Well, my week at Round Top has been going by much too fast. This Texas Festival Orchestra is a marvelous group, one of the best they\u2019ve ever had here, if not the best, and I\u2019ve enjoyed rehearsals immensely.<\/p>\n
I remember many years ago hearing Ivan Fischer, who I admire a lot, talking about the early years of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. As the orchestra was evolving into a full-time group, and one of the best orchestras in the world, people began to ask if they should chose a more permanent name. Ivan and his colleagues decided that the original name would serve as a reminder to avoid routine, and that all concerts are, in their own ways, festive.<\/p>\n
With such a good group and such good working conditions we\u2019ve been able to do a lot the kind of work the regular professional bands don\u2019t have time for, and that conservatory orchestras often don\u2019t have the patience for. I hope I haven\u2019t tuned too many chords this week for everyone\u2019s patience, but when you get out in the world and have to fight to make concerts happen amidst all kinds of budget restrictions, you learn to take advantage of opportunities to do the best work you can. Here we have time, talent, facilities and atmosphere- it\u2019s not to be wasted.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been lovely to revisit Appalachian Spring, which I first conducted here about 15 years ago. Over so many performances since then I\u2019ve learned to predict with pretty high degrees of certainty where the problems will be- there\u2019s the spot the violas might miscount or the place that rushes for everyone or the spot where the violins are way too loud.<\/p>\n
However, if the problems become known, there are always undiscovered beauties and miracles in such a piece. I found something today- just a little color thing- in a swell in the coda that for all that it looks like nothing on the page really made a chill. It\u2019ll be fun to teach the piece later this month with it so fresh in my mind.<\/p>\n
One piece I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll be doing anytime soon at the workshop is the Barber Adagio for strings, which opens the concert. I can\u2019t really think of a work that is more of a challenge to conduct, because in the end, conducting doesn\u2019t serve the music very well, and yet, the piece doesn\u2019t quite reach the same heights without a conductor as it can with. Next time I become MD of a new orchestra, it\u2019ll be an important project to do together, alongside a lot of Haydn and Beethoven. In addition to being a wonderful piece, it is a great etude for the orchestra in playing like a chamber ensemble, breathing and listening to sound- when that happens, the most incredible things are possible.<\/p>\n
Also on the program is Jennifer Higdon\u2019s Soprano Saxophone Concerto, which has also been fun to put together. I have a feeling the audience will love it- there\u2019s a lovely pastoral\u00a0vibe going through the piece as well as some humor. Certainly not easy to play, though! There’s one first violin lick that would make a fiendish sight-reading excercise for a sadistic audition committee somewhere…..<\/p>\n