Klarinet Archive - Posting 000565.txt from 2003/09

From: Tom.Henson@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] Documentary on London Philharmonia Orchestra on Ovation
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 23:32:46 -0400

Thanks Tony!

This was an altogether great post and the detail I was hoping you could
provide.

I apologize for the small error about the flutist actually being a piccolo
player.

I also used the 'American' spelling of Mike's last name. I knew it had
something else in it, but I could not remember what.

I hope that Mike is doing well and enjoying wherever he is currently
playing.

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony@-----.uk]
Subject: RE: [kl] Documentary on London Philharmonia Orchestra on Ovation

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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