Blog

Today was an interesting day since we had the opportunity to see Gatti’s first rehearsal with the Vienna Philharmonic.  I had been Gatti’s assistant in Paris when he guest conducted the Orchestre National.  He was pretty amazing at the time.  He did Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra from MEMORY!  (I guess a good comparison would be someone reciting A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man from memory.)  He was also technically gifted and rather deep.  I was excited to see him with the Vienna Philharmonic…  And, I think (after seeing his reception) THEY were excited to see him with the Vienna Philharmonic.  His repertoire was the Schreker Overture to a Large Opera, Beethoven’s Ai Perfido, and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.  I wasn’t disappointed.  I think he was better with the Vienna Philharmonic than even with the Orchestre National de France.  It was a sight to see.  He interacted well with the orchestra, but I was curious about some of the differences.  With the Orchestre National, he didn’t give them as much explanation for his decisions as he did with the Vienna Philharmonic.  I wonder whether that was because he felt that the Vienna Phil was made up of better musicians or whether it was because he didn’t feel he had the time to explain things to the French Orchestra?  (He had quite a bit of difficult repertoire with the Orchestre National de France – Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Berg, and Mozart’s 23^rd Piano Concerto.)