So its been just over a month since I last updated things on here. Well once again I am sitting in Denver airport waiting for a flight, this time to LHR - Denver hub B must be one of the longest uninterrupted corridors anywhere, it really goes on for ever. I would get some exercise and walk the entire thing if it wasn't for the fact that I am having to lug around both my violin in its tank like (but fantastic) Gorge case and my laptop bag which at the moment has the complete Tchaik and Beethoven 8 and Schubert 8 symphonies in it! Maybe something with wheels should be my next purchase.
The second half of Aspen was as amazing as the first, but slightly more tiring. I did a Handel opera scenes master class on Semele with the fantastic Nicholas Kraemer, conducted Elgar's Pomp 5 and much more. It amazed me to learn that in America they use Pomp and Circumstance March 1 for their Graduations. Oh how I would wish to be there and burst into Land of Hope and glory in the trio section. Not many knew that there were words to half of it and they were a little disheartened to find out that they were about the "Mother of the free"!
I am not sure if I will really realise just how much I have learnt from the whole experience until well into next year. However, already, the past two months have re-instilled in me the fact that one can do so much and yet appear to show so little. Both Zinman and Boulez are very different to the conductor I am trying and aspire to be, yet they are both masters of what they do. What is clear in both of their 'on podium' actions is that they have a real grounding, rhythm and control in everything they do, yet do it in the most concise and refined manner conceivable.
Zinman is very concerned with letting the orchestra play and creating an environment in which they can achieve this. The two months also made me realise that however good a musician one is if your beat is not clear then so much less is achieved while up there in front of the orchestra. It's an obvious statement to make but it's something that far too many conductors forget. When I think about the conductors who I have worked under and those who I place in the top rank (for me it only numbers a few...) what tends to separate the great from the truly masterful is whether or not you have to try to understand what they are doing. With Zinman one simply feels so safe in 'his hands', so to speak, that you really want to play and also feel that you can concentrate on making a great sound and he will sort everything else out.
Being at Aspen really made think hard about the state of modern music in programming and the role it plays in the USA. I heard a great Symphony by Harbison and an incredible arrangement of Schubert songs by Golijov (look out for them at the proms this Saturday). But I also heard a truly awful double violin concerto by Tsontakis, I think made much worse by those who were playing it (I must actually look into his music more), and a suite from Lieberson's Ashok's Dream which was such a sad advertisement for new music - nothing happened for 30 minutes. Maybe with words the music comes alive, or so I am told. But enough of the dour section of my post.
I find airports both fascinating and deadly boring. It's interesting to sit here opposite the phone-booth (where the power outlets are) wondering who people are phoning and where the various people on the travellator are heading. I am sitting next to a man who seems to work for Nasa - very impressive - and every one around here seems to own a BlackBerry, the first iphone free zone I have seen since I have been in the States, maybe its a sign I am coming home!
I now have 2 weeks off and then head into 5 weeks of rehearsals of 5 Handel Operas as the music associate for English Touring Opera's HandelFest. I am off to Zinman's Prom with the Tonhalle on Saturday which will be very exciting and interesting.
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