Most rewarding performance of an unsung composer's piece

[pcc]

I do get confused here in the US, being a professional musician myself, as to what my colleagues' priorities are; I noticed the union discussion within an earlier forum regarding the New Republic's article on pro orchestras, and I find myself generally being anti-music union. This is strange to me because I and my family for generations have been strongly pro-labour, and I support unions in general, and my stance would appear to be shooting myself in the foot.  However, that experience and one in Indianapolis where a score I had written for a silent film had to be cut into 2 sections because the film ran 102 minutes (12 minutes outside the current 90-min. union max, though the film had played accompanied by union musicians in 1924 without an intermission) put me off US music unions pretty strongly. In NATOMA it was really awful because the opera closes with the heroine entering a convent to atone for a murder she has just committed; there is the sound of an offstage women's chorus, then the orchestra builds during the postlude in promising Herbert style towards a fff tutti fermata'd C-G-C to close (and it's a HUGE orchestra, including bass clarinet, contrabassoon, organ, and a full percussion battery) -- but here, nothing!!! To quote Marvin the Martian's whiny plaint from the Warner Bros. cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century, "There was supposed to be a 'ka-boom' -- where's the earthshattering 'ka-boom'?"  This was the first full public hearing of NATOMA since 1914, incidentally, and a new score and parts had been specially prepared over two years by one incredibly dedicated man. 

[Ilja]

How frightful! I can't imagine that happening in the UK, thank God! What utter lack of respect for both music and audience. Do these so called "musicians" actually LIKE music?

A friend, who is the artistic director of an orchestra once explained how he found himself unable to schedule ANY new works because the orchestra members had the last vote in deciding which repertoire was to be performed and what wasn't. The orchestra in question was wholly dominated by a few old hands who had so much going on on the side that they didn't have the time to rehearse new material, so they would vote down any suggestions outside of what they knew by heart.


The friend in question lasted for a season and a half at that place. The orchestra's been going steadily downhill for years but still exists.

[chill319]

Obviously there is middle ground between rehearsing endlessly for Mravinsky and invoking the Power Move a mere 12 bars before the end of a public rehearsal. It's nothing new, though. As long ago as 1960 (and doubtless long before) I saw a union steward do something just like that in the middle of a final Brahms 1 rehearsal that had me in orbit. It was shocking at the time. I also recall that year seeing the trombone section of the NY Philharmonic miss their last movement cue in concert because they were playing cards. I consider that a union effect. I'm not saying unions are a bad thing, just that the combination of high art and unions reminds me of a family that goes to Mass faithfully and then just as faithfully argues in the car on the way home.

Perhaps the most rewarding performance that comes to mind was Serkin playing Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart. I was fortunate to be sitting on stage just two or three yards away from him. No longer unsung but rarely performed in these parts: Nielsen's Symphony 5; Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee SO gave a stunning performance of it last year that brought me to tears and almost restored my faith in humanity ;-). (Apologies if needed for transgressing subject matter limits.)