When Doug McClennan persuaded me to start blogging in 2006, I was a newcomer to electronic media and also a skeptic. I read books. It write long. I do not tweet and rarely check Facebook.
Frankly, the consolidated thread of considered comments elicited by my mega-blog on the future of orchestras has taken me by surprise. These are informed comments from inside the orchestra world. (I trashed a few that were not.) I have also been deluged with emails whose content must remain private. They, too, register the thoughts, frustrations, and anxieties of musicians, educators, and administrators.
I would like to particularly draw attention to the latest posting – the one from Chris Gekker, who happens to be principal trumpet of my PostClassical Ensemble in Washington, D.C. All brass players know his name. Chris is a trumpeter with lyric bent all his own. He is also the beneficiary of decades of orchestral experience, often with colleagues and conductors of the highest distinction. (It is he who plays the ravishing trumpet solos on PostClassical Ensemble’s new Redes DVD.)
I was already familiar with the memorized and choreographed Debussy performance, referenced by Chris, of Jim Ross’s remarkable University of Maryland Orchestra. But I had no idea that Jim had his players sing Palestrina as a preface to Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony – a subversive inspiration kindred to Ivan Fischer’s singing Budapest Festival Orchestra (cf my mega-blog).
As is well-known, when Leonard Bernstein attempted some Cage with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s, the players collectively misbehaved when invited to collectively improvise. But six seasons ago, the same New York Philharmonic plainly enjoyed doing the unexpected during a terrific performance of Ligeti’s Grand Macabre.
Would the Philharmonic sing Palestrina? I ask this question in all seriousness. Try to imagine the impact – on the players; on the public.
As I have countless times observed, our orchestras have failed to innovate. The first permanent, full-time American orchestra to reside in one place (Theodore Thomas’s orchestra travelled) was Henry Higginson’s Boston Symphony, invented in 1881. In terms of format, ritual, and purpose, today’s BSO concerts are no different from Higginson’s more than a century ago. Meanwhile, the world has changed. I would call this evidence of institutional stagnation.
By the way, Ivan Fischer is guest-conducting the New York Philharmonic this coming season.
Could/would the Philharmonic sing Palestrina in tune? With the parts balanced?
Poorly sung Palestrina is worse than no Palestrina at all, especially when inflicted on a paying audience.
But if the Philharmonic wanted to hire, say, the choir of Trinity Church Wall Street to sing Palestrina as part of a larger program, that would be dandy.
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Come to think of it, if a conductor asked the New York Philharmonic to sing Palestrina, the AFM would probably either refuse or demand extra payment for it.