My Musical Career|Part Ten

In my last blog post, I talked about my summer out at the Aspen Festival in 1973. It was my first sojourn out of New York, and it opened my eyes to the world outside of the Big Apple. I loved Colorado and thought the country out there was just great, and I was grateful for what I learned from my experience there. Just to show you how small the world is, I recently ran into John Yeh, who was a clarinet student at Aspen in 1973, and is now a distinguished member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I was performing with the Du Page Symphony Orchestra at the time, and he was the featured soloist. I had a chance to talk with him after the concert, and he indeed remembered me from Aspen and we talked over old times.

A Look at My First Three Years at MSM

By the end of the summer of 1973, I was entering the final year of my undergraduate studies at Manhattan School of Music. I had reached the stage where I was no longer just a junior percussionist at the school, but was considered a veteran of sorts. I had been a member of the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, Manhattan Wind Symphony, Manhattan Repertoire Orchestra, and a sometimes member of the Manhattan Orchestra, the school’s senior performing ensemble. Here are some of the highlights of my school “concert career” up until this point. To recap, during my first year, I joined the Repertoire Orchestra, sort of on a whim – actually a desire to break out of what I considered a rut of not playing in an ensemble. I was able to do so, thanks to the kindness of Paul Price and Jim Priess and with the approval of Maestro Anton Coppola.

The Memorable Spring Semester 1971

That spring of 1971 was memorable, as the Repertoire Orchestra took part in performances of Robert Ward’s “The Crucible”, in my mind one of the best American operas. The Opera Workshop – which was the junior component of the school’s John Brownlee Opera Theater, was assigned the opera. None of the other percussionists wanted to play the percussion part (I suspect because it involved late night rehearsals), so it fell to me to take the part – which actually could be handled by one player. Tony Korf played the timpani part. It was quite the experience. Maestro Coppola conducted, and he displayed his skills as a conductor and an organizer in marshaling the forces at his disposal. The dress rehearsal was particularly intense. Certain passages involving the harp were just not going the way that they should and I remember Maestro getting quite passionate about it. We went over that passage several times until it came out the way it should. Staging and other concerns caused that rehearsal to run over until 12:45 am! I stayed with my “second family”, Bernice and Joe Vrablic, who lived in the Parkchester section of the Bronx at the time and didn’t get there until well after 2:00 am. I remember Uncle Joe, who waited up for me asking me “Who in their right mind rehearses so late?” He was a good man, I agreed with him, but also understood that musicians tend to walk to a different drummer. The performances went off very well. I must have done a good job that spring semester of 1971, because I was seconded as an extra percussionist to the Manhattan Orchestra and Opera Orchestra. I played bass drum in a performance of Nicholas Flagello’s 1st Symphony, conducted by the composer, and was one of several percussionists involved in the Opera Theater’s production of Hans Werner Henze’s “Boulevard Solitude”. I enjoyed performing with the orchestra for the Symphony and getting to know Nicholas Flagello, who in addition to being a fine composer and excellent composition teacher, was the brother of the noted bass Ezio Flagello. I enjoyed even more working with the opera orchestra, which was again conducted by Maestro Coppola. (Incidentally, the noted soprano Catherine Malfitano sang the role of Manon in this production.) The opera was even more complex than the Ward, and required more percussionists than there was room for in the orchestra pit. So, the timpani (Anthony Korf again presiding) remained in the pit, while the percussionists were split into two groups on either side of the stage. One group was laced on a platform built over the organ console, the other group, which included my good friend Tom Wetzel (now Principal Percussion/Associate Timpanist of the Milwaukee Symphony) and myself was on the opposite side. It was quite an experience. I remember vividly one point in the rehearsals where Maestro Coppola queried me about the choice of mallets for the small tam-tam I was playing. He thought it sounded too thin – like a pencil. I changed to heavier, more rounded mallet – a soft vibe mallet and he was satisfied. I thought that was the end of it, but lo and behold – in the performance – at that very spot – he turns and looks at me – cues me in – and with a twinkle in his eye –mouths the words “Good. But you Hungarians have no heart” – referring to my Hungarian background and the fact that he had a ton of Hungarian American friends. He was quite the tease. I had had a ton of experience at the school in the space of over two months and it was a heady feeling. I thought that I was done for the year, but just before the final opera production of the year, Massenet’s Cendrillon, the timpanist for the opera orchestra bowed out of the production. I never knew why, but suspect that he opted to do a paid professional gig. In any case, nobody wanted to play it, or had been assigned to other performances. I guess Maestro Coppola might have had a hand in it, and suggested me to fill the vacancy. Not many freshman got the chance to play timpani in the Opera Theater orchestra, and this was a huge part, with a large solo that opens Act III. I was quite honored to have the opportunity, and I managed well enough, but in listening to the performance tapes months later, there were spots in which I wish I had more seasoning. One of my good friends told me that he had the opportunity to watch me play as a student, and then many years later, see me play with the Oslo Philharmonic. “You were a little kid back at school, full of enthusiasm and good ideas, but in the overall scheme of things, you didn’t know completely what you were doing. When I saw you with the Oslo Philharmonic, you completely knocked my socks off. You were the complete professional.”
He was right, and as I remember listening to that tape after the event, I realized that I had a lot of work still ahead of me.

1971-72 Part One

Things went a little bit slower during the years 1972 and 1973. My performance experience during those two years, although not as limited as during my first semester at school, but since there were more than adequate numbers of senior percussionists to fill any vacancies in the Manhattan Orchestra, that left only the Repertoire Orchestra and the Wind Symphony as well as the Percussion Ensembles. Still, it was more than enough, as I was a relative neophyte, despite that memorable spring 1971 semester. Repertoire Orchestra’s schedule was being improved for the 1971-72 season. Instead of a semester of reading rehearsals to expose us to the orchestral literature and an opera workshop assignment in the spring, the orchestra was assigned a performance schedule for the whole school year. We were assigned to perform a fully staged performance of Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne” – a melodrama with music in the fall of 1971. This was in addition to the reading rehearsals. In the spring 1972 semester, we had two assignments: A full orchestral concert in early spring, and the usual opera workshop performances at the end of the semester. Another difference is that Maestro Coppola would conduct only the reading rehearsals and opera workshop performances. Gianpaolo Bracali was to conduct “L’Arlesienne”, and Dr. Paul Eisler, who was my sight-singing teacher, would conduct the orchestral concert. My fellow percussionists included Wayne Church, Seve DiLorenzo, and John Orlowski. We were a good group and had a good season together. Wayne and I became good friends, and we spent a lot of time listening to music and learning the repertoire together.
L’Arlesienne was an interesting experience. A smaller orchestra was needed as the accompaniment, so the Repertoire Orchestra was split in two. One half of the orchestra was assigned to reading repertoire, and the other half was assigned to the Bizet melodrama. I was fortunate to be assigned to the Bizet. John Orlowski was assigned to play percussion, which in this case was confined to the snare drum and the tambour de provencale.
The staging was done by Basil Langton, a renowned actor/producer who was working at MSM as a drama coach, and who later starred in Star Trek: Voyager in the opening episode “Caretaker: Parts One and Two”. The rehearsals and performances went off really well and it was interesting to play the music as Bizet originally conceived it. This was my first assignment in the pit as timpanist (other than as the replacement for the regular timpanist in “Cendrillon” in the spring.
The timpani that I used, and that all of us used at the time were the Ludwig Professional Symphonic models – outside the kettle spider mechanism – kettles not suspended, and regular collar. The timpani heads were Ludwig Ensemble heads – hazy – not clear. I was learning to play them properly and was discovering the joys of using the larger drums for A and D – 32 inch and 29 inch and to appreciate the tightness and ease of articulation – a la Kurt-Hans Goedicke. It was a lot of fun!