p.s. We will also play through the Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet at several rehearsals this month and next, so keep that fresh, too!
Rehearsal Notes
January 31
SHOSTAKOVICH
We're generally in good shape on this piece and you've done really good work. Nevertheless, there are many details that still must be more polished and corrected for us to give a really fine performance.
Horns: 3 before #7 -- the f/mf dynamic is great for one measure -- the next measure is piano and it is too loud, covering the bassoon. Greater contrast for the soft dynamics
#9 -- strings playing quarter+2 eights -- UPPER HALF of bow, not too heavily, especially on eighths. Sustain the feeling of m o t i o n through the entire phrase
Violin 1-- in long melody be careful not to overemphasize the half notes -- l i g h t e n the bow weight while playing these notes. Keep and even feeling of expression through the entire phrase
#15 again, cellos and basses, a feeling of forward motion, not too s.e.p.a.r.a.t.e.d. on quarter+2 eighths rhythm
#17 Piano -- watch the conductor! especially for the tempo here. It was not with me in rehearsal on Saturday. Don't take Shostakovih's metronome markings (even his own son, Maxim, did not do the metronome markings when he conducted the piece) And if I alter the tempo to move ahead, follow!
#19 woodwinds -- give sound to the 16th notes in the dotted-8th and 16th note melody.
strings -- same in melodies before #21 and 22
#22 Everyone -- exaggerated s u s t a i n e d quality on quarter notes and even 8th notes.
-- direction with dynamics on rising scale figures
#25-- violins and violas -- the 8th+2 16ths rhythm rushes!! Here and later on. Keep the beat with the rest of the orchestra!!
#32-- keep a cool head and play as a part of the ensemble. It's loud and everyone is playing, but don't get "carried away." Stay cool. W....T....C!
-- brass, sometimes the half notes drag -- sounding late and taking too long to move forward. It needs to stay with the ensemble.
#36-- the ensemble was better. The long melody needs to be espressivo -- vibrato! Intense vibrato! And sustained, projected notes. AAAALLLLLLLL THE WAY TO THE END OF THE NOTE!!
-- ALSO, at #38 to the end of this phrase the longer note values (quarters, dotted quarters, tied notes) all need to be held full value. You are playing them too short! Practice this correctly AT HOME! A quarter-note MUST have 4 16th notes in it. A dotted quarter has 6 16th notes! Actually count it out in 16th notes!
-- ALSO, DO ... NOT .. RUSH .. the 16th notes at #38. Steady. Steady. Steady. and then getting even slower!
#39-- ok, you've just been playing your brains out for 100 measures and now, suddenly, you need to play with a delicate, soft, tender, almost defeated sense of tranquility.
-- 1st horn, slurring to the high note is not coming out clearly.
#42-- woodwinds, in general the solos are lovely. In the phrase starting here, they need to start more softly so that we really hear the crescendo to forte. And back down.
#43-- horns need to count so as to enter correctly on beat 3 (not beat 1)
#46-- 8th notes in violins and violas are still ragged and not together in this 1st measure -- AND there's ragged ensemble throughout this section. You need to be able to play this evenly, with a feeling of gradually ebbing energy (slowing very slightly). It says morendo in every part.
-- Last note -- shape this note with me. I will give you the cutoff.
STILL
We will spend more time working on this at the dress rehearsal. But overall, I felt like it was not in the place it should be this past week. We have worked on making this piece more flexible, more continuous, more natural sounding. And yet, when we start to play it, it sounds like people reading the music. We need to pick up where we left off. On Friday afternoon or evening, I want everyone to play through their part for this piece really thinking about how it fits into the overall music. Just look at your part and having a general idea of how to play it is not the point of playing a piece like this at all. You need to play the entire piece of music as a part of the ensemble.
Listen to it. Play along. Know what is happening aside from what is in your part!
https://open.spotify.com/track/1FfUtjMoGL6IN8DnVaw4NL?si=503d0619adfa4a34
SAINT-SAENS
Playing a concerto accompaniment means several things
-- playing more delicately and quietly often
-- counting rests YET remaining alert and attentive for the next important entrance
-- playing with extreme rhythmical precision so the soloist has a reliable backdrop
-- following the conductor even more attentively in case he/she needs to make adjustments to accommodate the soloist.
All of these things will be a part of our success with the Saint- Saens and giving Sam the performance he deserves. This piece is not "difficult" for you all to play -- BUT to play it with artistry, with style, with meaning -- that's something we should still be reaching for.
Again, listen to it with your part and think carefully about how it fits together.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2GJ1gaQORYxj0BENuHruPx?si=660f45fce8634e4a
(BTW the soloist on this recording, Matt Haimovitz, will be the new cello instructor at the University next year!).
December 13
Learn the music at HOME, not in rehearsal. You are doing yourself a disservice if you are coming into rehearsal without seriously learning the music. This means not just playing it through a few times.It means taking the time to work out how to coordinate the various parts of your technique in order to execute notes accurately and in rhythm.
The lack of dedicated practice has gotten out of hand. And this doesn't apply just to principal players or those at the front stands. From back to front and front to back -- for all of the pieces. But as we heard last week, the SAINT SAENS concerto has been particularly neglected. Let's get on top of this.
W.G. STILL
Before there was Tik-Tok, or late night television, there was Vaudeville -- live performances of short entertainments -- comedy acts, acrobats, playlets, singers, animals...you name it, one after the other. With a small orchestra in the pit. The audience was often the people who couldn't afford the prices at the opera or the symphony or the full, extravagant Broadway shows -- in other words, the immigrant populations and the less well-to-do. The Still Symphony was written in 1931, when these types of acts were in their heyday. Still and musicians like him sometimes made a living playing and/or writing and arranging the music for these kinds of shows. So, the different "voices" in the music and rapid changes of atmosphere are evocative of the rapid shift of scene in a Vaudeville revue. For a little background, have a look at this.
Tenuto. W.G. Still writes this in his score and I have been asking for it, but we don;t seem to have a model for how to produce it. So much of "classical" repertoire (Mozart, Hadydn, Bach...) involves sculpting individual notes and letting them decay. Tenuto is the opposite -- no decay. Espressivo and sustained throughout the note. Those lines over notes are all about this intention. If we don't do that, it isn't right, just as wrong as playing a "wrong note" is wrong. Listen to the quality of the long notes in this performance. We want to get closer to that type of sound. It's a thrilling, emotionally devastating way of making music. Do we want to play everything this way? No. Should we have this type of sound available to us when it's appropriate for the style. Yes. Indeed we should. It takes some work, but we can do it if we invest ourselves in it.
SHOSTAKOVICH
Good work has been done on this thus far. Please keep it up. Articulation is paramount. There's an insistence, relentlessness, a stubbornness to Shostakovish's music that needs to be represented in a mad frenzy of articulation -- it would be ridiculous in any other music, but it's essential in his music. One needs to develop stamina -- to keep up the intensity and to know how to direct one's energy without causing excess tension. Tension will inhibit the ability to effectively repeat articulations (and to keep things in tune). So, find ways to keep relaxed physically while being mentally and musically hyper-alert.
TCHAIKOVSKY
The side-by-side is right after the holidays. I know you all want to get the most out of it and to feel right at home next to your Minnesota Orchestra mentors. So, make sure that music is kept fresh and right under your fingers before the January 8th date arrives! It's going to sound amazing!