Sun Valley Serenade Part 3: Definitely Not Chopped Liver

Published on September 9, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

You might be forgiven for thinking that the rest of the festival was something of an anticlimax following the 3 ring circus of the first couple of days. Not so. There are way too many exciting memories and not nearly enough room to chronicle them here, but suffice it to say that conducting 16 top-class horn players in “Bohemian Rhapsody” is not something I’m likely to forget in a hurry. Nor is the total rush of doing my first Alpine Symphony with a picture perfect backdrop of the real thing in plain view. I think orchestra musicians have a special soft spot for Strauss–I know I do–in part because  it’s incredibly satisfying to play. Everyone gets stuff to do and look good in the process: it’s like having a great designer dress you for the Oscars (or so I imagine). Anyway, because of its oversized budgetary demands, the Alpine Symphony doesn’t get performed much outside of the top tier orchestras, and even then only once every ten years or so. Not surprisingly everyone was pretty stoked to have the chance to play it, and the fact that the piece had probably never been played in such a matchlessly appropriate setting was not lost on anyone either. We had the luxury of two rehearsals for this one (anything less would have been pure folly; in addition to the fact that it’s a comparative rarity, it’s also very difficult to play) and at the end of the day all the hard work paid off. I gave a lengthy pre-performance explanation to the audience so that they could have an idea of where the various landmarks could be found over the course of the 52-minute journey, which in retrospect was a good idea: I got a lot of appreciative comments afterwards about that.

Other highlights? Well, I already made an allusion to Bohemian Rhapsody. That little piece of meshuggas came about as a by-product of the Alpine Symphony, which technically requires no fewer than 16 horns to perform. The SVSS principal horn, Bill VerMeulen suggested to me a couple of years ago that it would be a great idea to feature this gargantuan horn section in a separate concert of their own. And thus was born–Hornucopia, easily the most excessively wild of the the many wild excesses I have been party to in the 16 years I’ve been in Sun Valley. Bill, who is principal of the Houston Symphony back in the real world, assembled an impressive A-list of horn players from all over the country and we let them loose on a fabulously over-the-top romp through a mixture of some great orchestral classics (the overtures to Roman Carnival and Ruslan and Ludmilla) and popular favorites (the aforementioned Rhapsody, Danny Boy and my personal favorite, Tico-Tico) arranged for anywhere between 8 and 16 horns. No fewer than 4000 people–count ‘em, 4000–flocked to the ringside and, if I do say so myself, a good time was had by all.
Let’s see, what else? Emanuel Ax came for the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto, which was great. The orchestra did a butt-kickingly good Symphonie Fantastique on a grand total of 2 hours’ rehearsal (trust me, I was counting). And thanks to the newly installed jumbo screen, the audience on the lawn was bigger and more engaged than ever. Apparently we averaged more than 800 people more per night than last year– that’s 800 people MORE, not just 800 people. So I think we are now starting to see the full implications of what this amazing Pavilion has meant to the orchestra and the community at large. Onward and upward!

I’m back in San Francisco now, having had a chance to catch a breath or two. Next stop Miami, where the season in New World is about to start. Should be fun…

Sun Valley Serenade, Part 2: Friends in High (and Low) Places

Published on August 15, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’m coming up for air today in the midst of a two-day hiatus in Sun Valley.  The season here  got off to a roaring start last week with a one-two punch of guest appearances by Garth Brooks followed by Itzhak Perlman, and people are still talking about it.

When we finally got confirmation a few months ago that Garth was coming to Sun Valley,  I called my Dad back in Edinburgh to tell him the news.  My father is a highly intelligent, literate man whose knowledge of pop culture is, shall we say, less than encyclopedic.  “So we have a big-time star coming for the benefit this year, Dad”, I explained. “He’s this country singer who’s sold more CDs than Michael Jackson and The Beatles, so it’s a huge deal for us.  His name is Garth Brooks: I don’t suppose you’ve heard of him, have you?”  “No”, he conceded, adding brightly “but I’ve heard of Darth Vader”.

Well, let’s just say that Garth is the polar opposite of Darth: humble  and generous to a fault, seemingly without a trace of ego or vanity.  Most of the show was just him and his guitar–like the show he’s currently doing in Vegas–but for the last half hour or so the Symphony and I joined him on stage for a series of his best hits specially arranged for him with orchestral accompaniment.  Standing Outside the Fire, The Dance, and of course Friends in Low Places.  Everything went incredibly smoothly: the charts were clear and uncomplicated, and the crowd ate it all up with gusto.  They got a surprise bonus when halfway through the show Garth brought out Trisha Yearwood (that’s his wife for all you non-country aficionados) for a couple of numbers. After the last songs the crowd wouldn’t let us go, so with Garth and I offstage in the wings here’s what happened next:

AN: Hey Garth, you gotta do an encore, man.

GB: Sure, here’s an idea: I’ll do Piano Man and half way through I’ll call you onstage for another verse and then we’ll get the crowd to join in!

AN: But I don’t (GB bounds out onstage; AN trails off) know Piano Man at all……

Cue hilarious laughter from Trisha, who couldn’t believe that there’s anyone alive who doesn’t know the words to Piano Man.  But, in a valiant race against time, she gamely attempted to teach me some of the words before her husband called me out for a duet.  No dice.  Fake City, population one.  No-one seemed to notice or care, and I’m sure that the hoots and snickers from the orchestra were entirely unrelated.

One of us knows the words. Can you guess who?

All's well that ends well

The next night was similarly super-charged but with a very different slant to it.  Itzhak Perlman is one of a handful of classical musicians (I figure no more than 5, tops) who really is a household name, so there was a tremendous amount of excitement building up to his appearance on opening night.  (The benefit concert, the one show for which we charge admission, doesn’t count as part of the regular season) The Pavilion itself was full to its capacity of 1600 seats, needless to say, and the lawn outside was bursting with 4500 more people, which was fantastic.  We’d brought in a huge jumbo screen for these first two concerts in anticipation of extra-large crowds, and the reaction from the folks on the lawn, who could now see close-ups of the stage from 3 different camera angles, was so overwhelmingly positive that it was decided (at not inconsiderable expense to the Symphony–thank you SVSS Board!) to keep the screen for the rest of the season.  The standing ovation that greeted Itzhak’s arrival seemed to take him by surprise and genuinely touch him.  He went on to deliver a beautiful and sensitive account of the Bruch Concerto and as an encore did the theme from “Schindler’s List”, which was really special.

With Itzhak and SVSS Concertmaster Jeremy Constant

It’s easy to forget that Perlman really is a living legend in the world of classical music and what a privilege it is to share the stage with him.  Cliched as it might sound it was truly a night I’ll never forget.

Sun Valley Serenade, Part 1

Published on July 27, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Welcome to my new blog!  I hope you enjoy the random musings that I plan on posting from time to time.  This first one comes to you from Sun Valley, Idaho–quite possibly my favorite place on the planet–where I’m about to start this year’s festival of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.  Every year for the past 16 years I’ve been coming up here and taking part in a fantastic music festival that has grown and grown and grown and now is one of the largest (the largest?) free-admission orchestras in the country.  Two years ago we inaugurated the Sun Valley Pavilion, an amazing facility that sounds as good as it looks (check out some beautiful pics as well as the Symphony’s website at www.svsummersymphony.org) .  The orchestra is comprised of some of the best players in the country and beyond, and everyone is always super-excited to come here.  I come up a week or two early, in part to take advantage of the perfect weather and drop-dead gorgeous scenery, but also to give myself some quality prep time in advance of an insane schedule: 10 programs over 16 days, each about an hour long without intermission, all but one done on a single rehearsal. Phew.  It’s exhilirating, but it sometimes feels like you’ve gotten on a roller coaster ride that somehow you shouldn’t have (yes, I know that’s the playbook for John Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine, but it works for me as much as it does for John.  So there.).  Fortunately the orchestra is like a national all-star team (I’m told this has something to do with baseball) so they’re able to take it all in their stride, only occasionally breaking into a sweat.

In the week before the band gets into town there are 3 chamber music concerts featuring members of the orchestra and guest artists.  Last night I went to the first one of those, which included a terrific performance of the Brahms G Minor Piano Quartet, a piece I really love.  Try as I might, I’ve never been convinced by the orchestration that Schoenberg made of it–even after hearing a great performance by the Berlin Phil and Rattle last fall–so it was good to hear it in the original recipe.   In Schoenberg’s take there are some neat bits here and there and a few lovely moments in the yummy slow movement, but as a whole the piano writing just doesn’t translate that well.  The clincher for me is in the last movement when a xylophone strays unannounced onto the premises.  Hello Looney Tunes, goodbye Brahms!  Shai Wosner, the excellent pianist in last night’s performance, told me that Schoenberg apparently did it to earn a buck or two, and who am I to argue with that?  Some piano pieces seem to cry out for orchestration (anything that Ravel did of his own, plus some nifty arrangements by Percy Granger), and some just don’t quite work at the end of the day.  I think this is one.

By the way, the title of this post (as anyone from Sun Valley reading this will know) refers to a 1941 movie starring Sonja Henie and featuring the Glenn Miller Orchestra.  One of the movie’s signature numbers is called “It Happened in Sun Valley” and is sort of an unofficial anthem for the town.  So now you know.  More exploits to follow, including the super-duper A-listy beginning of the festival next week, with Garth Brooks (yes, really) and Itzhak Perlman as a pretty impressive one-two opening punch…..