Some of you may use Google Translator in your work, or leisure time activity. This opener actually only becomes relevant at the end of this SNLC (preening bait-&-switch loser, that 3CM - hmph). I mention this only because I stumbled across this NYT article 2 Wednesdays back, about the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra (MSRSO), which is in the homestretch of a 2-month tour of the US, about 50-ish concerts, beginning in Birmingham, AL on 1/16 and concluding in San Luis Obispo on 3/21. Tonight, they're in Las Vegas at UNLV. So why talk about them in SNLC? Well....
It starts from the fact that, as orchestras go, they're not all that famous. Among contemporary Russian orchestras, perhaps the most famous right now is the Mariinsky Orchesta, which just played Carnegie Hall this week. By contrast, the MSRSO, when they were in NYC, played at Lehman College. That's fine, and there's nothing wrong with Lehman College. It just ain't Carnegie Hall, in terms of prestige, but few places are.
Some early reviews are as follows, and they're pretty harsh:
Michael Huebner, The Birmingham News
"Except for violin and cello soloists, this was a prosaic, often soulless succession of notes, further skewed by shaky intonation in the woodwinds and a horn section that had some in the audience shifting uncomfortably in their chairs."
Joe Banno, South Florida Classical Review
"The heart sank with the first wind chord of the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture, as it opened the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra's all-Tchaikovsky program at the Kravis Center on Tuesday. Here was an ensemble of allegedly professional musicians – who must have had Tchaikovsky spoon-fed to them from their earliest years – kicking off one of the composer's most ubiquitously popular hits with queasy intonation and far-from-mellifluous blend. That might be forgivable if things rapidly improved. But the twenty-odd minutes of the overture brought all manner of gaffes and wince-inducing moments, from muffed entrances to raw tone, poor balances to ham-fisted delivery."
Scott Warfield, Orlando Sentinel
"....Sunday's concert was something of a disappointment, and it is not easy to put the blame in any one place. It is not clear how long the orchestra has been in the United States, and so it is hard to tell if the vicissitudes of travel have taken their toll or if the orchestra has yet to settle into its touring routine.
Regardless of the reason, the performance simply lacked the polish that one expects from a world-class ensemble. For the most part, the notes were played reasonably well — with the exception of the horn section, which seemed intent on turning several of their most exposed passages into near calamities — and the two soloists both were stellar technicians."
It wasn't much better later, in Kansas City, per Lee Hartman, writing at KCMetropolis.org, such as in the performance of the Suite No. 4 (Mozartiana):
"The theme and variations fourth movement caused many cellists to simply stop playing in the middle of a difficult run. The poor concertmistress was visibly nervous in performing the solo passages."
Wakin's article mentioned another reason why the orchestra's playing may have been so slipshod in places, quoting an unnamed orchestra member whom Wakin evidently met at Lehman college:
""There's a direct relationship between how we play and how much we get paid".
So how much are they paid for their labors? Per Wakin:
"About $40 a concert in most cases, the musicians said. Per diems? Zero, making 'breakfast included' the sweetest of words."
Ouch. Apparently one musician took his disdain for the conditions to an extreme in real time, per Hartman:
"In a stellar instance of player apathy, one gentleman faked every passage he was supposed to play. His stand partner shot him many side-long glances to no avail. His visible acts of defiance, nonchalance and/or civil disobedience became a source of comedy for the rest of the night."
I doubt he'll play again with this orchestra, but then he may not want to.
One report with a lighter spin on the tour was from Sarah Lichtman, a student at Radford University, who wrote this profile in The Tartan, Radford's campus paper, on MSRSO percussionist Oleg Vorobiov, where she cites him thus:
"According to Vorobiov, although the schedule is grueling, the travel is a good experience. He and the other musicians enjoy the opportunity to sightsee and shop during the tour."
However, if you go back to Wakin's article, regarding sightseeing, some musicians said:
"....they had come to see the United States but had little opportunity. Several said that a kindly bus driver had taken them into New York on a day off while they were staying in New Jersey."
It's also kind of odd to read from Lichtman's article this quote from the orchestra's boss:
'"We are very happy to play here and expose our great composer to the American people," said Anatoly Nemudrov, General Director of the Orchestra.'
The irony of reading that statement is that Tchaikovsky, of all composers, does not need additional "exposure" to American orchestra audiences. Just having Pyotr Ilyich's name as one of the composers on the program guarantees attention, practically anytime, anywhere. If Tchaikovsky's music did not exist, the economic situation of classical music everywhere would be even more dire than it already is.
Wakin has this post on the NYT's ArtsBeat blog as a follow-up for people to chime in on the article, as well as seeing the orchestra on tour. One kind posting from a concertgoer who ID's him/herself as "Almost There" at the performance at UIUC, Krannert Center posted:
"I attended a performance by this orchestra in Urbana, Illinois, where these wonderful musicians performed on two consecutive evenings. The concert I attended was free for all High school kids in the area and their parents. There were at least a thousand people in attendance and the audience was both very well behaved and incredibly enthusiastic. True, the orchestra was not as fine tuned a group as the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra or the Gewandhaus -- all regulars here. But they played their hearts out and I could hear (excellent acoustics in our hall) that the individual musicianship was on a very high level. Plus the enthusiasm of the audience was infectious. To all the real or almost real Muscovites on stage: Thanks so much. I am sorry you are not compensated well, but the many families in Central Illinois who heard you truly had a wonderful time. Classical music is alive and well in our public schools and small towns and your visit meant a lot to us."
Not to be too cynical, but one wonders if perhaps this person heard the second night's performance, where by implication, the orchestra would have had a day's rest and not been on the road that same day.
They did pass through town here, but I didn't go. Of course, I only saw Wakin's article the next day. I did hear from a friend who was there that they were pretty good. The Cathedral Basilica, however, has massive resonance, on the order of 7 seconds, so that anything can be either potentially covered up or amplified, depending on one's POV.
One wonders if people might reach out more to them as a result of this article. But the one guy who was "faking it" perhaps didn't get at the time, shortly after the article appeared, that this tour and this ensemble has a fair bit more US national attention than it did before, at least among classical music aficionados. Or maybe he doesn't care.
Oh, and if you're wondering about Google Translator back in the 1st sentence, I thought of a 30-year old song that seemed rather oddly appropriate to the theme of this orchestra on tour. I fed the lyrics into Google Translator, with one or two tweaks to make sure that actual Russian (or at least Cyrillic-looking) words came out. You might be able to guess the song, even without feeling the Romanized title back into Google Translator. This is what showed up:
"По дороге снова
По дороге снова,
Просто не терпится вернуться на дорогу
Жизнь, которую я люблю это делать музыку с моими друзьями,
Я не могу ждать, чтобы попасть на дорогу.
По дороге снова,
Посещать места, которые я никогда не был.
Увидев, что я никогда не увидим снова
Я не могу ждать, чтобы попасть на дорогу.
По дороге снова,
Как группа цыган мы идем по шоссе
Мы лучшие друзья.
Настаивая на том, что мир держать поворота пути
И наш образ...
По дороге снова,
Просто не терпится вернуться на дорогу
Жизнь, которую я люблю это делать музыку с моими друзьями,
Я не могу ждать, чтобы попасть на дорогу."
So, it's Saturday night, and once you've gotten past the mild shock of seeing this much Cyrillic text in a DK diary :) , time for the usual SNLC protocol below, namely your loser stories of the week. Have fun, kids....