Kenneth Woods- A View From the Podium

I was so sad this morning to learn of the death of Freddie Hubbard from Doug Ramsey at Rifftides, who has an excellent remembrance here.  

Hubbard was one of the last of the true giants of jazz history still with us, a man whose career spanned epoch after epoch, and whose virtuosity, bravado and creativity shone through in a huge variety of styles.

Hubbard was in some sense unlucky to spend his career in the shadow of two other trumpet giants- in his early years, he could not escape comparison with Clifford Brown, who was indeed a huge influence. However, had Brown not died so young, I believe he and Hubbard would have gone on to look more like peers than master and student, and hopefully to record extensively together.

In fact, Hubbard, one of the most macho of players (in the best sense of the world), was a rare figure in the jazz trumpet world in that he seemed to love to share the spotlight with his fellow horn players. His recordings with the great Lee Morgan are memorable, as was his work with Wood Shaw, particularly on the joyous Eternal Triangle album.

One trumpet player he didn’t work with was the other whose career in some ways obscured critics from a fuller understanding of Hubbard’s genius- Miles Davis. Miles’ accomplishments as a band leader, composer, trend setter and innovator overshadow those of just about any musician in the 20^th c., but Hubbard could certainly stand toe-to-toe with him as an improviser, and was without doubt the more gifted trumpet player. Miles once caustically called Hubbard “that guy who plays like me,” but to whatever extent they shared some of the same language, Hubbard’s work as stand in for Miles with the reunited lineup of his classic 60’s band under the name “VSOP” (Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams) was so fierce and passionate that nobody came away from their performances missing Miles.

I’ll be putting my LP of Straight Life on this afternoon- it’s possibly the funkiest record ever made, just another side of a great musician’s range.

NYT Obit here-

YouTube has this great clip of VSOP (Joe Henderson instead of Wayne on sax)

A view from the podium

I came across a piece in the news today about the ongoing war between Warner and 20^th C. Fox over the fate of the upcoming movie, The Watchmen. This storm has been brewing for a long time, maybe years. Who owns this movie, the people who made it or the people who chose not to?

Of course, I can’t help but notice whenever the Watchmen are in the news, as I played in a band that was named for the graphic novel for several years.

The movie has also been on my mind in recent weeks because a thread appeared on a hardcore punk forum in Toronto about a month ago. I found out when I suddenly started getting a rash of hits on an old Watchmen related post here- they were using our old band photo to differentiate discussion of Watchmen the band versus Watchmen the graphic novel.

 (Watchmen, the band)

 (Watchmen, the graphic novel)

Unsurprisingly, there are other bands called The Watchmen, (most defunct as far as I can tell). As far as I know, we were the first (1988-90), best and most obnoxious.

Anyway, the whole brouhaha about the release of the film and the involvement of the courts got me thinking about one of our old concert mainstays- a tune being dragged out of the landfill of musical history. This is a song that had an unusually convoluted gestation- I came up with a little bi-tonal funk riff, but lost interest in it before I could turn it in to a song. My colleague, Jon, took that riff, tweaked it, wrote a B-section and some lyrics and came up with a complete tune.

Jon didn’t much like writing lyrics, but I thought this was his lyrical magnum opus. In its original version, the song was called “I’m God,” and it was a highly sardonic hip-hop ode to self-supremacy written from the perspective of the Almighty. I thought it was absolutely hilarious- the best thing he’d ever written. Sadly, I can’t find the demo of the original version of the song.

Soon after we demo-ed it and played it a few times, Jon got “THE FEAR.” I’d never seen any signs that he was a man of faith, but I think he thought his work on this song was going to earn him an early death or a permanent lack of sex from the supreme one. The other guys fell in step, and we dropped the song from our catalogue. I was heartbroken. The lyrics didn’t make God look like a bad guy, just a very funny one- it was more a set-up of the hip-hop ego-based mindset than a send up of God, anyway. This was one of two times the guys and I really came to an unbreakable difference of opinion over a song. Both times, I was the only one who didn’t think the song in question was too outrageous or offensive (the other son was my ode to an ex-girlfriend, “Drop Dead,” which you can hear here). I thought the whole point of freaking rock n roll was that you can’t be too obnoxious or too offensive, just too dull, plastic and cheesey. This was perhaps surprising to those that knew us at the time, as, to outward appearances, I was the most conservative guy in the band (meaning I was the only one who never appeared on stage in something resembling underwear).

Anyway, the song seemed dead for sometime, but Josh, our lead singer, dug the groove, so he asked Jon’s permission to re-write it. He came back with new lyrics and a new title- “You’re Not God.” As you will hear, the new version is basically an anti-censorship/political correctness fight song. The lyrics are fine- I like Josh’s wordplay, but it doesn’t make me howl with laughter like the original.

So, here is “You’re Not God,” riff (abandoned incomplete) by me, music by Jon Heagle, lyrics by Josh Silbert. Jon plays the lead-in and lead-out solos, the long solo in the middle is me.

A view from the podium

Thanks to Sven from Brainerd for sending us a collated list of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s rep for 2008. I’m a huge Harnoncourt fan, even though he’s as likely to make me scream in horror as cheer in admiration, sometimes in the same piece. Just this weekend I heard his Hallelujah Chorus on Radio 3. It starts so slowly and softly and affectedly that I really couldn’t take it remotely seriously (I didn’t know who I was listening to, which makes it more interesting sometimes- my first reaction to the opening was “whoever this is is a fraud”). However, the performance really took off and came to a thrilling ending, full of fascinating touches and compelling ideas. In the end, it was a vivid example of why he’s one of the most interesting musicians on earth.

Anyway, his is the smallest list so far- less than 30 works, but several operas and even more single-work programs. What I like most about his list is that it seems like a declaration of principles- you can certainly tell which composers he feels most passionately about. I wish I could have heard all the big Schumann works.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt- 2008 Repertoire Report Read more…

A view from the podium, Repertoire Reports harnoncourt, Repertoire Reports

For those music lovers who’ve not found quite the motherload of new CDs in the post-Christmas sale, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (recently declared the best band on the planet by the Gramophone) are offering the world a nice little holiday present. It’s part of the orchestra’s celebrations of its 120^th Anniversary, but you can still call it Christmas for collectors…

Between now and the end of the year, you can download ten symphonies from the AVRO/Radio 4 website.

These FREE downloads include

Beethoven – Symphony No. 2 (Jansons, 2004)
Brahms – Symphony No. 2 (Jansons, 2004)
Bruckner – Symphony No. 8 (Haitink, 2005)
Dvořák – Symphony No. 8 (Giulini, 1990)
Franck – Symphony in D minor (Jansons, 2004)
Mahler – Symphony No. 1 (Bernstein, 1987)
Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4 (Kondrashin, 1979)
Saint-Saëns – Symphony No. 3 (Chung, 2005)
Schubert – Symphony No. 8 (Harnoncourt, 1997)
Sibelius – Symphony No. 2 (Jansons, 2005There is a simple registration procedure before you can start downloading.

Most importantly, however, these downloads go away on New Year’s Eve.

A view from the podium

I do hope you all had a happy Christmas holiday and managed to eat a lot of turkey, drink some lovely wine and listen to a bunch of Bach and Messiaen.

I’m shaking off my own turkey coma and will be back up to full blogging speed soon. Meanwhile, I’m happy to point you towards a new blog from 2007 Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop alum, Erik Klackner. Erik is a seriously bright, funny and opinionated guy, and I’m sure you’ll all enjoy his thoughts.

And yes, I do recognize this is a seriously sorry excuse for a blog post. More soon… 

KW  

A view from the podium

I’m very excited to be joining the faculty of the Harlech Orchestra Academy this coming  summer, where I’ll be taking over as conductor for Wyn Davies, music director of New Zealand Opera.

This busy week features and intense schedule of readings and rehearsals under the guidance of outstanding instrumental coaches. Advanced instrumentalists of all ages and backgrounds are welcome, including music teachers, amateurs and music students.

Nestled in one of the most beautiful corners of North Wales, with commanding views of the mountains of Snowdonia National Park and easy access to some of the best beaches in the UK, Harlech provides a perfect backdrop for what should be a fulfilling week. The repertoire for the course is-

Arnold- The Inn of Sixth Happiness

Bernstein, Elmer- The Magnificent Seven

Hoddinott – Investiture Dances

Janacek- Taras Bulba

Mahler – Symphony No 5

Niccolai- Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor

Prokofiev- Selections from Romeo and Juliet Suite no.2

Rachmaninov – Isle of the Dead

Ravel – La valse

Shostakovich – Symphony No 6

Walton- Variations on a Theme of Paul Hindemith

I hope some of you will consider joining us for the week. Some general information from the academy website is below–

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A view from the podium

I’m really excited to be able to announce the details for the 2009 Ischia Festival of Music.

Last year was my first year at the festival, and my efforts in spreading the word about the institute had to be slightly tempered by the fact that it was my first spring there, and I could only hope that it would be a good experience.

On the basis of my week on the island last May, however, I can confidently say that it’s a stunning place, a wonderful environment for music and a great place to enjoy the best of food, weather and friendship. I’m also very excited to be working with my colleagues Byron Wallis and David Yang from Ensemble Epomeo, clarinet virtuoso, conductor and composer Giuseppe Caranante and Artistic Director Aldo de Vero. The facilities are luxurious, but affordable, and where else can you unwind after reading Brahms on the side of a volcano with a quick dip in the thermal waters?

Please visit the workshop website here for more information. We are looking forward to welcoming healthy classes of both dedicated amateurs and serious young music students at conservatory and post-graduate levels of study. The festival is also offering a full-scholarship position for a student string quartet in residence this year.

Here’s some basic information from the Ischiafestival website-

Ischiafestival 2009: Chamber music played with passion, coached professionally, in a truly stunning Mediterranean setting May 9-16.

The Location

The fabled southern Italian isle of Ischia – dreaming with Capri in the timeless blue waters of the Bay of Naples, is home to the Covo dei Borboni, an elegant, white-washed villa surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens overlooking the sea, which will again be the exclusive venue for our chamber music workshop, that will be held from Saturday May 9th to Saturday May 16th.

The Program

Ischiafestival offers a unique week: playing, studying and enjoying quality, professionally coached Chamber Music. This year’s workshop is privileged to have engaged Byron Wallis, violin, David Yang, viola, Kenneth Woods, cello and conductor, Giuseppe Carannante, clarinet and conductor,and artistic director Aldo de Vero , piano, as resident coaches. Coaching sessions will be focused on specific repertoires (String Quartet, Wind Quintet, Two Pianos) in the morning, and on Strings & Winds with Piano repertoire in the afternoon. Coaching sessions will begin Saturday the 9th at 4 p.m. Evenings after 6 p.m. will be free for sightseeing, free-playing, enjoying the wonderful food, sights and ambience of this charming island as well as being warmly welcome to enjoy listening to the three scheduled concerts during the week. The workshop will end with performances by participant musicians on the evening of Friday, May 15.

Accomodation and Meals

Coaching sessions will take place at the Covo dei Borboni, which features practice rooms, a music library, accommodation in apartments with kitchenettes, and two outdoor pools – one filled with the famed spa thermal waters so special to the Island of Ischia. Meals, services and further accommodation in single, double and triple rooms will be provided by the nearby four-star sister Hotel Grazia Terme at special Workshop rates.

A view from the podium, Study with Ken

The brass section of the Chicago Symphony were refered to the other day in my post refereing to Kim Diehnelts Elgar article. Writing that post reminded me of a wonderful article I read some years ago on CSO principal trombonist Jay Friedman’s website. Mr Friedman’s website has a wonderful collection of essays and articles on brass playing, auditions and orchestra life. Most brass players already read it, but every non-brass-player conductor should read it too. Anyway, Friedman reminds us that what many people think of as the “CSO Brass” sound may be something else…

If you play in an orchestra full time, your choice of mouthpiece should have a great deal to do with the hall you play in. If I played in a great hall I could use a smaller mouthpiece because I wouldn’t have to create so much warmth at the point of origin. I could get more help from the acoustics. The hall the Chicago Symphony Orchestra plays in is dry and hard sounding. Therefore, we must create most of the resonance ourselves, which requires that there be no edge in the sound whatsoever. That begs the question of whether you pick equipment that is the easiest to play or that sounds the best, and those two are usually not the same (emphasis added). As I have said before, American style instruments have a tremendous ability to focus the sound in the louder dynamics and lose core in the softer ones. Our job as players is to reverse this tendency. It may feel good for you to drive a hole through the wall with your fortissimo sound, but that is not music. Try to keep those hormones in check. (emphasis added) I wish someone had told me this when I was starting out. My concept is to make the biggest sound that I can still focus in the medium and soft dynamics..…

I would like to finish this column with some comments about the recordings we made with the CSO and London records with Georg Solti in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In my opinion, these recordings are a poor way to judge the sound of the CSO, especially the CSO brass section. London Records was never interested in capturing the natural sound of the CSO. They had a pre-conceived sound which they were determined to force on the orchestra that focused on hard, edgy sonics in a boomy, over reverberant space. Most of those recordings were made in Medinah Temple, which was never designed for music, but more for circuses.

I remember the horn section was placed 50 feet or more from the trumpets and trombones in order to get a gimmicky stereo effect. The results of these sessions produced a raucous, rough, hard-edged sound that in no way represents the CSO, especially the brass section. Solti was a great conductor, but was unable or unwilling to get the people at London (Decca) to give an accurate sound picture of a great orchestra. However, I do remember his unhappiness with the sound of the first Mahler 5th recording. He wanted to cancel the recording, but it was too late.

In latter years, many times we in the brass section would complain about the reproduction of our sound when London, Decca recorded us, but Solti would always say “Listen to the latest recording, I think you will be very happy.” Needless to say, we weren’t. To get a true picture of the CSO brass sound, one must go back to pre-London Decca recordings or better yet listen to live recordings of concerts….

RTWTH

Friedman here points out two things you are hearing when you hear the CSO on those classic Solti discs- the hall (“dry and hard sounding”) and the recording setup (which Friedman calls “raucous, rough, hard-edged”). Of course, the Decca recordings of the 60’s are considered classics of the art of recording, but in the 80’s the world became (in my opinion) a little over excited by the high-frequency possibilities of digital recording (I could write a book about this paradigm shift), and words like “brilliance” and “sparkle” replaced “depth” and “warmth” as things to look for in a recording.

I’m a huge Solti fan- can’t help it, he was the man when I was growing up, but he was naturally an angular, wiry guy, and he got that kind of sound from all orchestras. It was an exciting, focused, intense sound, but not always a round one.

However, having heard the CSO many times in person as a youth, and listening to them on the radio every week for years, I have to agree with Friedman that theirs was a warm, rounder and more beautiful sound than you hear on the discs (still pretty damn loud, but that is what brass instruments are for). Still- they deserved a better hall (I haven’t been back since the re-fit in the 90’s, so I have no idea if it has improved). It’s sad that so few of the major US orchestras play in first rate halls- Orchestra Hall was always problematic, Davies in SF has a spotty reputation, Avery Fischer in New York has always been controversial…..

Finally, I have to say that no recording could ever capture Bud Herseth’s sound with any degree of accuracy. On disc, he sounds great and loud, but in person it was like he was in color and the rest of the orchestra in slightly faded color. He was the closest thing to a great opera singer I’ve ever heard in a brass player. Those that imitated the discs were going down the wrong path and just ended up with something fat and overpowering that missed the sweetness, the roundness and the flexibility of his tone live.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of this post is just a general reminder that what you hear on a CD or concert is the end product of a whole bunch of different and contradictory factors- you can have players who like a dark sound working with a conductor who tends to go for a bright one, recorded on a muddy set up. Sometimes those contradictory factors actually make for something better than what any given particpant could have come up with, sometimes not. Anyway, a piece like Friedman’s at least gives us a great window into the thinking that goes into a famous collection of performances many of us know well.

A view from the podium

Daniel Wolf at Renewable Music takes the discussion of current repertoire in an interesting direction, towards the question of “how much music do you, or can you, know well….”

Back in my training days as an ethnomusicologist, we were taught some of the basic questions to use with musician informants in the course of field work. One of the most basic was “How many pieces do you know?”* There seemed to be a near-universal upper limit of about fifty-or-so repertoire items whenever the question was narrowed to “How many pieces do you know well?” Similar quantitative limits were encountered among musicians of many traditions, which, in our informal survey, included Native American singers, Javanese Gamelan musicians, and String Quartets, who were either asked to list, by name, the pieces that they “knew” and were ready to play. (emphasis added)

What an interesting question, and one I’ve honestly never tried to grapple with. That bit about “ready to play…” that’s where it gets complicated and tough. Modern players can get through hundreds of pieces in a year thanks to their razor sharp sight-reading skills, but I’ve often found myself talking to a professional orchestra musician who can’t remember ever having played the Mahler symphony they recorded just a few weeks earlier. Does reading something without mistakes equate to knowing it? Studio work is even more confounding, since  you can record a piece without ever playing through it without stopping, and the players may not end up with any sense whatsoever of what the form of the piece is, or what order the various takes actually belong in.  I once did a piece for a Radio 3 recording that was so insanely difficult the producer wanted to come up with start and stop points for editing before the sessions began- he thought that it was unlikely we’d be able to do more than about 30 seconds at a time without stopping (in the end, we read through it with only one stop in the session, a testament to the virtuosity of modern players).

But, reading a piece doesn’t mean you know it.

Neither does memorizing a piece. Ormandy had a famously amazing photographic memory- he could memorize anything in one flip-through, but he often said that “just because I’m memorized it doesn’t mean I know it.” In his case, just memorizing the piece only meant he was sight-reading the picture of the score stored in his head. AC Douglas recently called reader’s attention to the archive of Ormandy scores which document the process of getting from memorized to mastered.

I may have the number wrong, but I seem to remember Karajan had 60 operas memorized which he said he could conduct from memory, with all the text memorized, if you woke him up in the middle of the night. Considering opera was only a minority interest in his repertoire, that’s pretty scary. Barenboim’s recent exploits aren’t too surprising- he’s always had that kind of facility for a huge volume of repertoire. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m all that convinced by some of the conducting work he does.

I used to be amazed by the best instrumental teachers at conservatories, who could teach and demonstrate, in great detail, just about any piece for their instrument.  I’m sure some of them had way more than 50 works memorized at any time- but probably 35 of those they taught ever week of their lives.

Fiddlers and jazzers tend to know hundreds or thousands of tunes, but can take advantage of the fact that so much of their repertoire fits into standardized forms (blues, rhythm changes, 32 song form, etc…). Still, it’s amazing to see how fast they can memorize a new tune (usually one hearing is enough).

I leave pieces on my repertoire list based on whether I fee like I could perform them under pressure on about a week’s notice. Most of the standard rep pieces, like the Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky mainstays, I could just open the score and be ready to conduct, but how well is well?

Carlos Kleiber probably had less than 20 pieces in his repertoire at the time of his death. In spite of the fact he could play all the Mahler symphonies at the piano from memory, he only ever conducted Das Lied von der Erde, as he felt it was the only one he thought he could do well. Learning a vast repertoire can be a great education, but quantity is no guarantee of quality. If the king felt that Beethoven 6 was too hard for him, maybe us mortals ought to ask ourselves how well we’re doing it?

A view from the podium

Peter from Houston rembers former HSO Music Director Christoph Eschenbach fondly for what he calls “many years of transformative and inspiring leadership,” so he’s processed Eschenbach’s 2008 repertoire as it appears on his website here. Thanks Peter!

At over 103 pieces (the exact program of his Advent Concert is not listed), it’s quite a list, and a very interesting one. Eschenbach’s schedule is truly awe-inspiring- tons of concerts all over the world. In the course of the year, he seems to be re-visiting a few pieces very frequently, notably Dvorak 9 and Bruckner 6, but several others as well. Unlike Leonard and Paavo, Eschenbach is also active as an instrumentalist as well, primarily in chamber music and song.

There are several premieres and new pieces, including a lot of Higdon (Jennifer is based in Philly and has a special relationship with the Philadelphia Orchestra, so that is unsurprising), but on the whole, his looks like the most “mainstream” of the lists we’ve examined so far. More emphasis on standard rep tends to mean more pieces in common with other conductors, and sure enough, I’ve conducted a higher proportion of pieces on Eschenbach’s list than on Jarvi, Slatkin or Bychkov’s.

However, it’s interesting to note what he’s not doing much of- only one Beethoven symphony all year (the 6^th), and no Mozart or Haydn symphonies at all. He’s also doing the least Rachmaninoff of anyone on the list this year, just excerpts (!) from the Paganini Fantasy. There’s almost no English music, except for the Britten Violin Concerto which seems to be emerging this year as a standard repertoire piece, and no Sibelius symphonies or tone poems.

I hope more readers will help us keep this project going. Conductor Ian Mclarty has submitted his own list here- more lists from young and aspiring conductors, staff conductors, academic conductors and regional conductors would make a great counterbalance to the rep lists we’ve already posted.

Christoph Eschenbach Repertoire 2008-

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Well, having looked at my rep list for the last two years, one of my former students tactfully chimed in with the obvious question “gee Ken, that’s a fair number of pieces, but how many pieces does a real conductor conduct in a year?”

After I cleaned up the blood, I hired a new research assistant, who has been busy crunching the numbers for three of today’s leading conductors- Leondard Slatkin, Semyon Bychkov and Paavo Jarvi. These three were chosen on the basis of the following highly scientific criteria-

1- They’re un-deniably famous (read- “real”) conductors

2- They have fairly user friendly websites which list all their repertoire for a 12 month period

We’ve been able to do a tally of Paavo’s repertoire for all of 2008, Bychkov’s for 2008 and Leonard’s from May 2008-April 2009 (don’t ask why we chose those dates for L.S.- we have not been able to come up with a good reason).

To be honest, I was curious about the same thing, but I also thought it would be informative for young conductors, a number of whom read this blog regularly, to get a sense of what volume of repertoire they would have to be able to cope with in a typical year if they’re going to sustain a full-time conducting career. I’d love to encourage some other readers who are desperately bored to visit the websites of their favorite maestri and email me the results for posting here (or, post their rep lists on their own blogs!). It would be fascinating to compare rep lists of conductors working in different markets and price brackets, from students through university and conservatory conductors, community orchestra conductors and so on. Someone who did a lot of pops would have a much bigger list- a typical pops concert might have 20 or more charts, while a symphony concert might have 1-4. There are lots of repertoire surveys and studies by market and orchestra, but not by performer (at least to the best of my knowledge).

Back to today’s big three. There are three obvious things worth pointing out- first, I get to work with some very good groups, but these guys work only with the best orchestras in the world. Second, theirs are only conducting lists- no cello/piano/sarusophone engagements.

Third- being able to say you’ve “done” a piece only means as much as how much work you put in to preparing it, or, ultimately, whether you’ve done what you set out to do all that well or not.

Bychkov’s list is here, Leonard’s here and Paavo’s here. Mine is here.

Bychkov’s list is the shortest- attributable to the fact that he’s done a fair bit of touring this year and two huge opera projects- Otello at the Met and Tristan und Isolde at the Paris Opera, each of which eat up many weeks. Bychkov also seems to take vacations, something worth remembering the value of in light of Richard Hickox’s passing. Speaking of opera, he also did a concert performance of Lohengrin. A concert performance of an opera puts much more time pressure on a conductor for study time- it’s one week’s work that requires as much study time as would go into a piece you’d normally do for 3-5 weeks. With Shostakovich 4 and 7 also on the list, it is a year I covet. Shos 4 and Tristan are right at the top of my “wish” list. Of his 30 works, 18 are ones I’ve performed.

Paavo has one of the most gold plated careers of anyone in this business right now. He also has the advantage of strong associations with four orchestras- the Paris, the Cincinnati, Frankfurt and Bremen. This year sees him doing a lot of touring, which tends to lead to more repeats of things, but Paavo has always liked to live with pieces- he seemed to do Symphonie Fantastique all the time when he first came to the CSO.  There are 90 pieces on his list-(43 of which I’ve conducted) 15 more than mine. His is the most typical of what you would expect from an elite European maeastro- complete cycles of Brahms, and big chunks of Schubert, Bruckner and Mahler. His list also features a lot of Scandanavian and Baltic works- Tubin, Tuur, Nielsen and Sibelius. No opera for Paavo this year, but a great mix of everything else.

Leonard Slatkin’s list is simply awe-inspiring- it’s the list I think most young conductors would find the hardest to take on simply in terms of how much studying one would need to put in to preparing all those pieces (I’ve seen Leonard study, and he is mind-blowingingly quick). Impressive as Paavo’s 90 pieces are, Leonard’s tally is over 123 (his website doesn’t list the programs for his Copland retrospective at the NSO or his opera night at the Detroit Symphony, so there’s probably another 10 + pieces to be added). It’s an impressive mix of the familiar (I’ve conducted about 45 or so of the pieces on his list) with the new. Like Paavo, he balances a wide swath of the standard literature (although with a notably less Teutonic slant than Paavo) with repertoire that seems particularly close to his heart- the American masters of the mid 20^th C. (Copland, Barber and Bernstein), leading American composers of today (Glass, Adams, Higdon and Rouse) and his longtime passion for British music, notably Elgar, Walton and Vaughan Williams. If you look at the pieces in the context of his programming it’s quite inspiring to see how consistently he seems to be able to bring something new to each performance. Leonard did one opera this year to Bychkov’s three- Eugene Onegin. He was also the only conductor on this list to do any of his own must- two pieces this year!

So- Bychkov has done the most opera and the most Shosty, Leonard the widest range of repertoire, the most new music and the most American and British music, Paavo the most Brahms and Mahler (although I did more Mahler in 2007 than he did in 2009!). Surprisingly, I did the most Mozart and Schumann this year. Leonard and I did the same 2 Sibelius symphonies (2 and 5), Paavo did 2, 3, 6 and 7. Paavo also wins on Bruckner.

So- how many pieces does a real conductor get through in a year (who is laughing now, eh Mr smart guy question asker?!?!?!?! I don’t see you laughing now!)? Well, this completely un-scientific sampling just tells us that there’s no telling. What is encouraging is that all four we’ve looked at so far are doing a nice mixture of new and old, widely loved favorites and personal passions and side roads and byways of the literature. Only half of us did the dreaded Beethoven 5- maybe jaded critics and embittered composers can finally stop complaining about that piece now, but all of us did Tchaik 4. None of us does enough Baroque music or enough French music. Again, I’m hoping some intrepid readers will submit lists of other conductor’s repertoire for either the current or coming year. It can be a concert season (Fall to Fall) or a calendar year, whatever…

A view from the podium, Repertoire Reports bychkov, jarvi, Repertoire Reports, slatkin

Taken from the concert schedule on his website- conductor Semyon Bychkov’s repertoire for 2008….

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A view from the podium, Repertoire Reports

Below is Paavo Jarvi’s repertoire for 2008 as compiled from his website

Please submit your replists to info@kennethwoods.net. Lists should be for one calendar year, in alphabetical order (please DO NOT send lists of programs, or your complete repertoire list for your whole life).

Paavo Jarvi 2008 Repertoire

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We’re going to be continuing our discussion of conductor repertoire in an upcoming post. To that end, we’ll be posting repertoire reports for individual conductors in separate blogs posts. Below is Leonard Slatkin’s repertoire from May 08-April 09 (a sampling chosen for highly structured research-oriented reasons, er, it was what we found most easily on his website).

We’re also inviting conductors to submit their own repertoire reports or for readers to assemble repertoire reports on other artists using their websites. Hopefully, it might lead to some interesting discussions. Send any lists to info@kennethwoods.net and we’ll post ’em here.

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A view from the podium, Repertoire Reports

You can view the 2008 KW Repertoire report here, which lists every piece of music  I’ve performed in the 2008 calendar year.

I thought I would take advantage of the painstaking efforts of my research assistant, former Lehman Brothers Executive VP Flurp Van Doogle and make some comparisons between this year and 2007, as well as some general observations on trends on this year’s list.

It goes without saying that for many of you, this will be the most boring, naval gazing exercise you have ever encountered, but I hate to let Flurp’s efforts go un-used.

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A view from the podium, Repertoire Reports concerto, downie, gal, Haydn, Mahler, Repertoire Reports, shostakovich, sibelius, symphony, xenakis