Blog

This morning was fun.  I had a chance to conduct the second movement of the Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique”).  It’s a deceptively tough movement in that the tempo has to be right.  It’s a 5/4 waltz.  It has to be comfortable.  To me, this movement has always been the most nostalgic of the bunch.  It was funny, though.  That’s all I conducted today, but Maestro Masur paid me a wonderful compliment – “The tempo is perfect.”  We’ll see how tomorrow goes.  I’m nervous about the Mozart.  Last year he thought my Mozart was heavy!  Mozart is difficult from the perspective that it wasn’t “conducted” music.  At the time, the pieces were led by the first violinist, so to conduct Mozart like a Beethoven or Brahms Symphony doesn’t work.  (And we are doing the g-minor Symphony (no. 40), which has its own idiosyncrasies!)  We also have Beethoven, Leonore No. 3 tomorrow.  That is a piece I love, and I feel like I do that piece well.  Sometimes you truly feel a piece, and you have a gut feeling that it will work, and this is one.