orchestra21

Anne Midgette of the Washington Post drops a heavy truth about the classical music business.

The quote comes from her review of a recent Bernstein-focused program at the NSO in which she notes that the composer is the subject of constant derision within so-called serious music circles because his music fails to ‘represent the kind of faux refinement in which classical music has come to traffic.’ Tellingly – and damningly for the art music establishment – that quality is precisely what makes his music so essential.

In 1954 Leonard Bernstein made his first Omnibus television appearance, illuminating the inner workings of Beethoven’s creative process through a mixed-media demonstration of the composer’s sketches for the Fifth Symphony. It boggles my mind that over half a century later orchestras are still reluctant to try approaches like this on our so-called ‘classical’ concert series. Not so at the WCFSO – we’ll be using Bernstein’s approach as inspiration for our unique presentation of Beethoven 5 on Saturday.

Look ma, no hands!

‘We are in Vienna,’ imagines NPR’s Robert Krulwich. ‘Leonard Bernstein is on the podium. The Vienna Philharmonic is on the stage, Haydn’s Symphony no. 88 is in the air, and our question is: Where are Bernstein’s hands?  Why isn’t he using his hands? He’s moving nothing – except his face.’

Replies Ezra Block: ‘My friend George Steel, Director of the New York City Opera, calls this technique ‘eyebrows only,’ though as you can see, his chin is working, his eyes are darting, his mouth is up, down. He’s liking, noticing, saying thank you using only his face muscles.

Believe it or not this works. Gustav Meier, one of my mentors and Leonard Bernstein’s teaching partner at Tanglewood, often has his students place hands in pockets while leading particular passages in coaching sessions. Invariably things sound better in response – the human face, as Ezra Block notes, communicates engagement and involvement far more effectively than our hands ever could.

But there is more going on here. When conductors rein in the frequently distracting histrionics of gyrating arms and whipping batons and instead work harder to internalize sound – ’being’ the music rather than ‘doing’ it – we encourage a much greater focus within the ensemble on the act of listening. And that, if I’m not mistaken, is our job.

So apparently the New York Philharmonic is on Tumblr. Nice – I can finally upgrade this scan [from the actual paper edition of the New York Times] of Leonard Bernstein’s title page enhancement to his Mahler 6 score.

[via nyphil]