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Ok, so I left off yesterday discussing Sir Roger Norrington’s theories on vibrato.  (I hope none of you are feeling completely rogered at this point.)  So, Sir Roger cites the Vienna Philharmonic recording as well as some early Philadelphia Orchestra recordings from the early 20^th century to make his point about vibrato.  Now, in Sir Roger’s corner, I can say that in Schumann, one really heard the piece in a different way.  It had a cleaner starker texture.  It also brings out the “Romantic” dissonance.  A lot of those dissonant chords which were some of the expanding harmonic ideas of the romantic period don’t sound as jarring as people of that period describe them.  (From the time, these harmonies were described as truly shocking!  Now, one doesn’t hear them that way.)  Without vibrato (a la Sir Roger!) there is a crunchier dissonance because there isn’t vibrato to warm the sound.  I think it also places an emphasis on phrasing because you don’t have the warmth of the sound in which to luxuriate.  In other words, for it to sound interesting, YOU MUST think about the details of phrasing.  Now my question would be, “Why throw the baby out with the bath water.”  I have a lot of issues with the musical establishment’s divisive camps.  In other words, if you conduct a “modern orchestra” as opposed to a period orchestra, you probably shouldn’t do Bach because if you do, you’ll have the performance practice people going crazy against you!  As a composer (granted a neophyte composer), I am interested to see how people would take my music and interpret it.  (Perhaps this is the conductor in me keeping reins on the composer?)  We don’t expect people to read poetry the exact same way as another person.  We don’t place rules on the way people see art.  Yet, we have musicians who think the RULES must be applied to the music as opposed to the music on the page creating the rules.  (I’m walking a dangerous line here because in my last blog I complimented Schuller and Norrington for being so strict about interpretation, but like any polemicist I see that as playing a roll in how people think, but I don’t take them so seriously as to say that it is the ONLY way it can be done.  (Sorry Maestro Schuller.))  Now, I think if we rob people too much of the ability to make their own decisions and make their own statements with music, we kill the reason that music exists in the first place.  As a young conductor, I can admit to a fear of conducting Mozart.  Not because I find it insanely difficult (which it is!).  But because everyone thinks they KNOW the way Mozart should be.  If you don’t buy into ALL the performance practice ideas, you evidently don’t know what you are doing.  Or, if you take some ideas from each camp, you don’t know what you are doing, etc.  It was an interesting conversation I had with Sir Colin Davis months ago.  We talked about this (because I am sure people would accuse his Mozart of being old fashioned, but I found it to be warm and interesting.)  Well, Sir Colin made a wonderful point when he said let the music speak from you…  Don’t try to put the rules to the music.  And, I think that is probably the best advice.  I must also say that Sir Roger was one of the nicest conductors I met since being here.  AND, he was also one of the most thought inspiring.