Journal of the Conductors Guild Volume 23, Nos. 1 & 2 Winter/Spring - Summer/Fall 2002 6219 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60660 Table of Contents T: (773) 764-7563; F: (773) 764-7564 E-mail: [email protected] Commentary page 1 [email protected] . Advancing the Art and Profession Website: www.conductorsguild.org Interview with Augusta Read page 2 Thomas Officers by Reed Perkins Harlan D. Parker, President Tonu Kalam, Secretary Emily Freeman Brown, President-Elect Frederick Peter Morden, Treasurer Rachmaninoff ’s First Symphony: page 17 Michael Griffith, Vice-President Wes Kenney, Past President Emotional Crisis and Board of Directors Genius Interred by Emanuel E. Garcia, M.D. Virginia A. Allen Jonathan D. Green* Mark Scatterday Henry Bloch* Murray Gross Lawrence L. Smith Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem: page 30 Glenn Block Alan Harler Mariusz Smolij Notes on Conducting Mark Cedel Thomas Joiner Jonathan Sternberg* by Paul Vermel Charles P. Conrad* John Koshak Alton Thompson William H. Curry Anthony LaGruth Diane M. Wittry Mozart’s Musical Aesthetics page 39 Sandra Dackow Michael Luxner Burton Zipser* Allan Dennis Kirk Muspratt * ex-officio by Benjamin Simkin, M.D. Robert Freeman Melinda P. O’Neal Advisory Council Jean-Baptiste Lully and the page 43 Establishment of the Orchestra Adrian Gnam Charles Ansbacher Donald Portnoy by Robert Ricks Michael Charry Samuel Jones Barbara Schubert Sergiu Comissiona Daniel Lewis Gunther Schuller Harold Farberman Larry Newland Topical Discourse: Toward a Finer page 53 th Lukas Foss Maurice Peress Understanding of 18 -Century Musical Expression Theodore Thomas Award Winners by Jeffrey Bell-Hanson Claudio Abbado Frederick Fennel Robert Shaw Maurice Abravanel Margaret Hillis Leonard Slatkin Are Large Ensembles Getting page 67 Leon Barzin James Levine Sir Georg Solti Too Loud? Leonard Bernstein Kurt Masur by Christopher Weait Pierre Boulez Max Rudolf Thelma A. Robinson Award Winners Scores & Parts page 69 Joaquín Rodrigo’s Fantasía Beatrice Jona Affron Miriam Burns Laura Rexroth Steven Martyn Zike para un Gentilhombre Eric Bell Kevin Geraldi Annunziata Tomaro by Clinton Nieweg Max Rudolf Award Winners with Elizabeth A. Cusato Gustav Meier Otto-Werner Mueller Gunther Schuller Books in Review page 78 ***** Journal of the Conductors Guild John Koshak, The Conductor’s Editor Jonathan D. Green Role: Preparation for Individual Founding Editor Jacques Voois Study, Rehearsal and Performance Production Staff reviewed by Mark Camphouse Executive Director R. Kevin Paul Publications Coordinator Sarabeth Gheith John Ardoin, Valery Gergiev and Administrative Assistant Sarabeth Gheith the Kirov Production Quicker Printers reviewed by Henry Bloch The publication date of the present double issue of the Journal of the Conductors Guild is December, 2002. Effective Volume 13, the Journal of the Conductors Guild has been published semi-annually, the two issues being numbered 1 and 2; the seasonal references remain unchanged, as is its length.The Conductors Guild reserves the right to approve and edit all material submitted for publication. Publication of advertising is not necessarily an endorsement and the Conductors Guild reserves the right to refuse to print any advertisement. Library of Congress No. 82-644733. Copyright © 2002 by Conductors Guild, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0734-1032. CONDUCTORS GUILD ...Advancing the Art and Profession Mission of the Conductors Guild The Conductors Guild is dedicated to encouraging and promoting the highest standards in the art and profession of conducting. The Conductors Guild is the only music service organization devoted exclusively to the advancement of the art of conducting and to serving the artistic and professional needs of conductors. The Guild is international in scope, with a membership of over 1,900 individual and institutional members representing all fifty states and more than thirty countries, including conductors of major stature and international renown. Membership is open to all conductors and institutions involved with instrumental and/or vocal music, including symphony and chamber orchestra, opera, ballet/dance, chorus, music theatre, wind ensemble and band. History of the Conductors Guild The Conductors Guild was founded in 1975 at the San Diego Conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League, and it continued for a decade as a subsidiary of that organization. In 1985 the Guild became independent. Since then, it has expanded its services and solidified its role as a collective voice for conductors’ interest everywhere. It is supported by membership dues, grants, donations and program fees and is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit corporation. Purposes of the Conductors Guild 1. To share and exchange relevant musical and professional information about the art of conducting orchestras, bands, choruses, opera, ballet, musical theater and other instrumental and vocal ensembles; 2. To support the development and training of conductors through workshops seminars, and symposia on the art of conducting, including, but not limited to, its history, development and current practice; 3. To publish periodicals, newsletters and other writings on the art, history and practice of the profession of conducting; 4. To enhance the professionalism of conductors by serving as a clearing house for knowledge and information regarding the art and practice of conducting; 5. To serve as an advocate for conductors throughout the world; 6. To support the artistic growth of orchestras, bands, choruses and other conducted ensembles; and 7. To communicate to the music community the views and opinions of the Guild. Commentary The role of conductors today is quite different from what it was even a few years ago, but perhaps not so different from what it was centuries ago. Many of us have become modern-day Kapellmeistern, directing choirs, orchestras, and bands; leading fundraising and marketing campaigns; and in some cases arranging and composing the works we are rehearsing. During the Guild’s relatively brief existence we have gone from a relatively small constituency of orchestral conductors to an international organization comprising directors of every sort of ensemble. As we have grown in diversity, our individual breadth has followed in kind. By virtue of our shared interest in music making, we continually cross-pollinate our work with ideas from other genres and periods. Erich Leinsdorf’s entreaty that music directors must inform their performances with every bit of accessible data has become par for the course. With this in mind, we have a rich assortment of articles spanning much of “the art and profession.” Manuel Garcia has produced an interesting study of Rachmaninoff’s career from a psychological perspective. Robert Ricks presents an informative and provocative survey of Lully’s orchestra. Reed Perkins has supplied a spirited interview with Augusta Read Thomas, who in my opinion is one of contemporary music’s brightest lights. Paul Vermel has assembled a very useful field guide for navigating Britten’s War Requiem with a single conductor. Henry Bloch has reviewed an interesting new book about Gergiev and the Kirov, and Mark Camphouse presents a review of the newest edition of John Koshak’s much-admired conducting textbook. We are delighted to thank Jacques Voois for his editorial work in concert with Dr. Garcia, and to congratulate Sarabeth Gheith for bringing this issue of JCG up-to-date. Happy Reading! Cheers, Jonathan D. Green JCG Vol. 23, Nos. 1 & 2 1 Interview with Augusta Read Thomas By Reed Perkins One of the highlights of the Guild’s 2002 Annual speaking style in hopes that it will give the reader a clearer Conference in Chicago was the lively hour spent in sense of the composer as an artist and individual. discussion with Augusta Read Thomas, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in Residence. RP: You have recently renewed your commitment to the Augusta Read Thomas was born in New York in 1964, Chicago Symphony as its Mead Composer-in-Residence, a and has composed for most of her life. In the last fifteen position you will hold through 2006. Could you talk about years she has composed on commissions from many of your relationship to the CSO? How did it begin? the world’s leading soloists, conductors, orchestras, choirs, wind and chamber ensembles. In describing her ART: The chance to be with the Chicago Symphony music, the Chicago Tribune’s John von Rhein wrote: Orchestra is really one of the best things that has ever “Thomas’ music, particularly her orchestral music, fairly happened in my life. I suppose I would say a few things explodes with an extroverted boldness of utterance happened that were really, really, great: One was meeting audiences and musicians alike find challenging yet my husband [composer Bernard Rands] for example. immediate. It’s music that doesn’t sound like anybody One was getting the job at the Eastman School of Music else’s— music that insists you pay attention.” where I taught for nine years, although I’ve now switched to Northwestern. And one is the CSO job. There are a She currently holds the only fully endowed composer- few things in life that happen that really change your life, in-residence position for a major American orchestra and and this is so important to me. teaches at the Northwestern University School of Music. She is also the recipient of many of music’s most Actually, my very first relationship with the Chicago distinguished awards, most recently the Ernst von Siemens Symphony Orchestra was when the Civic Orchestra read a Music Prize 2000, and an award from the American piece of mine, which was conducted by Cliff Colnot in a Academy of Arts and Letters (2001) for lifetime reading session which lasted, maybe, an hour. And that achievement in music and as a composer who has arrived would have been, my Lord, a long time ago, 1990 or so. at her own voice. For more information on her life and Then I was commissioned in 1995 to write for the Ernst & works see her website: www.augustareadthomas.com or Young Foundation in which they try to commission a younger her publisher’s, G.