My Musical Career|Part Eleven

1971- 1972 Part Two

In my previous post, I left off talking about performing George Bizet’s “L’Arlisienne” with the Repertoire Orchestra at Manhattan School of Music. We used an orchestra of about 30 musicians, which is what Bizet scored if for, and it was a most delightful musical experience. It was most interesting to hear all of the music played for the melodrama as it was originally intended, even if the play itself was (in my opinion) not as good as the music that was written for it.
In the spring of 1972, the entire Repertoire Orchestra was given the opportunity to give a concert of their own for the first time. (I mentioned earlier that its main roles were to serve as a reading orchestra for the sophomores and juniors, and as an accompanying orchestra for the Opera Workshop’s annual “Scenes” performance. Precedent was broken when the Opera Workshop and the Repertoire Orchestra collaborated in performances of Ward’s “The Crucible” in the spring of 1971. In the spring of 1972, precedent was again to be shattered with this concert. The conductor assigned to the concert was Dr. Paul Eisler, who was on the theory faculty and had some experience as a conductor. He was a very gifted teacher who bore a resemblance to Johannes Brahms, and was very good with working with students. I took sight-singing and dictation classes from him and enjoyed them. The percussion section of the Repertoire Orchestra at the time included myself as well as my good friend Wayne Church, Steve DiLorenzo, and John Orlowski. The concert program included four works: Beethoven: “Corialan” Overture; Schubert: Incidental Music from “Rosamunde”; Virgil Thomson: Suite from “The Plow That Broke The Plains”, and Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 in B minor. Each of us in the percussion were assigned to play timpani in one work. Wayne Church played the Beethoven; Steve DiLorenzo played the Schubert; John Orlowski had the timpani assignment for the Thomson, and I had the assignment to play timpani for the Borodin. The percussion parts for the Thomson and Borodin were covered by those who did not play timpani for those works.
This was my first time playing timpani in a concert situation at MSM. While I played timpani for “Cendrillon”, and that was an important assignment, this carried a little more weight at the time as one was “on stage”, and the Borodin was nothing to laugh at; as well as being a fun piece to play has more than its share of tricky moments (particularly in the scherzo). Again, I was playing on a set of

Professional Symphonic ca. 1970

Ludwig Professional Symphonic pre-extended collar models. I don’t remember exactly what mallets I used, except that they were most probably Hinger mallets, as this was my first full season as a member of Mr. Hinger’s studio. The concert went well, and I do remember that each of us in the section was excited to be performing and each of us played up to and beyond expectations. My family came down for the occasion. They were very supportive of me, and most of them attended at least one if not all of my performances there. I was actually able to re-live the experience almost immediately after it happened, as my sister recorded the Borodin on a device that she had in her handbag.

1972-73

My junior year at MSM was marked by any changes. One of them that had far reaching consequences on my performing career at the school was the ever-changing cast of characters who occupied the position of Director of Performance. This was the person who assigned and monitored students to the various performing organizations. He or she made sure that the school’s ensembles were staffed properly, and that the system ran efficiently. When I started at the school, the position was held by Martin Sokoloff, who departed just before the end of my first year. A Mrs. Thompson succeeded him, and she stayed in that position throughout the end of my first year and the whole of my sophomore year. In the fall of 1972, she was succeeded by Louis-Jean Brunelli, who up until this time wasa member of the composition faculty. I met him when the Wind Symphony performed his “Overture to “L’Arlecchino” during my sophomore year. It was a well-written piece and was well received. He was a tall, vigorous man with leonine head and was definitely not one to be working out of his office. His predecessors tended to be office-bound, although Mrs. Thompson did make her presence felt by observing rehearsals. Mr. Brunelli was of a different cast. He was determined to bring the performance department up to date by instituting auditions for every ensemble. Up until the fall of 1972, it was seniority that determined one’s position in the hierarchy. By that system, we in the rep orchestra section were supposed to move up to junior membership in the Manhattan Orchestra. As a matter of fact, assignments had been made for the first two orchestral concerts of the year. I was assigned to play timpani in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G minor for the first concert, and second timpani in the Berlioz “Damnation of Faust” excerpts for the second concert. Mr. Brunelli allowed those assignments to stand, but insisted that all percussionists audition for placement during this period. None of us were happy, and you can imagine that there was a lot of commotion and complaining from the sixth floor of MSM during this period.
The percussion faculty conducted the auditions, with Mr. Brunelli present, and most of us, yours truly included, did well enough to earn a position in the ensembles, there were a few surprise demotions.
Assignments in the future were determined by the auditions for that year and by Mr. Brunelli’s office. Those of us like Wayne and myself were assigned mainly to Rep Orchestra and to the Manhattan Orchestra if needed. In the spring of 1973, my only MSM assignment was playing timpani in Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra under the direction of Alvaro Cassuto. However, Rep Orchestra was a different story. Maestro Coppola did not schedule any concerts for the fall, be we read through some excellent repertoire, including Kodaly’s Suite from “Hary Janos”. I was assigned the bass drum part, and had fun with it – especially on the last note, which I played enthusiastically. Maestro was quick on the draw – “Best note of your career” – he said like a shot – pointing to me. He was always doing this to either me or Wayne. I think he liked us because we were fanatics about music and always tried to give our best. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun. In the spring we had more reading rehearsals, and he spent a lot of time on reading Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps”. The newer crop of percussionists took the timpani parts, and us veterans took the percussion at first – I played the guiro during the readings. I remember being more than a little intimidated by Le Sacre at first, but by the time the readings were done, had fallen in love with the piece. The main event for the orchestra was the spring collaborqtion with the Opera Workshop.They were to do a “Scenes” program that spring of 1973, and on the program was Act IV from Puccini’s “La Boheme”; Menotti’s one-act opera “The Old Maid and The Thief”; and Act V from Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette”. Like the concert of Spring 1972, each of us was assigned timpani in one of the operatic scenes, and to assist in the percussion in the other scenes. I was originally assigned to play percussion in the Puccini and timpani in the Menotti, and percussion in the Gounod. For some reason, the percussionist assigned to the timpani part for the Gounod was having some problems, and was reassigned to play percussion, and I was asked to take over the part. It was a little uncomfortable for me, as I liked and respected said percussionist, but as he bore me no ill-feelings and graciously undertook the percussion part, I took up the assignment without any further problems, for which I was grateful. Steve DiLorenzo was no longer with us. He had moved on to other things and left MSM at the end of the fall semester of 1972. So it was just three of us that performed in the Rep Orchestra by the spring of 1973. The opera workshop rehearsals were relatively trouble-free compared to the Crucible rehearsals of spring 1971. The performances were even better. The percussion parts in Act IV were rewritten by Maestro Coppola so that they could be performed by one player, and I enjoyed playing them, but I must admit I enjoyed being back behind the timpani for the Menotti and Gounod. The shows were just delightful!