Posted by Ken H on July 24, 2002 at 01:28:55:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Phil posted by rebuttal II on July 23, 2002 at 20:38:59:
I will admit my "extension of the logic" pushed it to the extreme. I saw what was probably the same TV series a while back and had mixed feelings about the whole set-up. Not being resident in London I could be somewhat out of touch here, but in the past the orchestras were almost all just about what would be termed pick-up gigs with some players actually juggling two or three jobs. A part of the thrust of the program was that the players were tending to have to work too many calls and do too much touring to maintain the desired high standards. Your point is well taken in this context. I would also agree that some off the earlier Philharmonia material was of a very high standard which may not always be maintained at present. Varying personnel can have a detrimental effect, or if one is bringing in the cream of the crop for recording sessions it can be a seeming bonus.
Having not heard the tour programs you did, where you say they weren't so good, I can not pass any opinion on their standard of performance in those cases. Tours are dangerous things for an orchestra. Strange halls, too long a trip on the bus or plane, a few days with no practice outside of a rushed warm up, too long a tour, a bit of food poisoning or few cases of the flu, somebody was chatting up somebody else's spouse, etc. etc. can all be the cause of one or more bad performances.
Back to your points: To have five orchestras in the one city is maybe asking a bit much if one is to expect all of them to be at the pinnacle at the same time. Yes, there are only so many absolute top line players to go around and there may well be some "dilution" as a result. I do feel though that if there are more performance opportunities as a result of having more orchestras there is a better chance of enough players developing to the highest levels.
I exagerated my point by saying we should possibly have a world cup for orchestras and get rid of the rest. One only has to consider the divergence of opinion as to what orchestra does the best performance of Bartok Concerto, Ride, Pictures et al to see that only one orchestra could not satisfy everybody and just think of the impact that would have on the recording industry and places such as Tower Records, for example. There would be a lot of recording engineers and record sellers out of jobs along with the musicians. Possibly it is wise to be a bit hesitant to condemn a band on tour or overly praise one for their recordings. Ya get good and bad with both, but you can't do ten takes and splice a live performance....what ya get is what ya get. This could also have been the case with filming the doco in question. Fill in video footage can be mated to audio which occurred at a different time entirely. MAYBE, in the context of this program (which was trying to show how hard a musicians life can be, it was a "staged" thing to have somebody look bored out of his brain - or just plain worn out.
I've done tours and recording sessions which I loved or hated. The groups have at times done very well or not so well in either situation. Most performers would attempt to perform to a high standard most of the time, at least but, everybody has their off days and that even goes for the worlds greatest golfer who showed he could play as badly and get as foul tempered as me.
Okay, should the Brits get rid of a few orchestras and have only the very best in jobs - or at least going around the world being billed as one of the world's great orchestras?
VERY interesting question..................... Does the "public" give the arts in general the support it should; should artists expect the public to support them? Another couple very good questions. IF there is AN answer to any of these, I personally hope it comes down to lets have more orchestras better supported by the public with the performers in a position to and willing and able to perform to the highest possible standard at all times. ( I always was a bit of a dreamer!!!!!!!!!)
As for people of one nationality trying to get a gig outside his native country - all I can say is, from experience, people falling into any identifiable clan tend to take care of their own first.
( For the benefit of spelling and grammar police...... there are probably ( Okay, almost certainly) errors in the above note. As my internet connection tends to drop out frequently and will likely do so very soon I will not have fully proofed this before posting this for the whole world to see. My gosh, almost as bad as an orchestra going on tour and doing a live performance and having a few less than perfect notes.)