It is already the 5th day of the master class, but it took me this long to
find an internet cafe where I can type with a normal speed and do not have to
yield some Hungarian special keys on the keyboard... So, I am in Budapest and
having a great time, working evenings with pianists and mornings with the
"Liszt - Wagner" orchestra. I have taken some photos, but have to wait until I
get to Finland to add them here. But you know, it is the usual stuff - someone
conducting an orchestra or two pianos, the professor from back, the professor
from side etc. etc. Someone eating or drinking, or a view from a lake... Yes,
tomorrow we are actually going to have a free evening at some lake! But now to
the actual masterclass stuff which for sure will interest some conducting
students.
Day 1: We saw maestro Simonov run through the whole master class repertoire
with the Wagner-Liszt orchestra. That alone was a sight to see! He was
following a pre-planned schedule to the minute! So he must have calculated the
lenght of all the pieces in his tempo, and also planned which pieces are so
hard that it is worth playing them through twice. His way of conducting was
quite hectic, but he explained us later that he was showing a huge amount of
information especially for this purpose, so that he would not need to stop and
explain something.
The opening ceremony
Day 2: We had a small lunch and an opening ceremony of the master class.
Maestro Simonov told us very proudly that it is already his 9th master class in
Hungary, which is his favorite country in the world. I learned that more than
half of the participants had done the master class several times. We also drew
lots for the beginning of the piano sessions and I drew the first one! So I had
to retire early from the lunch, just to prepare myself a little.
Cyril and Maja
So I had to start the piano session with the Bizet symphony, which I luckily
had studied for a competition last year. At the piano we had four pianists and
a brilliant arrangement of the work for eight hands - by Igor, one of the
master class participants! It was a useful lesson, and the professor was not as
tough on me as I had feared. He mostly is worried about very basic things like
your standing posture, the working level of your hands etc. But he scolded me
for having library scores which I am afraid to fill with markings! After the
lesson he showed me his scores which have a logical and complete system of
marking.
Christian joins the percussion section
Day 3: Our first orchestra session. The time tables are so tight that in
fact there is no time to rehearse. We just run the pieces through to make sure
that what we learned in the piano class is a valid and working way to conduct
the orchestra. Only if something goes really wrong does the professor stop and
help us out.
Gregory conducts Kodaly
It was 10 o-clock in the morning and I was the first one to face the sleepy
orchestra, but I think everything went fairly well with the two first movements
of the Bizet symphony. After that I listened to everyone else. The 17 active
participants are all different ages and at different stages of their
development. It is marvelous to listen and watch how every person creates
(voluntarily or unvoluntarily) a different sound with the orchestra!
Maestro shows György example
In the evening we had another session of the same pieces with the pianists.
The idea is to always work the new pieces with pianists before you go to the
orchestra the next day.
Day 4: We had our second orchestra rehearsal with Bizet and Kodaly pieces.
In the afternoon we started to work on the overtures by Mozart, Cimarosa,
Rossini, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn.
BFO at the Palace of Music
Maestro Andras Schiff
Christian, Huba and Heikki getting inspired by a dead
fish
Returning from the swim
Wine tasting...
Maestro Simonov performing a joke