Doublereed Archive - Posting 000013.txt from 2008/05

From: mzeztee <mzeztee@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] On-stage warmups
Date: Fri, 02 May 2008 12:01:07 -0400

Hey Harold,

A collegue of mine toured Europe with an American chamber orchestra.
They started out coming on the stage as they usually did at home. About
half way through the tour, they were told by management that they had to
proceed the "European" way i.e. warm up back stage, come on to the stage
as a group and no warm-up then until the "official" tuning.

It makes NO sense and I think detrimental to the quality of the performance.

I didn't have this experience when I played for a year in orchestras in
Salzburg.

more than 2 cents. . .

B

On 4/28/2008 1:00 PM, HAROLD wrote:
> Hi David
> Thanks for that...courage is needed.Spoke yesterday to the
> Maestrina(woman conductor ) about this problem and she has now
> allowed the oboes and bassoons and maybe even clars to come onstage
> prior to the others entering.
> Maybe we should stage an around the world protest onstage by double
> reed players who will only be removed from warming up by helmeted
> police armed with machine guns?
> If I could only buy all these idiots who think musicians are actors an
> airticket to watch and hear the NYPhil, they would all change their
> minds quickly. There are actually audience goers--like myself--who
> arrive early at their seat to watch and enjoy watching musicians
> warming up!
>
> Best,
>
> Harold Emert
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lurie" <> Hi Harold
>>
>> This is a subject I am quite familiar with. When I got my current job
>> in NJ with the Bergen Philharmonic Orch, they used that same
>> practice: the players would warm up in one room, then on command
>> would all march single file through a cold corridor in a military
>> manner on to the stage then take their places in silence, and not
>> play until the concertmaster arrived and gave the signal to tune.
>> Naturally, at that point the intonation was horribly screwed up.
>>
>> The first time I observed this happening was at a concert of the
>> Moscow Philharmonic in Rochester, NY, where the musicians marched on
>> stage in single file, and in a military manner. At the time, I
>> thought, oh well, what can you expect from an authoritarian and
>> dictatorial society? So I just forgot about it, until I got into the
>> Bergen orchestra.
>>
>> At first, I objected strenuously to that whole procedure, but was
>> told that it was "the professional way" for an orchestra to enter the
>> stage and then tune. There was a businessman president of the board
>> of directors who had instituted the policy, but obviously he knew
>> nothing about what tuning was all about. This guy insisted that every
>> professional orchestra does it that way, and therefore he was right
>> about it, and wouldn't change the policy. When I told him that I had
>> just attended a NY Philharmonic concert and they didn't do it that
>> way, he merely grumbled something inaudible, then turned away and
>> ended the conversation. That was that.
>>
>> Luckily, this guy's term of office was up that year, after which I
>> was able to persuade them to let every one warm up on the stage.
>>
>> David
>>
>
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