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So, today was day 4 of my time at the Salzburg Festspiele.  Today was a bit of a “lazy” day.  In other words, for most of the day, I didn’t have to be anywhere.  I ended up staying in and studying repertoire all day.  This morning I worked on bowings for Brahms’ Serenade No. 1.  I’ll talk about the piece more in December, but for most people, I think it’s a piece that is relatively unknown.  I think the piece is wonderful, but it isn’t what we normally identify as “Brahms.”  It’s not as heavy and as brooding as his symphonies.  (Please understand that I grossly generalize in that statement.  The symphonies are also light and airy at times… Ok, so in my opinion the 4 symphonies of Brahms are 4 of the greatest pieces ever written because they capture SO many emotional and philosophical ideas… This is a blog for another time, however.)  I spent the morning working on bowings because I’d like to be able to mail the score to the Midland/Odessa Symphony relatively soon, so they have time to either copy the score or to copy the bowings and get the score back to me by November, so I have time to memorize it.  After that, I ended up at lunch, which took about 2 hours.  I got into an interesting discussion about conductors with the other conducting fellow.  We talked a bit about various working conductors (which I won’t bother anyone with).  One of the interesting things, I think was when he asked my thoughts on Masur.  Some of you know that I work with Masur in Paris, but in my opinion he is the last of the old-school romantic conductors.  He comes from a generation of conductors that is gone.  He comes from that line of Furtwanglers, Bruno Walters, etc.  And, it’s sad to see that type of conductor go.  Most conductors of my generation make their name on conducting contemporary music.  (Which is a necessity, and something I truly think needs to be championed, and I hope one day to champion contemporary composers myself.)  BUT, you very rarely hear of a young conductor who excels at Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, etc.  Is that because that type of music takes more emotional maturity or is it because conductors think that music is “easy?”  It’s true that to conduct some contemporary music takes brilliant hand work.  In other words, it takes a lot of “technique” to conduct contemporary repertoire, but… (Composers out there are sharpening their knives.)  I think that because notation is becoming more specific, and you can ask a living composer what he thought about something, it is in some ways EASIER to conduct (once you conquer the technical battles of beating through them) than the ‘core’ repertoire.  The issue with much of the ‘core’ repertoire is that we can’t call a composer and ask him why he notated something in a certain way.  We can’t have every single idea for when a line pushes/pulls/relaxes/intensifies.  It wasn’t all notated.  (And the farther back you go, the more difficult it gets.)  So, it takes more time and care, in my opinion, and thought!!!  Ok, so that was a wild tangent…  So our discussion (mine and the other conducting fellow’s) revolved around some conductors of the past.  Mainly – Bernstein and Karjan.  (Considering we are Karajan fellows…)  So, why was there always a dichotomy?  When they were alive, you were in one camp or the other.  Very few really were in both camps.  (Seiji Ozawa is an example of one who was in both.)  I don’t mean to say that it was a violent divide, but it’s a divide similar to the Toscanini/Furtwangler divide.  I think one can simplify it (and truly, this is an oversimplification) by saying that it is a contrast of the Apollonian and the Dionysian.  Of course both conductors had examples of both sides because one cannot make music without both, but I think each had more of one than the other.  One could call Karajan (and Toscanini for those of you keeping score at home) the Apollonian, so then Bernstein (and Furtwangler (but this is more difficult)) is the Dionysian.  For me, Karajan’s music making always seems like the “King” or God himself making music.  With Bernstein, I always get the impression of man searching for something greater than himself.  One can’t call one direction greater or better than the other, it’s just different.  I can say that the Bernstein way of making music always resonated with me more…  With Karajan, you will probably never have a bad recording.  He was a stickler for releasing almost uniquely studio recordings where he had time to control every aspect.  (He was a very controlled and polished individual.)  Bernstein was a bit like Babe Ruth.  When he hit, he hit it out of the park… But Babe Ruth was also the strike out king, so with Bernstein, you also have a few dogs of recordings.  But when Bernstein hit it out of the park, you have something that is enveloping and moving. 

SO!  Today’s conductor… Valery Gergiev!  Yes, that is a guy’s name for you Texas friends of mine… (joke, joke.. don’t get so defensive!)  So, he showed up about 25 minutes late to the rehearsal, but I don’t think anyone in the Kirov minded.  They seemed used to it.  And it seemed normal, so I guess no problems.  He walked in dressed in all black wearing a Nike, Tiger Woods baseball hat.  (I kept thinking, if Bill ever saw me walk into rehearsal like this, he’d throw me off the podium).  Then he started conducting.  The funniest moment was in the first 5 minutes when (while conducting Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa) he turned, looked out into the audience and waved to all his friends WHILE continuing to conduct the orchestra with his right hand… Cuing everyone in as if he were watching them… It was a sight.  When he got down to business, I knew exactly why they rave about him.  He showed everything.  Granted, in a very bizarre technique, but it was clear.  This guy was a great musician.  (I own his recording of Le Sacre du printemps with the Kirov.  I highly recommend it!)