G.P.

At 0:40 in the above clip Willi Boskovsky, the long-time concertmaster of Wiener Philharmoniker, speaks about working with the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler and how difficult it was to start a piece with him. Furtwängler was renowned for his unconventional (at that time) style of conducting, which in fact was the result of a long and consciouss process. Furtwängler writes:

"Many spectators, accustomed to the usual technique taught at conservatories, do not understand my gestures. They call them uclear, and go so far as to assert, that I engage in 'camouflage'. Recently a critic wrote about a concert of mine with the Vienna Philharmonic: 'With the unclear gestures of the conductor, it is impossible to understand how the orchestra could achieve such flawless ensemble playing. There is only one solution to the puzzle: endless rehearsals.' No, that is precisely not the solution. My rehearsals do not exceed the customary number and hardly touch on questions of technique, that is, of precision. This very precision is much more the natural consequence of my 'unclear' conducting. That this unclear conducting is not unclear after all, is shown by the fact that the instrument functions with flawless precision. It is, so to speak, the acid test."

As Boskovski notes, Furtwängler "never beat time clearly". But in the above clip we see that his gesture is pretty obvious! Not "beating time" as such, but "taking the sound" from the orchestra. Also, see how he sacrifices the 3-pattern for the constant flow of the quarter-notes. Later Herbert von Karajan often made the same decision - to forget the awkward beat pattern which sometimes gets on the way of the music.

Also, see in the ending of Brahms' finale, the exciting wiggle of Furtwängler's baton - which goes against all the rules learned in the conducting class. "It does not help" is the usual critizism. But it depends on what you want to help, really. It sure might make a difference!

Here is one of the most perfect examples of a good, varied and virtuosic conducting technique. I have posted this clip before, but just watch how almost every gesture of Herbert von Karajan is corresponding with the sounding result! When Karajan was making his mark as a touring maestro, one music critic wrote that he represents a "modern" way of conducting - not beating down, but encouraging the orchestra with movements that resemble hushing away a flock of geese!

I recommend watching this rehearsal in its entirety to everyone even remotely interested in conducting technique. Here you can see in the very beginning, how the first preparatory beat comes in various forms and even various tempos, which sometimes do not bear any relation to the tempo of the continuation. It is not to say that the tempo of the upbeat does not matter - just here it obviously serves a different function, a function of setting the mood, preparing the sound and breathing...

To round up my introduction to this fascinating topic, I selected two clips of Don Giovanni overture, the first one conducted by Wilhem Furtwängler, the second one by Herbert von Karajan. Furtwängler's performance starts with his (in)famous delayed upbeat, which Valery Gergiev has completely adopted into his conducting style (!). Karajan shows in turn a beautiful example of moulding and shaping the music instead of beating time. No doubt he would be a subject of many a complaint if he had conducted like that a hundred years ago! To me it is fascinating how some orchestras still prefer a traffic police to an artist, but that only tells how rare good artists with polished technique still are. Many players are simply not used to see the conductor do what he is paid to do and not merely keep the orchestra together, which many times would be much easier without a conductor disturbing the flow of music.

Me and violin soloist Anna Lee at the dress rehearsal before our Shostakovich concert in Aspen (photo Laura Mirahver)

This has been one of the busiest summers in my life, and thus I have not been able to update my blog, sorry! Anyway, the concerts at the Viola Congress in Stellenbosch were awesome and we had really good time after one of the toughest weeks of my life conducting-wise.

After our last rehearsal in Stellenbosch, with concert master Suzanne, principal flute Helen and principal cello Peter

After the festival I was right away re-invited to conduct at the 39th International Viola Congress in Dresden, Germany, as well as guest conduct the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in South Africa, so I guess I was not the only one thinking the concerts went well! Thanks goes of course to the wonderful musicians in the congress orchestra. It was a pleasure working with you!

Me and Steve at Piccadilly Circus

I had no time for sight seeing South Africa this time since I had to fly back to Aspen immediately after our last concert to catch up what was going on at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. I had an 8-hour layover in London so I actually got out of the airport and had a cup of tea with my British friend Steve whom I met last year in Manchester.

Aspen as seen from the Aspen Mountain

In Aspen the program was busy as ever. I definitely got my dose of cello for a couple of years this summer! Everyone else in AACA orchestra seemed pretty exhausted as well. During the last three weeks there were three more concerts of our own, an opera masterclass with a public performance, a repertoire reading, and a composer reading. In the middle of this turmoil I tried very hard to gather an ensemble to perform Mendelssohn's "Scottish" symphony, but in the end I was happy to conduct just one reading of it (thanks guys!!!).

The amazing AACA orchestra (photo by Laura)

I must say I was amazed until the very end how great players we had in AACA. Even when we felt there is not enough rehearsal and we felt frustrated while playing, when I listened to the concerts afterwards we sounded awesome! This orchestra really held up the standard during the whole 9 weeks of hard labour! And I must repeat that I have never enjoyed playing cello in the section as much as this summer! All the cellists were both good orchestra musicians and great guys and gals as well.

Asher Fisch teaching opera masterclass at the Wheeler Opera House

Another highly positive experience was following the Opera masterclass by Asher Fisch. He was no doubt the best teacher this summer! He was genuinely interested in helping the young musicians, and he had such a vast knowledge about how things work in opera (especially Italian opera). I was really sad that I had no chance to conduct anything for him!

Going overtime... again?

The AACA program is undoubtedly among the best conducting summer academies in the world, but it of course could be better. A lot better in fact, with the amount of money some generous American folks have pumped into it! Just to mention one thing - I mostly hung out with the orchestra musicians during the festival, and practically all of them complained about the fact that there is no proper rehearsal going on, since the orchestra has to repeat and repeat for the sake of fixing the conductors' mistakes. And, on the other hand the orchestra had to sit idle for long periods because some of our teachers started waxing lyrical about totally insignificant matters thus wasting everyone's time! The timing of the rehearsals was an absolute disaster most of the time, and many times we ran overtime which should never happen if you respect the professionalism of the musicians. In my opinion our teachers (all of them!) should try to give us a good example of how to run an efficient orchestra rehearsal - but obviously Aspen is not the place to learn that!

The majestic Maroon Bells... A sight to remember for the rest of your life!

Aspen was really a memorable experience in both good and bad. Most I will miss all my new friends and colleagues in AACA. We will never play again together as an orchestra, and that is kind of sad! We will probably run across each other individually, since most of you guys will find your way in some good orchestra, and hopefully I will conduct some of those orchestras some day! The beautiful nature of Colorado is another thing to miss. The hikes to Aspen Mountain and Maroon Bells were among absolute highlights of the summer for me!

Thanks everyone for an unforgettable summer! Hope to see you again some day!