RIP, Slava

[Maksutov]

Mstislav Rostropovich, one of the greatest cellists and conductors, has died at 80. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/arts/music/27cnd-Rostropovichcnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin) (NY Times registration may be required)

He was an ardent advocate of artistic freedom. His students are too numerous to mention.

I remember his recording of the Dvořák Cello Concerto which I first heard in 1966. It was revelation, especially the concluding cadenza, where Dvořák expressed his love for the woman he held most dear.

Slava was a romantic through and through. He actually got me to listen to some Tchaikovsky and appreciate not only the tunes but the soulfulness of some of the music.

вечные остальные, Slava.

:sad:

[MAPNUT]

Yahoo News also has a pretty comprehensive article. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_en_mu/obit_rostropovich

Not just a great musician but a great man. I saw him interviewed on TV a few years back, and he came across as a lovable, self-effacing little old teddy bear - then you realized that he shook the foundations of Soviet tyranny. I was on a long drive yesterday and had his Dvorak Concerto CD with me among a dozen others - I regret I didn't get around to playing it.

[Maksutov]

Thank you, MAPNUT. Very well put. Nice to see that at least one member here knew who he...was.

[MAPNUT]

I just remembered the part of the interview that made me say "self-effacing". He had just played the Dvorak Concerto, and the interviewer asked him if he found any fault with the piece. He blushed, looked down at his feet, gave a little smile and said, "Who am I to criticize a masterpiece? But . . . if I may . . . in some places the orchestra rather drowns out the cello." So he wasn't really that modest; his complaint was that the score reduced his role as the star! But he was so cute. Although I guess Brezhnev didn't think so.

[Gillianren]

So he wasn't really that modest; his complaint was that the score reduced his role as the star!

In my opinion of the role of a soloist in a concerto, the orchestra drowning out the soloist is a legitimate complaint whether you're the star or not. I don't play cello, but I do play a lot of other instruments, and I've played a concerto or two in my time (though not as soloist!). The soloist is supposed to be the focus; the orchestra is supposed to enhance the performance.

[ToSeek]

Rostropovich did wonders for the classical music scene in the Washington, DC, area in the years he was the musical director of the National Symphony.

[Maksutov]

In my opinion of the role of a soloist in a concerto, the orchestra drowning out the soloist is a legitimate complaint whether you're the star or not. I don't play cello, but I do play a lot of other instruments, and I've played a concerto or two in my time (though not as soloist!). The soloist is supposed to be the focus; the orchestra is supposed to enhance the performance.If the orchestra is drowning out the soloist, it means one or more of typically three things:

1. The orchestration is at that point inappropriate for what the soloist is doing.

2. The conductor is not maintaining the proper balance between the orchestra and the soloist.

3. The soloist is in a bad location.

Re 1., one finds this most often in the Schumann concerti. Schumann was a notoriously bad orchestrator, and there's hardly an orchestral score by him that every conductor hasn't "touched up" in order to make important details audible.

Re 2., this is usually the result of not enough rehearsals. Conducting is a lot like a court case. Most of the hard work is done before the trial. Ditto music, the actual performance is typically a reflection of how well the rehearsals went. Except for rehearsals with Glenn Gould, that is (was).

Re 3., The violin is about the only exception to 2. The sound of solo violins played by virtuosi tends to be like the voice of a dramatic or dramatic coloratura soprano. It will typically pierce through and float above the loudest orchestral tuttis.

Plus the violin soloist is standing. A cellist is seated and needs to be well forward of/apart from the orchestra in order not to blend in with the rest of the strings on occasion, especially the other celli. Many halls have a riser for the cello soloist to be positioned on, allowing for better projection of the sound.

While on the subject of strings, a lot of symphonic music that was written in the first couple decades of the 20th century and almost all of the 19th expected the seating of the violins to be first violins on the left, second violins on the right. Many intentional stereo effects and a lot of polyphonic dialogs between the two violin groups are lost when all the violins are massed to the conductor's left.

The usual excuses for not using the correct seating are the second violins are pointed away from the audience (many players seem to think all the sound comes out the f hole), and it's easy for the director to conduct such a layout. But, the violas are usually the ones who face away in the non-traditional (but way too popular) layout, and if anything, they're the ones that are in need of projecting their sound more than the second violins. And if a conductor has problems with split violins, one wonders what his/her ability is to command the woodwinds and brass, which are typically all over the place by comparison.

I have many recordings where the first and second violins are placed where they should be (the DGG Kubelik Mahler set for instance), and not only is the detail wonderful, but I really don't hear a noticeable change in the volume of the second violins. Of course being hidden behind the first violins means the seconds can get away with many mistakes, which tend to get absorbed into the overly massive string sound that's perhaps OK for Mantovani or Tchaikovsky, but unnatural for most classical orchestral music.

[Maksutov]

Rostropovich did wonders for the classical music scene in the Washington, DC, area in the years he was the musical director of the National Symphony.Some of the local atmosphere apparently rubbed off. I really like the story about his return to Moscow after his citizenship was reinstated, and how, as an encore to a concert, he conducted "The Stars and Stripes Forever". When asked about the reason for his choice of music for the encore, Slava replied (IIRC) "It seemed like the right piece to play."

[Damien Evans]

wow, thats two people who helped take apart the soviet system dead in the same week...

[Maksutov]

wow, thats two people who helped take apart the soviet system dead in the same week...And Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn will 79 in December.

But, on the other hand, could someone be "Putin on the Hitz (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/07/front2454167.261805556.html)"?

:think:

[Gillianren]

Of course being hidden behind the first violins means the seconds can get away with many mistakes, which tend to get absorbed into the overly massive string sound that's perhaps OK for Mantovani or Tchaikovsky, but unnatural for most classical orchestral music.

Well, you know, in the level of orchestra I have the most of experience in, the second violin section is where you dump all the kids who aren't really very good. The first couple of stands are decent-but-not-first-violin-quality, and everyone else is essentially in orchestra because their parents made 'em.

When I was in seventh grade, my junior high school orchestra teacher wrote a double cello concerto, "Variations on a French Carol." Unfortunately, I only ever heard it from the viola section. (First chair!)

[Maksutov]

Well, you know, in the level of orchestra I have the most of experience in, the second violin section is where you dump all the kids who aren't really very good. The first couple of stands are decent-but-not-first-violin-quality, and everyone else is essentially in orchestra because their parents made 'em. Oh yeah, the conductor/babysitter role.

I remember conducting a community orchestra (with many high school/college members) in the first two movements of Beethoven's Seventh. The last two movements I figured were too difficult for the band, especially the Allegro con brio "Hell bent for leather" Finale, which one critic was sure Beethoven wrote while drunk.

I thought the Poco sustenuto opening of the 7th would be a good nerve settler for everyone and the tempo for the ensuing Vivace I took at a rather leisurely pace. Now, this is in A Major, the oboe comes in with A 440 (this was before the later "authentic days" where A would be somewhat lower), everyone should hear A in their heads.

Nope.

One could hear the seconds getting more and more out of tune. The final chord sounded somwhere between A and A Flat.

I apologized to the audience while we took a break to retune for the A Minor Allegretto.

But, same deal.

At least the second violins had nothing to do with the final two measures, which were handled quite admirably by the two oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoon. The first violins did well with their concluding 1/4, 1/4, 1/8, 1/8, 1/2 note figure consisting of C, E, F#, G#, then A. I intentionally signaled the four celli and three double basses to really accent their final As in order to drown out the second violins' A octave, so we sounded more in tune.

We actually got some applause.When I was in seventh grade, my junior high school orchestra teacher wrote a double cello concerto, "Variations on a French Carol." Unfortunately, I only ever heard it from the viola section. (First chair!)Wow! First chair viola! Good for you!

:clap: :clap: :clap:

Ever heard any Vaughan Williams (http://www.okcphilharmonic.org/Default.aspx?p=11736)?

[Gillianren]

Oh yeah, the conductor/babysitter role.

Yeah. Mr. Meyer handled it with a certain panache, but he did take a sabbatical one year--and my high school band teacher was driven from teaching altogether, I think.

I remember conducting a community orchestra (with many high school/college members) in the first two movements of Beethoven's Seventh. The last two movements I figured were too difficult for the band, especially the Allegro con brio "Hell bent for leather" Finale, which one critic was sure Beethoven wrote while drunk.

Manic, surely. Then again, the feel can be much the same. When the community orchestra I was in when I was in eighth grade played Carnegie Hall, we did a theme and variations by Tschaikovksy, in honour of his being the first person to conduct there 100 years to the month earlier. They trimmed a lot of the variations out, because a primarily junior high orchestra just isn't up for 'em. As it was, I didn't in so many words hit every note I was supposed to play, but I made it look like I did, and I played very quietly. (I was not first chair in that orchestra.)

One could hear the seconds getting more and more out of tune. The final chord sounded somwhere between A and A Flat.

I apologized to the audience while we took a break to retune for the A Minor Allegretto.

Bleah! There's nothing worse than almost-but-not-quite in tune, is there?

Wow! First chair viola! Good for you!

Remarkably easy in a junior high school orchestra, of course; I think there were four of us, and I'd been playing longest. Still, I did have enough natural talent and enough hard-earned skill that I would've been in the running for concertmistress, had I played violin. My best friend got it, though.

Ever heard any Vaughan Williams (http://www.okcphilharmonic.org/Default.aspx?p=11736)?

Oh, yes. I've heard a little bit of everything. Mr. Meyer had this thing called "Musician of the Week," which he used to introduce his students to the more interesting byways of classical music or musical theatre. (The week it was Sondheim, we listened to "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd." I have fond memories of Anthony Lewis, one of our bass players, falling off his chair when the steam whistle blew.)