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Re: Russianoff's students

Author: lmliberson
Date: 2024-07-01 19:39

Well, I have no idea if Stanley sat on the committee or not. Should you have anything to confirm that, fine. What I said is that it is highly irregular these days to see anyone in a position to have a say in appointing their successor. And if he did sit on the committee - well, the player who was chosen was quite different!

Interpretations vary from not only one player to the next but one playing to the next - and from the same player! Imitation is not always the most flattering.

I remember attending a master class back in the dark ages given by one of the most revered orchestral clarinetists of their time. After hearing a class participant mimic exactly what the teacher had done on a recording, no less, he pulled the music off the stand and reamed him out from top to bottom. I guess he was not flattered.🤷🏻‍♂️

Music making - interpretation - is fluid, is not formulaic, is not paint-by-numbers. While everyone has their own ideas and practices them accordingly, what one does in a performance situation (and an audition is a performance) also demands flexibility, spontanaeity, and the necessary give-and-take between colleagues.

If everyone came to an audition with similar, Stepford wife-like approaches to the music because that's how it had been done, etc., it would make for a very long and tedious day of listening. A committee does not sit down with expectations that they will hear what others think they want to hear nor should a candidate fall under that pretense. One needs to make music their way and let the chips fall as they may.

I can only speak of my own experiences - and every audition I've ever listened to resulted in a different type of player than was there before. Not a lesser or better player, necessarily, but a different player. They provided the committee with whatever they were collectively looking for at the time, I guess. And all these players have continued in highly successful careers.

Perhaps you prefer the cookie-cutter approach, perhaps not. But keep in mind that you don't know what a listener wants. Music is a living entity. It changes, it evolves. How dull if it always sounded exactly the same!

There's a story which I can only paraphrase that took place decades and decades ago. My apologies if I don't have all the details spot on:

When the great, long-time Chicago Symphony Orchestra oboist Ray Still arrived there from his previous position in the Baltimore Symphony, he soon found Rossini's Ls Scala di Seta on his stand, a piece with a monster oboe solo. They played it through and then Fritz Reiner asked him to do the solo somewhat differently. So they did it again. He played it exactly the same way! Reiner then repeated his request and, apparently, it was played the same way yet again at which point Reiner was losing his patience with his new oboist. In response, Still exclaimed "but that's how I played it in Baltimore!"

You could hear a pin drop as Reiner laid his baton on his stand and glared around at the orchestra - his orchestra. "He said he played it that way in Baltimore. Who did you play with, Mr. Still? The Orioles?"

I bet that Ray Still adapted as his tenure lasted a very long time!

There are different ways to skin a cat and different ways to turn a phrase. Be a musician, not a copycat - skinned or not.

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Russianoff's students new

Le9669

2011-09-02 04:30