Klarinet Archive - Posting 000162.txt from 1999/10

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 09:16:33 -0400

Last evening, I watched on PBS the concert by the Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra playing the music of Richard Strauss in the opening concert of
the season at Carnegie Hall, with Loren Maazel conducting. I must say I
found several things about it disturbing. First, none of my
dissatisfaction relates at all the the orchestra or the individual
players; quite the contrary, they were excellent. I love this orchestra
and their sound as exemplified on recordings. Tonight was a different
matter.

First, I thought the video direction was atrocious. The music would go on
for long periods of time when interesting things were happening in the
orchestra, and the cameras remained fixed on the conductor. At times it
seemed that every camera was focused on Maazel, the only difference being
the angle at which he was viewed. This was especially ironic, as it was
abundantly clear after 20 measures or so that the conductor could do
anything he wanted, but the orchestra was not going to follow him. This
orchestra was conducted many times over a period of several decades by
Strauss, whose music they were playing. They think that they "own" this
music, and that they know better than anyone else how it should be played.
And, they seemed to be determined to play it in their own way. To focus
so single-mindedly on the conductor indicated clearly that the director or
whoever wrote the camera script know practically nothing about music.

There were several precision problems in the opening of the "Also Sprach
Zarathustra," apparently caused when some players forgot and tried to
follow the conductor rather than the concertmaster.

I have always heard that the VPO is a "cooperative," owned and managed by
the players themselves, and that they make the decisions about who will
conduct them. (A most appealing idea to any orchestral player.) Why they
would hire a conductor such as Maazel and then not follow him is a mystery
to me.

According to all accounts, Maazel has been an unpopular conductor in
almost every orchestra he has conducted. Tonight, he did conduct some very
intricate music from memory, and seemed never to have gotten lost. That
was a musical and mental feat of some significance. His beat appeared to
me to be a little nebulous, but I suppose that when the orchestra is the
VPO, a precise beat isn't a requirement.

Further contributing to the unsatisfactory nature of this broadcast was
the poor sound quality. There were obviously too many microphones on the
stage, and placed too close to the instruments. The equipment apparently
was of outstanding quality, as the sound of individual instruments came
though very clearly, with a couple of notable exceptions. However, what
the engineers allowed to get through on the broadcast was only the
electronically processed and mixed sounds of the instruments. There was
never a time when the homogenous sound of the ensemble could be detected.
Apparently, there were no microphones which were sufficiently far away
from the players to allow an ensemble sound to be picked up. As a result,
the sound was not that of a 100-member orchestra, but rather of 100
individual players, electronically processed and mixed. We never were
able to detect how the players felt the orchestra should sound, but rather
only what the engineers decided we should be allowed to hear.

Then, to add insult to injury, there was an excessive amount of volume
level compression. When the music was soft, or a small number of
instruments were playing, the volume levels were boosted, and when the
music was loud, the levels were attenuated. The result was a very boring,
monotonous sound, and a great deal of aural fatigue on the part of
listeners, particularly any who happened to realize that music should have
dynamic contrast.

It was the principal oboe and the principal bassoon who got the worst of
it as far as the audio engineering was concerned. When the bassoon came
in on a little solo passage in "Till," it sounded at first like a baritone
saxophone had been surreptitiously brought on the stage. The sound got
better as the solo went higher in the range of the bassoon, so it was
clear that the tone quality of the player was exactly as one would expect
from an excellent player in an excellent orchestra. It was the
electronically processed sound that was at fault. Also, when the oboe
played solos, there was some kind of breaking up of the sound. At first I
thought it was a problem at my local station, but it wouldn't seem very
likely that would happen only in the case of one instrument, and always
the same one. I had to conclude that the problem was at the point of
origin of the broadcast.

It would have been wonderful to have been able to hear a broadcast sound
that would have been more faithful to the sounds which were being produced
on the stage. Hearing an orchestra like the VPO is an opportunity to hear
instrumental sounds which are little different from what we are accustomed
to. For example, the Zuleger oboes, the Oehler system clarinets, the
rotary valve trumpets, the obviously differently-configured horns, etc.,
seem like fresh and uniquely individual sounds to the ears of listeners in
a country such as the US, where there has been a great homogenization of
orchestral sound during the past half-century.

The whole experience confirmed for me that I am justified in my fears that
music is about to be irreparably harmed by so-called "sound technicians."
There is something tragic about a situation in which musicians can spend
their entire lives learning how to perform music, and then their efforts
can be completely negated by an amateurish sound technician who is
probably half deaf because of what passes for sound reinforcement at rock
and roll concerts. We must not let them usurp our responsibilities and
privileges as musicians. It is the musical perception of musicians that
must be the arbiter of musical quality, not the uninformed decisions of
non-musicians who imagine themselves to be experts in all things musical.

Ed Lacy
*****************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
*****************************************************************

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