£<\/span>12.00<\/bdi><\/span><\/span>\n<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\nHowever, internationally recognized conducting coach and performance guru Rheinhold Zudick believes that age is not always the prime reason for a mid-career decline in skills, and that becoming nearly-washed-up is more likely the result \u201cof a combination of factors to do with time management, repertoire fatigue and waning motivation. Maintaining a world class conducting technique takes constant practice\u2014it\u2019s like training for an Olympic event for your entire life. I would think that von Bohyarti, like many middle-aged athletes and musicians, struggles to find the will to continue to spend the necessary eight hours a day practicing his beat patterns in front of a mirror. But you remember what Fritz Reiner said- \u201cless than eight hours a day in front of the mirror and I know something is wrong, less than seven hours a day in front of the mirror and the critics know something is wrong, and less that six hours a day in front of the mirror, and the public know something is wrong.” If you want to stay at the top, you’ve got to keep climbing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns were raised as to whether von Bohyarti might be nearly-washed-up following a performance of La Mer with the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris Sud which critics slammed as being \u201cvery nearly flawless and enchanting, beautifully balanced and shaped, but just lacking that last tiny bit of effervescent sparkle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEet ees true, Chef Bohyarti did struugelle a beet in zi Debussy,\u201d said OSPS general manager Pierre de l\u2019\u00c9gout. \u201cBeing unable to deliver zee last tiny beet of effervescent sparkle is often a sign that a conducteur is becoming almost neerly-washed-oop.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York-based mega-agent Donald Wontford, who has represented Bohyarti since the glory days of his integral Havergal Brian cycle for Deutsche Grammophon in the 1970\u2019s, firmly denied\u00a0implications that his client\u2019s conducting skills were eroding. \u201cI reject absolutely the suggestion that Robert is approaching becoming almost nearly-washed-up as a conductor. Yes, it\u2019s true he had some struggles with his four pattern recently, but all conductors do at some point. His three pattern remains one of the best in the industry, and I saw him do some cutoffs earlier this year that were as good as I\u2019ve come across in 90 years running this company from my bomb-proof underground bunker.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about being nearly-washed-up\u201d, said Wontford, \u201cit\u2019s about a need for new challenges and personal growth, and it started with Robert\u2019s aspiration to grow as an artist, not as a result of widespread critical concerns about his handling of tempo changes in Beethoven symphonies, or worries that his hair flips are not what they once were.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bohyarti said his dream of becoming a solo violinist was born almost by accident. \u201cI came home late one night from a concert. I was tired and maybe had a few glasses of champagne at the reception, so I turned on the television to wind down. You never know what you\u2019ll see on in the wee hours of the night. Anyway, there was this fascinating documentary about how the actor John Malkovich, who I really loved in that movie about the jewel thief, decided in mid career to become\u00a0 a puppeteer without any prior training. I thought that was just so inspiring, and so I called Donald the next morning and said I wanted to be a solo violinist, and next month I\u2019m playing my first Bruch Concerto with the Dallas Philharmonic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bohyarti dismissed concerns that his lack of violin training might limit his success as a violin soloist. \u201cThere are so many similarities- that’s why so many nearly-washed-up solo violinists become conductors. Any good violinist will tell you that all the sound comes from the right arm, which moves in a very similar way to a baton. It’s just that on the violin, it’s so much simpler- they only have to move the right arm back and forth from side to side. Just two directions, where a conductor has to master four: down, in, out and up! I’m finding it so liberating to simplify and focus on just two dimensions after so many years of being a four dimensional musician.”<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve conducted an orchestra with one of the great violin sections in the world for over 20 years, and I\u2019ve worked with every great violin soloist of the last two generations. I\u2019ve watched them all very carefully to see which hand the bow goes in, what side of the face the violin goes on, everything. I think I know more about violin playing than a lot of these young kids out of Curtis and Juilliard! They may have the chops, but they haven\u2019t lived with the repertoire- I\u2019ve conducted the Brahms Violin Concerto dozens of times, and to do that, I had to learn about twenty different orchestral parts. The solo violinist only has to play one part!\u201d<\/p>\n
In spite of his confidence, von Bohyarti says he\u2019s been treating his new career with all due seriousness of purpose. \u201cI\u2019ve always been an autodidact. I couldn\u2019t see the point of going for a lesson with some loser violin professor at Eastman who makes less in a year than I make in a night. I\u2019ve taught conducting all over the world, so I\u2019m teaching myself violin the same way I would teach a young conductor to conduct. I’ve carefully marked up the solo part of the Bruch as I would prepare a Brahms symphony. Green highlighter for first finger notes, yellow for second, blue for third and red for fourth finger- to signal danger!\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve also been watching tons of YouTube videos. That\u2019s the foundation on which great musicianship is built. You\u2019ve got to study how the great violinists get the music across. I must have spent five hundred hours just watching Horst Herdenglocke\u00a0videos. Of course, he sounds good, but he’s such a great communicator. I\u2019ve conducted Horst many times, and to me, he\u2019s the Carlos Kleiber of violinists. But I love all the modern players- they\u2019re all so visually exciting to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting to study how violin technique has improved so much since the invention of film and video. The older generation like Oistrakh, Milstein and Heifitz just sort of stood still and played. It\u2019s so primitive. Today, almost every violinist I work with has the most incredible moves. I look at the way they swim their upper bodies, walk around, shake their heads and toss their hair and I just think “that is the essence of great musicianship.”\u201d<\/p>\n
With just over a month until his solo debut, von Bohyarti could hardly contain his enthusiasm: \u201cI feel bad for young violinists, having to go out on the circuit with all these horrible regional orchestras. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure my ears could cope with working with orchestras like that– I’m used to working with the best. I\u2019m so glad that my success as a conductor means I can start at the top with a really great orchestra like the Dallas Philharmonic. My Strad arrives on Tuesday, and that gives me well over two and a half weeks to translate everything I\u2019ve worked on studying YouTube videos into a really great performance of the Bruch Violin Concerto. I really can\u2019t wait.”<\/p>\n
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