smells like team (de)spirit(ed)

What does make an orchestra “good” or “bad” or “mediocre” or “great”? It seems like it should be a simple matter: better orchestras play with more precise and adaptable rhythm, pitch and dynamics than lesser orchestras do.

But we’ve all been to a Big Five orchestra concert which was severely lacking in one or all of those things, at one time or another (a Philly “Messiah” performance lurks in the terrifying sewer reaches of my distant student memories). I’m sure that many of us have been to obscure orchestra concerts which were exhilarating and relevatory and life-changing, too.

I think that the defining attribute of a great orchestra, or even just a dependably good one, is esprit de corps. To paraphrase Kurt Cobain, a great orchestra smells like teen spirit. Many of the top orchestras in this country have a direct lineage of their membership that goes back to the very formation of the orchestra. The most celebrated orchestras in this country have a very clear teacher/student lineage that is remarkably unbroken. People in good/great orchestras have had a common musical language which was learned before they entered the orchestra, and was reinforced by a music director of relatively long-standing who was often fully resident with the orchestra (rather than a jet-setting guest conductor with which almost every orchestra of any level is saddled today).

Why is this the topic of my column this week? Well, this past week we learned that our new concertmaster of two years, Amy Schwartz Moretti, was leaving at the end of the season to become Director of the Robert MacDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. This was a stunning blow to many in the orchestra. Truth be told, I don’t think anyone really expected that Amy would stay as a ‘lifer’, but two years was a remarkably short time to have someone of such talent in the chair (even by her own admission – she was intending to stay longer than this, but the opportunity arose, and after much agonizing, she took it) and clearly she had much more to offer the orchestra and the community than the great things she’d already brought in her brief two year stint with us.

What is interesting to me about this is the pre-announcement vs. post-announcement state of the orchestra that I have observed. The beginning of this season started pretty auspiciously for us – the playing standard was quite high even after our long summer break (approx. June 5 to August 25) and our first run of subscription concerts and rehearsals the previous week were notable for the high spirits of the orchestra and the high standard of playing from nearly every position in the orchestra.

Then, the announcement. Poorly timed, I think, at the inception of the first rehearsal of our next classical series. The rehearsal was pretty much a wash – many stunned faces, lots of tears and depressed looks at the break, and stoic professionalism for the rest of the rehearsal.

Now, it feels like our game is off. We have been shaken to our core, which I wouldn’t have believed possible before this, but the swagger is gone, and the customary self-doubts that are endemic to our orchestra have started to resurface.

This brings to mind a tangent on the state of our orchestral psyche: we’ve been just “ok” for so long, that we’re loathe to admit that we might actually be truly world-class for the first time in our history. People come and hear us with a good conductor and they are stunned that we’re basically the same group that they heard five years ago (though not the same one as 10 years ago, for sure – turnover has taken care of that). So when something happens that is “bad”, we blame ourselves first, then if we really have incontrovertable evidence to the contrary, we grudgingly admit that we are pretty darn good and that is wasn’t our fault. This may be the phase we’re in right now, and another week or so will smooth the way to a continued recovery and looking forward to a bright future.

UPDATE: It seems (as I figured would happen) that the atmosphere in the orchestra is regaining equilibrium after the news of last week. It could be largely due to fatigue, as we’re in our third consecutive classical subscription series in as many weeks, and with a guest conductor who is less clear than what we’re usually used to, and a difficult and physically taxing program. Our principal violist, Joel Belgique, is sounding incredible in the Harold in Italy solo part so far in rehearsals, so if you’re able, make a point of getting to the concerts Sunday afternoon or Monday evening to hear him.