OK InterWeb, I apologize for constantly harping on this orchestra thing (harping, orchestra... heh heh, I make me laugh), but I love the guest conductor for this concert more than Diet Coke! He is all kinds of amusement. My only regret is that as a violinist, I gotsa lotta notes to play, so I couldn't write down all the funny things he said during the rehearsal last night and by the end, I'd forgotten most of the quotable quotes. (Oh, to be a percussionist or a low brass player and have hundreds of bars of rests to count thorugh and nothing to do until I play those three bars of repeated sixteenth notes in the middle of the last movement... wait... maybe not.)
Here are a few that I do remember:
"Now this whole concerto is very difficult to work out with the pianist and it's hard to keep together because the emphasis is not always on the downbeat. So my advice to you is to watch closely, count like mad and try very, very hard not to listen to the soloist."
"This piece is supposed to be champagne... and you're playing it like it's Bach Beer."
"You know, sometimes with these rental parts, you see markings the previous orchestra put in that make no sense at all. And you're like 'How did they play it like that? That's not how it's meant to be done!' It's like the last group that used this was an orchestra of tomcats!"
...and my favorite:
"I don't know how many people here know the story of this opera, but here's the thing about Wagner: Wagner loved to celebrate the untrained genius... because that's what he thought he was, you see? So throughout all of Wagner's works, you find this theme. Even Siegfried... because you know... Siegfried was a... a... you know a..."
violinist in the back of the section, "A doofus?"
"Yes!! A doofus!"
Here are a few that I do remember:
"Now this whole concerto is very difficult to work out with the pianist and it's hard to keep together because the emphasis is not always on the downbeat. So my advice to you is to watch closely, count like mad and try very, very hard not to listen to the soloist."
"This piece is supposed to be champagne... and you're playing it like it's Bach Beer."
"You know, sometimes with these rental parts, you see markings the previous orchestra put in that make no sense at all. And you're like 'How did they play it like that? That's not how it's meant to be done!' It's like the last group that used this was an orchestra of tomcats!"
...and my favorite:
"I don't know how many people here know the story of this opera, but here's the thing about Wagner: Wagner loved to celebrate the untrained genius... because that's what he thought he was, you see? So throughout all of Wagner's works, you find this theme. Even Siegfried... because you know... Siegfried was a... a... you know a..."
violinist in the back of the section, "A doofus?"
"Yes!! A doofus!"
Siegfried Doofus Idyll
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February 1, 2007 at 3:17 PM
Since a couple of people have already asked... let's just be clear about the title of this post. It's a reference to Wagner's Ring Cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_cycle) and not necessarily an homage to J.R.R. Tolkien. But really... think what you want.