Back in January 2009 (!), self diaried about the overuse of the phrase "our orchestra" by Chicago Tribune classical critic John von Rhein (JvR for short) in describing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). While I haven't followed up on whether JvR has cut back on using the phrase (although 'teh Google' would indicate that most of his uses in articles available on-line are well before 2009), I did notice that a variant on the "our orchestra" tic popped up in his review of the CSO's opening concert 2 nights ago. More below the flip.....
First, the CSO program is this one, which is actually a cool program, since none of is classical "top 100":
Dvořák: Symphony No. 5 in F, op. 76
Giuseppe Martucci: Notturno (Nocturne)
Respighi: Feste Romane (Roman Festivals)
Wish the orchestra would do this kind of program here, but fat chance of that.
Next, JvR's review, with the money phrase in question:
"Respighi's Technicolor tone poem – the third and least familiar of a Roman trilogy that includes The Fountains of Rome and The Pines of Rome – is a natural for our hot-blooded Italian maestro, even if the native Neapolitan has only recently adopted Rome as one of his cities of residence."
It seems some things don't change, or simply evolve. Another trawl on Google indicated similar variations on the "our" mannerism with reference to other conductors (
emphasis mine, of course):
(a) Opening paragraph of 2/23/2008 review:
"Pierre Boulez will be taking the Chicago Symphony Orchestra back to New York's Carnegie Hall next week, and the bracing program our conductor emeritus directed Thursday night at Symphony Center will be part of their tour baggage, along with the Berio-Berlioz-Stravinsky program he led here earlier this month."
(b) Opening paragraph of
6/12/2010 review, with Bernard Haitink, the CSO's principal conductor at the time, leading the CSO in a Beethoven cycle:
"Our principal conductor arrived at roughly the midpoint of his three-week traversal of the nine Beethoven symphonies with a pairing of Nos. 4 and 6 ("Pastoral")"
Getting back to the CSO program, JvR did comment, where I actually agree with him:
"Shame on symphony orchestras for neglecting Dvorak's F major symphony. I, for one, would gladly forgo yet another performance of the New World Symphony in favor of this warmly ingratiating score, the first important work of his maturity."
One irony, as the CSO program note indicates, is that:
"To the late nineteenth century, Dvořák was the composer of five - not nine - symphonies. His first four, never published during his lifetime, were unknown, and so his last, From the New World, spent its first half century as no. 5. The F major symphony performed at these concerts is really Dvořák's fifth, although it took some time to get this all straightened out."
Just to show that classical music program notes can occasionally show a sense of humor, if dry humor, the next sentence says:
"Like his nineteenth-century colleagues Schubert and Bruckner, Dvořák has been good to musicologists, who sometimes make a living cleaning up after the fact."
Going back to the review, 3CM's trivial sniping aside, it may be just as well that JvR was near-nauseatingly nice to the orchestra in the review this week. As he pointed out, the musician's contract expired earlier this week. Thus the CSO is performing without a contract. JvR noted:
"There is yet no new contract to replace the labor agreement that expired Sept. 16, and a further bargaining session is scheduled for Saturday. A management spokeswoman says only that 'talks have been constructive and are ongoing.'
As negotiations continue, the musicians union has refrained from taking any action, no doubt out of respect for Muti and the players and for the fact that several important things are riding on the September concerts going ahead as scheduled, not least the orchestra's and Muti's early-October tour to Carnegie Hall and Mexico."
Let's hope the CSO works out the contract soon and smoothly, and that their tour goes well. BTW, if you want to check out some YT videos of some of the music:
Dvořák:
Martucci:
Respighi:
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week.....
UPDATE (9/23/12): The musicians of the CSO went on strike last night at 6:30 PM, 90 minutes before the scheduled start of last night's concert. Chicago Tribune article on the strike is here.