Klarinet Archive - Posting 000545.txt from 2003/09

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: RE: [kl] Documentary on London Philharmonia Orchestra on Ovation
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 15:51:31 -0400

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:49:49 -0500, Tom.Henson@-----.com said:

> I am hoping that some of our list members who have worked, or are
> working in this type of environment would comment as well.
>
> Tony Pay especially would be valuable since he is from London and
> probably knows most of the people that were featured in this
> documentary.

That's very kind of you, Tom. What I want most to say is that what seem
to be facts in such documentaries, aren't, because that people are being
filmed distorts the picture.

I happened to be playing with the Philharmonia at around the time that
the film was shown in the UK, and the full picture of what was going on,
whatever it was, included many things that the film didn't show.

> I wanted to add that while this is an excellent documentary of life as
> a professional musician, it may not be the norm. It does tend to paint
> a bleak picture and I would hesitate to show this to a young musician
> without some explanation and discussion.

On the whole, I lean towards the painting of a bleak picture. You
shouldn't go into music unless you *have* to. And if you have to,
nothing will stop you.

Indeed, what may motivate you is that you want to change the things you
see as unsatisfactory.

> One of the points that was made in this program was that the
> Philharmonia is perhaps the busiest orchestra in the world. The reason
> given was that due to a lack of adequate funding, they had to play
> more gigs to make additional revenue to support themselves. One
> comment was made that they had about 500 calls in a single year which
> I would imagine is quite a lot. This much work would burn anyone out
> after a while.

I never found that, if the work was good. (The notion of 'everwhelm' as
opposed to 'overwhelm' is a useful concept:-)

What burns people out is too much 'crap' work. You need to be a part of
what weeds out the crap work.

> Also, the orchestra does not have a large support staff behind it
> running things behind the scenes. Their business office is located
> above a dress shop.

:-)

> They are self governing and performing members are elected by the
> orchestra to various positions. When someone has a complaint or needs
> something they take it directly to the managing director (the
> principal flutist in this case).

No, actually it was the principal piccolo player.

> It is then put before a board of peers for review and action.
>
> The principal clarinetist (Mike White)

Whight

> was being worked particularly hard and submitted a request to have a
> co-principal clarinetist to share the burden. His request was reviewed
> in the documentary and then a meeting was held where it was denied. He
> subsequently quit at the end of the season due to this.
>
> His comment to the camera was that the orchestra had lost a lot of
> fine musicians due to the way it was run and the decisions that had
> been made by the governing council.

Mike would probably want to speak for himself in detail.

(Actually, he was once subscribed to this list, but left because he
couldn't stand it. I seem to remember that he was particularly incenced
by Jonathan Cohler's stance and writings on various things including
vibrato -- and I agree with Mike, as:

http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/2003/06/000705.txt

..makes plain.)

Nevertheless, the situation wasn't as simple as the documentary
portrays, as I suppose everyone can understand. So don't make your
judgements too definitive.

And, don't believe everything the politicians in your country say,
either.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... 24 hours in a day and 24 beers in a case. Hmmmm.....

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