It probably won\u2019t surprise too many readers to learn that on the relatively rare occasion I get to sit down and veg out with the television, I\u2019m as likely to watch cooking shows as anything.<\/p>\n
Given that, I should start today by saying a sincere \u201crest in peace\u201d to cooking show legend, Keith Floyd, who died today. I loved his humor, his unapologetic attitude to his many vices and thought his food always looked great.<\/p>\n
My favorite current show is Masterchef. The current season is focusing not on talented amateurs or celebrities but on aspiring professional chefs. The culmination of each round is a challenge to cook not a personal favorite, but a classic recipe. Today\u2019s was fillet of beef in b\u00e9arnaise sauce. I\u2019ve been working on this dish ever since I encountered Merlin\u2019s Tournados of Beef Henri IV at Foley Station in La Grande, Oregon, USA. It’s a dish worth flying to America and driving across the desert for.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I think this is a good test of professionalism- the ability to not only execute one\u2019s party pieces but any acknowledged classic.<\/p>\n
We know that this standard applies to orchestral musicians- you can\u2019t get a job unless you can play excerpts by Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Shostakovich and who knows what else with technical polish and a fundamental understanding of musical style.<\/p>\n
Does the same apply to conductors?<\/p>\n
I wondered this the other day while listening to a truly atrocious performance of Beethoven 9 on the radio. Beethoven 9 is a bit like fillet of beef in b\u00e9arnaise sauce- a bit over the top for every day consumption, but something every serious\u00a0chef should be able to execute to perfection (note the pun of the word \u201cchef,\u201d). I\u2019d say that I\u2019ve heard more disastrously bad performances of Beethoven 9 than of any other standard repertoire piece. Sometimes it\u2019s just to much for the singers, but most often, it\u2019s too much for the conductor, who seems to be trying out a bunch of ideas \u00a0lifted from recordings (if they\u2019ve even gotten that deeply into the piece) rather than really having made a deep analysis of the whole work. I can’t tell you how many awful Beethoven 9’s I’ve heard in recent years.<\/p>\n
These days, it seems that Beethoven symphonies are no longer the works that launch a career. If you look at the elite levels of the business, there aren\u2019t many folks whose names you associate immediately with great Beethoven. \u00a0Mahler, Stravinsky and Bernstein is the music that makes careers now.<\/p>\n
I suppose making a big impression with a splashy piece is all well and good, but a splashy piece with an overpowering orchestral sound can carry a conductor a long way beyond what she or he might be able to achieve in more understated and more well-traveled repertoire.<\/p>\n
Shouldn\u2019t we all have to be up to the classics if we\u2019re going to be their caretakers and their advocates?<\/p>\n