My Musical Career

The Albany Years – Part Three

It seems that every time I sit down to continue a certain timeline, certain memories of other events kind of point me to share events that, while occurring during the time period of which I am writing, seem like sort of going off on a tangent. While it may seem like it, these events are all related as many of the same people whom I met and worked with during my VSO and ASO days also took part in my time at Lake George Opera.
My period with the Lake George Opera lasted six summer seasons – from the summer of 1978 through the summer of 1983 – after I had left the Albany Symphony. As I mentioned earlier, the summer of 1978 was the longest of my six seasons with the company. Financial conditions caused a substantial reduction from nine to five weeks for the 1979 season, and a reduction to four weeks for the summer of 1980. To be honest, I think that the summer of 1978 was the best of all six seasons musically and personally. Not that the others were musically bad – far from it. But it seemed to me then, and it still seems to me even now that when a musical organization reduces it season, it is a not a good sign, and decay is right around the corner. We had some excellent productions during the years 1979 through 1983. The

Queensbury High School – former home of the Lake George Opera

legendary Met conductor Joseph Rosenstock, then in his late seventies, conducted a superb production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. By this time the Albany Symphony was allowing me to use the Hingers for the summer, albeit only the middle two; still it was substantially better than using the old Ludwigs.
Other productions included Massenet’s “Werther”; Carlisle Floyd’s excellent “Susannah” and Sigmund Romberg’s “The Student Prince” conducted by the excellent John de Main among others. 1980 was the last season of the Lloyd regime, and David was succeeded by Paulette Haupt-Nolan, who acted as both conductor and General Director, although she mainly did the productions that were more of a “musical” nature, and left the operatic to more seasoned conductors. Highlights of her regime were a notable double-bill that included Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci” and, unusually, Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi”; there was also performances of “The Adventures of Friar Tuck” which were done at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s Little Theater.
For the 1979 season, I commuted from Albany with Richard Ross, the principal trombone player, who lived a few blocks from me. We got to be very good friends that summer, and after the season ended, I wound up going out west with him on an extended vacation. I’ll leave that story for another occasion.

Albany 1978-80

There were several improvements to my circumstances during my last two Albany seasons. I mentioned my move to 540 Madison Avenue in an earlier posting. I also mentioned the acquisition by the ASO of three Hinger timpani to replace the older Ludwigs, and this went a long way to making my musical tasks easier and myself more of a happy camper. No, this had to do with with matters musical. I had gotten to know the board president of the ASO, Peter Kermani (now its Chairman Emeritus) and was in the habit of dropping into his office to talk music with him. In addition to his many business duties, he loved music and was quite knowledgeable about the subject, and owned not only a rug emporium, but a classical record outlet and  stereo shop – then called Audio Workshop. The record outlet was more of Peter’s personal pet project and he imported all the best pressings from EMI and Phillips and well as DGG – no Angel pressings for him. I had started working for Peter (it was a way for me to keep body and soul together as the ASO was not a full time concern, excellent as it was) since September of 1978 – working out of the stereo shop, which was renamed Mom’s Warehouse and started catering to the general populace, rather than the high end audio specialist. I also assisted his rug emporium manager, Egon Soika from time to time. Egon was originally from Silesia, and was quite knowledgeable about music and oriental rugs – he wrote all the ASO program notes. I enjoyed working with him and talking about music and getting his take on things. Egon was a gentle soul and a good man. Peter had a way of getting good people to work for him. Working with Egon was fun, but it lasted all of six months, as Egon died suddenly of a stroke in early 1979 at the age of fifty-eight. I still miss him. I worked for Peter through the stereo shop for about a year and a half, until I left Albany. I could write a whole chapter on my experiences working for him, but suffice it to say that it was fun!

Little Symphony Assistant Conductor

One day, Peter called me into his office on Central Avenue (next to Mom’s Warehouse, where I was working) and told me that he had been having conversations with Julius Hegyi, the ASO’s music director about me, and that Julius was most impressed with my abilities and was considering making me his assistant conductor of the Albany Little Symphony, and what did I think of that? I was speechless – one of the very few times that I can actually remember being at a loss for words. I knew that he liked my work, but had no idea just how highly he regarded it.
I need to digress her for a moment and explain what the Little Symphony was and its purpose.
The Little Symphony was drawn from the body of the ASO, and was made of 19 first chair musicians – concertmaster and three violins; three violas; three cellos; bass; oboe, flute; clarinet; bassoon; horn; trumpet; trombone and percussion. What they would do is rehearse a program designed for presentation to children from pre-school age (tiny tots) to fourth grade age. (Regular school day concerts were presented by the ASO during the regular season.) They then went out to various locations in the Albany/Troy Area – about twenty times a season.
Julius was finding his commitments to Williams College gradually conflicting with some of the Little Symphony dates, so he was requesting my services as assistant, which meant that I would be conducting several of the concerts in hi stead. In order to prepare for this, I would attend the ALSO’s rehearsal, and rehearse/conduct several of the works on the program “to get my feet wet.” Julius would then assign me a number of concerts to conduct and present in his stead.
I had never conducted anything larger than my college orchestral conducting class orchestra at Manhattan School of Music, and I was naturally apprehensive. All this occurred in the early spring of 1979. Peter happened to have extra scores of the music for me to study. They included Copland’s John Henry; Schubert’s “Unfinished” with appropriate cuts; Saint-Saens’ “Danse Macabre”, and the Allegro from Rossini’s “William Tell Overture”, among another things.
It turned out that the Little Symphony was rehearsing in a week’s time, and I had a week to get up to snuff. Luckily, I had resource to recordings and I already knew most of the repertoire. I knew all the players, and they knew me, so I knew that they would be supportive up to a point. Barry Richman did the percussion, so that made me feel better, as did the fact that my friend from Lake George Opera Festival Rich Ross – played the trombone.
I was more nervous about conducting in front of Julius – than I was of standing up in front of the musicians and conducting them.
The appointed day arrived, and I was at the Palace Theater especially early. I greeted each of the musicians, then took a seat in the theater as Julius put the musicians through their paces. Then, it was my turn. He turned to me, and said – “You do the Copland.” I got up, took my place in front of the musicians, and took them through the Copland, luckily without incident. He then had me do the Schubert, and then the rehearsal was over. He took me aside and filled me in as to the nature of the programs – each was about forty minutes long – with commentary. He suggested that I attend one of the programs that he would be conducting in the outskirts of Troy – these events were usually done at a local public school or community center. I agreed, and he gave me the date, and the evening was over.
A few days later, I rode to the event with Barry and watched as Julius gave a very professional and polished performance – he didn’t talk down to the little ones, but made them feel welcome and knew how to make them want to enjoy the music. That was the teacher in him – and he was at his best. I knew that I had to follow his lead and tailor the programs to each age group.
My first efforts were OK, although I had to learn how deal with the organizers of each event, usually a group of parents at each venue. The musical part went well, and the musicians assured me that I was doing a good job. With the parent/organizers, it took a little getting ued to. I had to make sure that I did not rush the program – that a forty minute program was forty minutes – and not thirty-five as one organizer let me know in no uncertain terms.
After the first three or four such events, they ran more smoothly, and the fact that Julius scheduled me to do eight or nine more the following season led me to believe that he and the ASO was satisfied with my efforts.

ASO Highlights 1978-80

Now that the ASO had proper timpani, we were very careful to take care of them. I always made sure that the head protectors and covers were on the instruments and that theyb were properly maintained. For the most part, the drums stayed at the Palace Theater, and were only moved when the orchestra had concerts at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. On those evenings when we had a rehearsal at he Hall, I’d take a bus over to Troy (I did not get my license or drive a car until after I left Albany) and had an early dinner at a local greasy-spoon near the hall. One night, I happened to notice one of our Hinger timpani- stripped of its protective cover and head cover – being hauled up to

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

the level of the concert hall by rope and pulley. As the hall was situated on TOP of the bank, there was no other way to get it up to hall level (the building was then nearly 100 years old). I nearly had a stroke when I saw that! Fortunately, the movers were thorough professionals and knew their business, but I always made it a point to double-check my instruments thoroughly before each Troy concert series. I also made it a point to be elsewhere when they loaded the instruments in in that manner, as it was painful to behold.
Those last two seasons were chockfull of good repertoire. The highlight for me of the 1978-79 season was the world premiere of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s 8th Symphony at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on May 5, 1979, and repeated at the Palace Theater in Albany a day later. Mr. Arnold was not yet Sir Malcolm, and he was approached by the Rustam K. Kermani Foundation (headed by Peter Kermani and named for his late father) to write a symphony to be played by the Albany Symphony. After many months, the work was completed, and although the composer was not able to be present, he sent us his greetings and apparently heard the radio broadcast and was quite pleased. It is an extremely approachable work – with the typical Malcolm Arnold use of timpani and percussion. It is a shame that the resources to record the work were not yet in place as they were a few years after I left, when the ASO recorded the music of the British composer George Lloyd, but that was only because Peter had not yet founded Albany Records.
Other highlights from my final two seasons included performances of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony; Liszt’s symphonic poem Nr. 14 “Hunnenschlact”; Brahm’s Third Symphony; Holst’s “The Planets”; Aullis Sallinen’s Third Symphony (which was a North American premiere) and Brahms’s Second Symphony. Also there were performances of John Corigliano’s Oboe Concerto, with Randall Ellis at his formidable best.
Of these performances, I recall the Holst as being a lot of fun, as well as a challenge. It was my first crack at this, one of my very favorite pieces. Rich Albagli (in earlier blogs I referred to him as Dick, and I now correct myself – with the help of one of my successors in the ASO- he was always called Richard, or Rich) played second timpani, and the women of the Capitol Hill Choral Society provided the women’s voices in the last movement, “Neptune.” I remember having a little fun during rehearsals of “Neptune” –Barry, Joe and I (Rich was the adult in these matters) sang the women’s parts in falsetto – not very well – Julius made a face and said – “Guys- come on… and we cut it out, but not until we had our fun. The concert went off very well, and we percussionist’s reveled in it.
The Aullis Sallinen Third Symphony had its North American premiere at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and was repeated te following evening at the Palace Theater in Albany. Julius’ preparations were meticulous as always and the performance was very good – for the most part. Near the end of the final movement, there was a disturbance from the audience that caused the performance to start going off the rails. One of the audience – an older lady who apparently did not like the music and she stormed out of her seat, and slammed the exit door nearest her. The hall is made of wood, and every noise is magnified. This sounded like a cannon shot and was so loud, that it distracted us all. Julius was conducting from memory and doing a great job, but could sense the performance getting away from him, through no fault of his own. Rich and I and Luther Everly, our tuba player – had a long series of triplets near the end of the symphony – very obviously leading to the final note. Each of us looked at each other and came to the same conclusion – we counted one-two-three-four and played those triplets as if they were the end of the world. Everybody locked on to those triplets and we all ended together. Julius thanked us later on, saying that the performance had been saved. These things happen, but not very often. The performance in Albany the next day was perfect, and we all felt vindicated.
My last performances with the ASO were in May 1980, and the program included Berlioz’ Overture “Franc-juges” and Brahms’ Second Symphony. I thoroughly enjoyed these performances, not knowing that in the fall of 1980, I would have relocated to another city in another state, and one chapter in my musical career would end and another begin.