Comments on: 11 hours at Vftp Headquarters

By: Kenneth Woods- a view from the podium » After-gig ruminations, rants and random connections

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:01:42 +0000

[...] Now, to back up a bit…. In my post 11 hours at Vftp Headquarters the other day, I quoted my colleague, Erik Klackner’s colourful review of our OES horn section’s outstanding performance of Mahler 5. His comment led me in two interesting directions. One- I don’t want to cast aspersions or hurt feelings, but I don’t think anyone who knew the OES in 2001 would have thought it would be likely that we would ever have a horn section that could deliver one of the best Mahler 5 horn performances I have every heard or might ever hear. At that point, it seemed more likely that orchestras world wide would be replaced by alien minstrels from the 17th dimension. My point is- whatever the band, whatever the location, whatever the situation- given time, anything is possible, and you should never settle for less than the best in the long term. Today we may have to compromise, but if you take advantage of every opportunity for change and growth that comes along, anything is possible. [...]

By: Kenneth Woods

Kenneth Woods — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:14:01 +0000

Aha- Lawrence, meet Erik. Erik meet Lawrence. Erik- Lawrence is the principal horn of Lancashire Chamber Orchestra who just survived Haydn 72 with me. Lawrence- Erik is a fine horn player and conductor who was playing 3rd on the Mahler. Lawrence and Erik have similarly awe-inspiring knowledge in the non-classical fields of medeval reenactments and studies and rap music respectively.

So, here is my English to English translation.
” we fucking rocked the shit” translates as-
“we excelled magnificently at all the tasks before us.”

“The principal/obbligatoist was Lydia van Dreel from the University of Oregon, and I officially declare her a bad ass”
in English-
“The principal/obbligatoist was Lydia van Dreel from the University of Oregon, and I am now of the opinion that she is an exceptional technician and artist on every level”

“Real easy to play with, too, which is key, because there’s an awful lot of teamwork as a section”
In English
Professor van Dreel is also very easy to play with, which is essential in this work, as the horn writing demands a high degree of teamwork within the horn section.”

“I’m not even going to bother mentioning specific examples of our collective shit-rocking”
In English
“I find it uneccessary and inappropriate to mention specific examples of the moments in the performance that stood out at an exceptional standard.”

“our horn section completely demolished the last several bands that I’d heard do the piece”
in English
“Our horn section outshone those of the last several symphony orchestras I had heard perform Mahler 5.”

So, yes- horns in Mahler 5. Good

For more on my month of horn, see a future blog post

By: Lawrence Yates

Lawrence Yates — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:56:21 +0000

Errmmm….. we have a language problem…….

From the Erick Klackner quote downwards I am unable to discern whether the performance of the horns was good or bad.

By: Erik K

Erik K — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:47:21 +0000

Always a good sign when the conductor affirms your shit-rocking. It would have rather undermined my post had you been like…”meh…”

I must tell you, in reference to the bit about interpretation…I watched the Haitink Kerstmatinees performance of the 5th, and your conception of the piece made more sense to me, even though the Haitink (along with folks like Leinsdorf, Kondrashin, etc.) is (or was) more in line with my own conception to this point. I don’t think that’s 4 days of rehearsal talking…I too would like to go back through the score and reconsider everything I thought I knew, knew I thought, or figured was cool. Cheers on a reading that’s stuck with me, sir.