The 2008 Olympic Games’ Opening Ceremony has been and gone - my favourite part would have to be the appearance of the Microsoft Windows’ “blue screen of death” instead of one of the projected images just before the lighting of the cauldron - absolute artistic brilliance there from Microsoft :P Following this, I welcomed some first timers to Siena, Italy (Marianna & Gray - benvenuto) and will very soon be welcoming many others for the countdown :) On Sunday night, watched a beautiful concert given by the same orchestra I am working with (with their chief conductor, Alipi Naidenov) which culminated in hearing a fantastic version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, however not the usual Ravel version but one by Sergej Gorcakov. Over the last few days I’ve worked mainly on Beethoven’s 7th Symphony and Brahms’ 2nd Symphony. Coming up, Beethoven’s 5th and 9th. Here is a video of Brahms’ 2nd… ciao!
Where to start! I have been here conducting in Siena for over a fortnight and still haven’t written anything! Now is the first time I have had even a couple of minutes to write :P At the same time as the International Music Festival here in Siena is the International Jazz Festival and last week I had the pleasure to see “The Manhattan Transfer” live in Piazza del Campo in Siena. What fun and brilliant music. Over the last two weeks I have conducted half of the symphonies by Beethoven and other works by Mozart, Ravel, Mendelssohn, etc. I have almost finished the Beethoven cycle and well into the Brahms’ cycle now. Although I am completely exhausted, the cooking is improving and having great fun improvising dishes! For anyone coming to Siena, I HIGHLY recommend Villa il Borghetto. An incredible villa where I am staying with my good friend and incredible musician Alessandro Cadario in the hills of Tuscany with the most friendly and wonderful service imaginable. It’s an absolute delight in every way and there is photo below of the view from my bedroom. Now I must get back to preparing the endless scores! I just have to keep watch for scorpions in Siena. They are not very friendly.
Welcome to Siena, Tuscany, Italy! Straight off the plane and in to rehearse the overture to W.A. Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte - would have liked a shower! No amount of compliments, sexy dress or bribery seems to get a business class upgrade these days. Why lately has the conscience been so much at the forefront of daily life? :P So as not to disappoint, I will continue the tradition and below you can see the delicate cuisine on board Singapore Airlines from Sydney to Milan. Ciao!!
More and more it seems to me that performing groups are programming contemporary works ‘just because’. At a recent concert I attended, the entire program consisted of atonal music, except for one piece. I admit, one of these atonal works was fantastic. However, the overall program completely alienated the audience who I spoke to after the concert. They will no longer subscribe to this group as they have “lost trust”. For me, this is not an argument about ‘new music’, for this is essential to encourage the human mind. Rather, I look at ‘good music’. I have come across a lot of music I wouldn’t even consider on the dinner table (a little like serving a meal of chicken feet and fish eyes to a western audience), however some of this music was written last week and other works, 200 years ago! I couldn’t pay to receive audience knowledge like this! By all means, program new or unknown music, but once the audience loses trust, your values and options are reduced. I hope never to program new music for new music’s sake, rather, only for the audience’s. Without an audience to hear it, there is no music!
One large conductor, or two small assistant conductors
Ketchup
26 large cloves of garlic
Lard
1 cask of cheap wine
1 pound of bean sprouts
(honey)
2 pounds of yuppie food such as tofu or yoghurt
1 abused orchestra
Method
Catch a conductor. Remove tails and horns. Carefully separate the large ego and reserve for sauce.
Remove any batons, pencils (on permanent loan from the Principle Second Violin) and articulations, and discard.
Remove hearing aid and discard (it never worked anyway). Examine your conductor carefully - many of them are mostly large intestine. If you have such a conductor, you will have to discard it and catch another.
Clean conductor as you would a squid, but do not separate the tentacles from the body. If it’s a good quality conductor such as from a major symphony orchestra you may wish to make it more tender by pounding the conductor on a rock with timpani mallets or by smashing the conductor between two large cymbals.
Pour 1/2 of the cask of wine into a bath tub and soak the conductor in wine for at least 12 hours.
When the conductor is sufficiently marinated remove any clothes the conductor may be wearing and rub it all over with the garlic.
Cover your conductor with the lard using vague slow circulating motions. Take care to ensure that every inch is covered.
Take your orchestra and put as much music out as the stands will hold without falling over, and make sure that there are lots of really loud passages for everyone, big loud chords for the winds and brass, and lots and lots of tremolos for the strings (Bruckner might be appropriate)
Rehearse these passages several times, making certain that the brass and winds are always playing as loud as they can, and that the strings are tremolo-ing at their highest speed. This should ensure adequate flames for cooking your conductor, if not, insist on taking every repeat and to be sure to add the second repeats in really large symphonies. If taking all the repeats does not generate sufficient flames, burn the complete set of scores and parts to all of the Bruckner symphonies.
When the flames have dies down to a medium inferno, place your conductor on top of the orchestra (they won’t mind as they are used to it) until it is well tanned, the hair turns back to its natural colour, and all of the fat has dripped out.
Be careful not to overcook or your conductor could end up tasting like stuffed ham.
Make a sauce by combining the ego, sprouts, and ketchup to taste, placing it all in the blender, and pureeing until smooth.
If the ego is bitter, sweeten with honey to taste.
Slice your conductor as you would with any turkey.
Serve accompanied by the yuppie food, and the remaining wine with the sauce on the side.
Warning
Due to environmental toxins present in conductor feeding areas such as heavy metals, oily residue from intensive PR machinery manufacturer and extraordinarily high concentrations of E. coli, cryptosporidium and other hazardous organisms associated with animal waste, the Department for Conductor Decimation (DCD) recommends that consumption of conductors be limited to one per season.
Today I witnessed a meeting of two major corporations trying to merge together, one from Australia and one from the UK - their members voting for or against the merger (well, the UK company buying out the Australian one). Always the argument presented was that the merger would benefit the members. It was funny that the vote meeting was even held, the decision had already been made! What a pathetic waste of time. After this, reading the newspaper, two of Australia’s biggest banks are planning the same thing. What happens ten years down the track when these super-companies merge with other super-companies. Let’s see if democracy still exists then.
Right now I’m going 1022km/hr. Just over five hours out of Rome, over the United Arab Emirates. After two months in bella Roma working with two of the most famous operas in the world, Puccini’s Fanciulla del West (Girl of the Golden West) and Tosca, it’s time to head back Down Under to prepare for a very exciting next 7 months. Soon, more information will be released but it includes conducting the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms! Closing night was a huge success for Tosca (there are some photos below!) and on my last night in Rome, I witnessed a magnificent performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Orchestra of St. Cecilia, the main symphony orchestra of Rome. As I make the 24-hour flight back to Australia with plenty of time to reminisce about the past months, I think of how lucky I am to be able to have achieved what I have, see what I see, and have the friends and family that I have. Thank you everyone, every day gets more exciting :D
I can’t believe how many students come to watch the opera here. When I asked how much they pay, the answer was €3,00. That’s about AUD$5.00! The theatre was completely full. What they don’t sell to the public three days before a concert goes to the students at these prices or late sales. Why Australian performances don’t do this, I really don’t know! It fills the hall (benefits everyone) using seats that were probably not going to be used anyway, educates the youth (benefits everyone) & creates a new audience for the future (benefits everyone). In Sydney, most student rush (if at all) is only available one hour prior to a performance so that often you must leave home before even knowing if tickets are available and these tickets are usually around AUD$25. Add parking at around AUD$25-$30 and find a student who can afford this. The marketing for this student rush in Italy is also brilliant. There are no restrictions on seating, it’s best available so sometimes you’ll end up with seats past Jupiter and other times you’ll be write down in the centre. The hype surrounding these full houses is incredible and has made the demand for normal tickets rise also. Brilliant! The preview is out for The Tower of Druaga I recorded the soundtrack for a few months ago, take a look! :)
