Monday Muse

Hello fans! We thought this would be a nice addition to our blog to include every Monday a quote from a Classical artist or about music. We hope this gets those creative juices flowing for the week! Please tell us what you think and share your responses to the quote.

Our concert this week features Brahms' Second Symphony who, besides being one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period, was a man of simple lifestyle who generous supported the causes of others. Learn more>>

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"What would become of all historical biography if it was written only with consideration for other people's feelings?"
~ Johannes Brahms

Cathy McClelland: My First 5K

Beginning today, we will be welcoming some Guest Bloggers who will be sharing their experience from Bolt for the BSO 2010. Bolt for the BSO is to raise money and awareness of the BSO's mission to provide programs that educate, engage and entertain music lovers of all ages. To learn more about Bolt for the BSO, click here.



Our first guest blogger is Cathy McClelland. This is what she had to say about her experience:

In 2010 I did my first 5K and had the time of my life! Not only did I finish better than I could ever have imagined in the race, I had the best time raising money for the BSO. I not only walked/ran a race for the BSO but I ran a competition with other participants to see who could get the most donors and the most money. Our challenge was who could get the most contributions and from how many countries and states where involved. Everyday I would check to see where I stood in the totals. I hope that this year others will have the same great experience. Wouldn't it be great if we had donations from all 50 states? Staff from the BSO cheered us on and met us at the finish line. I know all of us who participated had a GREAT time. Please join us this year.

Want to help Cathy reach her goal this year? Support her here.

The Tale of Three Captains

Symphony Orchestras are, in so many ways, like ships. They sail many seas, endure numerous storms, enjoy colorful and calm sunrises and sunsets, and drop anchors in many different inlets-all under many different helmsmen turning the wheel and pulling the halyards. I have been privileged to enjoy the guidance of three such helmsmen (of which one happens to be a helms-woman). The latest one is, of course, the current one, Marin Alsop. David Zinman became the first one when he hired me a bit over twenty years ago. The one in the middle, Yuri Temirkanov, I had the pleasure of hearing and seeing at Strathmore Center on Tuesday night, as he steered and navigated the mighty ship named St. Petersburg Philharmonic, on their tour of the United States.

As I settled into an unfamiliar seat (the only ones whose feel I know were about to be occupied on stage by the orchestra members), realizing that I have never taken in a concert at Strathmore from that vantage point, I was pondering how many of my fellow audience members were wondering if the musicians' bus was running late. The stage was strangely empty, and it was about time for a downbeat. But this orchestra, like many orchestras outside of the U.S., makes a collective entrance that is as dramatic as it is, well, musically sensitive. There is something special about hearing the first piece of music in a concert emerge from a void of musical sound, rather than hearing most of the tunes from the program before the concert actually starts. As they quickly took their seats, that familiar figure of almost aristocratic poise but relatively quick pace emerged from the left, a slight but distinctive smile on his face as he greeted the audience.

The first sounds of Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter's Overture washed over the hall (all right, I'll now try to stop the maritime references) and reminded me and many of the BSO colleagues that traveled south for this concert of the type of sound Maestro Temirkanov drew from us when he was in town. Being of Russian origin, where choral tradition is strong and those deep, sonorous Slavic men's voices dominate the landscape of music, he always build his string sound from the ground up, that ground being thick and very firm underfoot (see, we're back on dry land). The basses in St. Petersburg Philharmonic are situated right behind the first violins, on the left side of the stage, and also behind the cellos, where are in the place familiar to us as reserved for second violins. The effect of this seating is startling and very, well, effective. The orchestra also seemed to sit more closely together, giving them a very cohesive sound that embraced the audience like honey hangs on a spoon. This was especially true in the Brahms' Fourth Symphony, which reminded me of a concert of, I think, his Second Symphony that Temirkanov conducted with the BSO years ago.

The great violinist Pamela Frank was a soloist in that concert, and, she chose, like only very few of her colleagues in the soloist circles, to join us in the second half, playing from the back stand of the Second Violins. As a very inspired and heart-felt reading drew to a close, Temirkanov bowed to the audience, then looked a Pam, in order to acknowledge her once more. I watched his face turn from a smile, to a display of puzzlement, then to maybe a smirk of self-satisfaction, as he seemed to manage to move her to tears. (Another explanation of her reaction is, I think, that as soloists, these incredible musicians sometimes miss out on the many joys of making and creating great music together with so many people on stage).

But I digress, though I really don't want to turn this into a review of the concert-that's better left for the professionals. The soloist in Tuesday's concert was a great cellist Alicia Weilerstein, who played a very deeply felt and energetic, virtuoso performance of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto. Right after, during intermission, Maestro Temirkanov was clearly pleased and touched to see so many of us there. Orchestras and conductors form a bond in every concert, at home and abroad, on tours, and that stays with us a memories never to be forgotten.

There are many such wonderful memories we share with David Zinman and there surely will be those that we'll recall once Marin Alsop leaves town. In the meantime, the ship sails on.

P.S. I understand there are only a few selected tickets left for our performances of Charlie Chaplin's movie The Gold Rush on Saturday night, and maybe a few more for Sunday afternoon. The music is absolutely beautiful and witty, and the movie is, well, Chaplin-definition of a genius. I strongly urge you to come and bring everyone you know. It's a rare movie that everyone in the family can enjoy, and, yes, it is very special when it is accompanied by a live orchestra.

-Ivan Stefanovic

Kids : Our Future

A couple of Saturdays ago I had an unusual break in my usual day-long teaching schedule at the Peabody Preparatory, where I teach violin and coach chamber music and the strings of the Peabody Youth Orchestra. My youngest son, who takes cello lessons and group cello class there, also had a break in his schedule, and, since he has been talking about his desire to repeat our summer trip on Baltimore's free downtown bus, the Circulator, I decided it was time for a fun ride. We walked a few blocks south on St. Paul, toward the Inner Harbor, turned east on Baltimore Street, then sat on a bench on Charles to wait for the Purple Bus to take us back to Mt. Vernon Square. He kept updating me on the bus stop display, alternately looking in the other direction to check on the street how accurate the sign is ("2 minutes away, 1 minute away, arriving"). It finally arrived (I had gotten a bit tired of the updates), and we boarded it. Even though he has been in many different modes of public transportation in his short life, including his favorite electric tramways in my native Belgrade, he still gets pretty excited when he gets the chance to use one. He looked around, wide-eyed, at his fellow passengers and the streets-cape that was passing us by, then, with great aplomb, pressed the "stop requested" button as we started climbing the small hill by Peabody. A half hour later he was all concentration, tongue slightly sticking out of a corner of his mouth, busily trying to match the speed of his teacher's bow in the group class, playing several pieces by memory, even advising his fellow students on proper technique.

Kids his age, some younger and some older, were also on the Meyerhoff stage on Thursday night and Sunday afternoon, playing their debut with the BSO in front of adoring Moms, Dads and siblings, as well as out regular audience. They come from areas of the city where even the free Circulator bus is not an option for a bit of fun because, simply, there may not be anyone available to take them downtown, as both parents might be working most of the day (and some at night). But that didn't stop them from attending the classes of the Bucket Brigade, a beginner percussion program, or later switching to cello, violin or flute, after their regular Elementary school classes, as part of BSO OrchKids program. For those of you that don't know, it's based on an extremely successful program in Venezuela, called El Sistema, which has by now created thousands of kids that play in hundreds of youth orchestras across that underdeveloped country. There are only a couple more such programs in the United States so far. And I say so far, in spite of the recent calls for cutting of public funding for arts in schools, non-profit organizations, and such. The fact is that arts bring millions of dollars to our cities' economies, and without them they could not survive. But, even if not a single of the OrchKids children ends up in the music field as part of their lives, or takes up an instrument to play it again, or even becomes one of our patrons, they will have developed life-long skills of team play, discipline, long-term work that pays off in small increments, patience, and too many more to mention here that they can't get any other way. Their brains will also develop in such way that will increase their success in other fields (and we don't need studies to prove that, OrchKids have the stats if you want to see them).


So let's stop and think where our efforts and money should go. More arenas and stadiums, so that we can subsidize multi-million dollar contracts that our sports teams demand, or concert halls and opera houses where orchestras are falling one by one with minimal support from our government.

Thank you all who have contributed to the BSO over the last almost 100 years of its existence, and let's help it reach its centennial with the musicians and staff on solid financial ground, so we can continue to entertain, and, yes, educate our children.

They are truly our future.

-Ivan Stefanovic

Enough is Enough!

"Possibility of some accumulating snow this weekend."
Normally I would react to words like these the way any 5 year old does, even though I'm far from being that young anymore: with great joy and anticipation. I am an avid skier, and one of those people that just can't get enough snow. I always find it magical the way snow transforms any landscape into something so clean and pure (at least for a short while, here in the city). But it's almost April in Baltimore people! I have already had a run or two outside, in shorts and short sleeve shirts, and have reluctantly given up any dreams of doing just a few more runs in a neighborhood ski resort. Enough is enough! Daffodils need to come up unhindered, tulips don't need to fight through the the white stuff to display their rainbow colors, and forsythia won't be happy to have its sunny flowers weighted down by a blanket of white.

Whether it happens or not, the BSO is playing some sunny pieces on the first half of its concerts this weekend. Another of our favorite guest conductors, Yan Pascal Tortelier, is leading us in the elegant Valses Nobles and Sentimentales by Ravel as well as Grieg's melodious and very romantic Piano Concerto with my fellow alumnus from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Orion Weiss as a soloist. The second half displays the orchestra in Lutoslawski's powerful and very unique-sounding Concerto for Orchestra. Don't miss it!

-Ivan Stefanovic

A Swiss Mr. Bean

"To vibrate this note would be inappropriate," says the conductor, managing to very effectively convey to the orchestra musicians his desire to have us do away with most of our ingrained Romantic traditions when playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, written before the title "Romantic music" was even uttered, and in an era when the technique of vibrato was used very sparingly.

"Violas can be more expressive, I know that, because I am married to a violist," he says, making a viola joke on the spot.

"Count like you count your money," he quips, displaying his true Swiss roots (with a German accent and an Italian name) after some wind players miscounted the measure he wanted to restart with.

These are quotes from the BSO's Tuesday morning rehearsal with one of our most beloved guest conductors, the immensely funny and likable Mario Venzago. They may portray an almost childish personality, full of humor and joy of life, but may also sound a bit insincere. However, while Mario has the entertainment capability of a stand-up comic (and one with a very charming accent), he is anything but insincere. He is a very serious musician, one that dives very deep into every note, phrase and movement of every piece he rehearses and performs, and emerges with a net-full of the richest musical expression that is backed up by years of exploring music at the highest level. And he manages to do it all with an unending smile and flair that always puts the orchestra in the best of moods. When someone is that much into music, one can't help but get involved with them, and go to great lengths to please them, even if one doesn't necessarily agree with every musical idea.

"This sounds like acne," he says of some unwanted accents in a lyrical phrase that the cello section just played.

"You now go to sleep, true artists need sleep," he tells the winds as he is about to spend time rehearsing some bumpy passages in the strings.

"Trumpets are 40, no, 42% too loud, he specifies, again drawing on the background of his native country, where I remember the Alpine trains having a timetable that looked just like that (13:34, 13:59, 14:07), and actually managed to adhere to it!

"If you play it like this, I have to go to court," he mocks, with gratitude, when the brass manages a sound he asked for that is nowadays rarely produced in Beethoven's Fifth outside of the so-called Performance Practice ensembles, the ones that include as much of the techniques from the composers' era as possible.

I have known Mario since I was 14, as a young violinist representing my native country of Yugoslavia on two successive European Youth Orchestra Summer Tours, which were both based in Switzerland, and during which he was our Assistant Conductor. He hasn't changed one bit, and that's a good thing.

Come and enjoy his musical artistry in concert this week, with Schubert's Fifth and Berg's beautiful Violin Concerto with Baiba Skride as a soloist.

P.S. Oh, and if you don't know who Mr. Bean (a.k.a. actor Rowan Atkinson) is, check him out as he conducts a band playing holiday carols.

-Ivan Stefanovic

Celestial Events

I happened upon a bit of news that the International Space Station (ISS) was, once again, visible in the evening sky over Baltimore. I have seen it many times, and it is an amazing sight, to look up at the night and see an object brighter than any other one can see (other than the Moon), moving as fast as a plane, directly overhead. If no one told you that it wasn't a plane, you'd immediately know it, it's that different. And then think of the several men and women from different countries up there, looking down through their little porthole-like windows, sleeping upright, or drifting outside of the Station, connected by a tether, it makes it that much more magical. Last night was even more special, since the Space Shuttle Discovery was visible on the same trajectory just before the passage of the ISS, on its way to a last-ever landing on Earth about noon today (photo below copyright NASA).


For those of you interested in finding out about the fly overs (and if you have kids, you should be-they find these really special, as my three boys do), read the weather blog by Frank Roylance in the Baltimore Sun, or find his blog on the Web (right after you read mine of course (: ).

Now you're asking yourselves what this has to do with music or the BSO. Well, absolutely nothing. But it sure is nice to look up at the sky every once in a while, with a purpose or without. We spend too much time looking down at our important (we think) every day happenings, forgetting that we're part of something much larger.

Check out our Pops concerts this week on Thursday (Strathmore), Friday and Saturday (Meyerhoff) at 8pm and Sunday (Meyerhoff) at 3pm. They're entitled a Celtic Celebration: Music of the Emerald Isle, conducted by the ever-entertaining Jack Everly, and are sure to send you dancing on your way home (or at least up to the garage). You might even want to look at the night sky while you're at it.

-Ivan Stefanovic