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

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!