the orchestral shakes

We’ve got two out of our three performances of Beethoven’s Ninth symphony out into the ether, and the reviews of the first performances have been mixed.

David Stabler writes:

But despite some wonderful moments, Saturday’s performance was not the orchestra’s best. The playing sounded diffuse, lacking angles and urgency.

Let’s be clear. Music director Carlos Kalmar is a stickler for details and clarity. In five seasons under him, the players have become sharper, more precise, their sound more transparent. Performances have gone from broad and blunt to pointed and urgent. Kalmar makes his point of view clear.

But not on Saturday. The musicians sounded under-rehearsed. Mistakes intruded. Entrances weren’t exact. The music was wonderful, of course, but the performance was puzzling and disappointing.

and James Bash writes:

It seemed that the orchestra players had a tougher time on Sunday evening. Iwasaki played so hard in the first two movements that horsehair came off his bow and then he broke a string in the second movement. Assistant concertmaster, Peter Frajola, traded violins with Iwasaki and swiftly repaired Iwasaki’s violin, and Iwasaki was back to playing on his own instrument within a few minutes. (Give Frajola a medal for that – bravo!) Also, there were some problems with the horns and with intonation between the basses and cellos.

I don’t really take issue with either review (which also had positive things to say as well).  It’s interesting, because Saturday evening’s performance was one which had the orchestra talking while we prepared backstage for Sunday’s show.  We felt the strange sense of unease which pervaded the first movement of the Ninth, and the ensemble issues which seemed to continue throughout the rest of the symphony.

There seemed to be a sense that we indeed could hear the problems, but weren’t sure which section was “right” which was “wrong”.  In situations like this, it’s relatively common for a section string player to go into “bunker” mode.  You play first with your stand partner, then you try to play with those around you, and then you keep an eye on your front stand, then you try to see the concertmaster, and then the conductor.  A sort of tunnel vision sets in, especially if the music you’re playing is dense and note-y.

When you add in the added distance of having four vocal soloists on either side of the podium, the fact that they stand between you and the conductor and concertmaster, and it gets pretty dicey.  But the fact is that this wasn’t an issue for the first three movements of the symphony.  It’s kind of mysterious, why these problems crop up from time to time.  I’ve certainly felt less rehearsed than this before, but with better concert performances resulting.  Sometimes there’s just this invisible shudder that goes through the orchestra, like a school of fish suddenly startled, and everyone just tries to stay together.  I don’t know why it happens, and I’m not able to predict when it’s about to happen, either.  Go figure.

Regardless, the performances were rapturously received by the capacity audiences, and the Ninth has been a joy to play.  We’ll see how round three goes tonight…