Buzzing Reed- Classical Music & Clarinet Culture

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At last! The long delayed (several months) podcast interview series with Columbus Symphony musicians continues!

Robert Firdman, Violinist

Fresh off the press, this interview features Columbus Symphony violinist Robert Firdman. Robert’s unfailing spirit and ironic sense of humor come through. Among other things, we discussed the life-changing physical challenges which almost ended his playing career about 10 years ago. You’ll also hear some of Robert’s playing, both in the beginning and end of the interview.

On Robert’s Facebook profile, he describes himself with his notably dry humor: “Irritated and opinionated New Yorker meets easy going and Naive Midwesterner.”

Here is Robert’s Bio:

Robert Firdman graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Performance and Literature and studied with Donald Weilerstein and Charles Castleman. Before joining the Columbus Symphony, he was an associate member of the Rochester Philharmonic under the direction of David Zinman and was also concertmaster of the National Orchestral Association in New York City which performed numerous times in Carnegie Hall.

Mr Firdman has been an adjunct violin teacher at Ohio Weslyan University and Kenyon College. He also has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Dublin and was a member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet and performs regularly with The Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra.

Recently, Mr Firdman performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the New Albany Symphony Orchestra and went to Bonefro, Italy as a coach and yoga instructor with Chamber Music Connection.

Everyone Else Outsources, So Why Can’t The Arts? : NPR.

In Columbus, Ohio, a number of arts groups are doing what American businesses started doing a long time ago: outsourcing. The recession hit nonprofits hard, and now these organizations (including the Columbus Symphony) have no choice but to become more efficient. So they’re handing over the “back office” to the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, or CAPA.

CAPA now has 73 employees, and because it’s bigger than most individual non-profit arts groups, it’s able to attract more experienced professionals.

Serkin Plays Brahms – InstantEncore.

This program also includes Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and Mozart Marriage of Figaro Overture.

Also see my post “Learning Bartok Concerto for Orchestra”.

The Columbus Symphony Woodwind Quintet will be performing the colorful Poulenc Sextet with pianist Ahlin Min June 5 and June 18 as a fundraiser for the Symphony. All contributions will be matched by a generous anonymous donor, and will benefit the Columbus Symphony. Details in the next few days.

via The Arethusa Ensemble: Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): Sextet for piano and wind instruments.

Poulenc, a French composer, was the youngest of a group known in France after World War I as Les Six (the others were Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, Tailleferre and Auric). His works include ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, piano music, songs and opera.

He began the Sextet in 1932 and it took seven years to reach its final form. To the standard romantic wind quintet of the nineteenth century, he added the piano, of which he was an accomplished player.

This Sextet demonstrates his effective melodies and his original use of harmony: he uses diatonic tonalities but his key changes are very sudden. The wind theme after the opening flourish appears in many different forms throughout the lively energetic sections of the first movement; the slow piano theme that begins the ballad-like central section is also derived from this. There is a passionate climax in the central section before the opening returns, leading into a coda which maintains the rhythmic drive through to the ending flourish.

The outer sections of the slow movement are calm and serene with the melody being passed around the wind over a flowing piano accompaniment. This is contrasted with the jaunty middle section which pre-empts some of the themes in the final movement.

The final movement has two contrasting themes – one rhythmic and lively, the other lush and melodic. After a brutal climax, the coda winds down the whole work with a warm C major ending. DPS

It is clear that orchestras must change the way they do business to adapt to changing behaviors of consumers. Even orchestras with large endowments in the US are suffering. I believe the Columbus Symphony has a chance to evolve and adapt with Martin Ingles and Rolland Valliere at the helm.

via Editorial: Seeking stability | The Columbus Dispatch.

After skating near insolvency and collapse in mid-February, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra was pulled from the brink by the quick action of its board and quick agreement by the musicians. Now the organization appears to have a plan that might put the orchestra on a sustainable footing.

In early February, the symphony management realized that the combination of low subscription sales for the season and a dramatic decline in individual and corporate donations meant that time was running out. So the symphony's board and management decided to turn over the organization's administrative functions to the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, which serves a similar role for the Franklin Park Conservatory, Contemporary American Theatre Company, Phoenix Theatre for Children and Opera Columbus. Its relationship with the symphony became effective three weeks ago.

This move will save the orchestra about $750,000 for the fiscal year beginning Sept. 1 and, as CAPA President and Chief Executive Bill Conner says, it allows CAPA to deal with the business side and "lets all the art just be about the art."

Right before a shutdown in mid-2008 because of financial difficulties, the Columbus symphony's annual budget was climbing to an unsustainable high of $12 million. Reflecting the new economic realities, its budget has dropped to about $8.5 million for this year and $7 million for next fiscal year. The number of performing weeks will fall to 25 next year, down from the 48 weeks in its last full season in 2007.

Before the 2008 shutdown, musicians were paid an average of $55,000 annually; their pay was cut last year to $45,000. For next year, they have agreed to accept about $38,000 per year, which includes benefits. This is what they were paid in 1993. They also have given up significant amounts of paid vacation. Their sacrifice for the survival of the symphony is commendable.

The group is not out of the woods, but if all goes as hoped for the rest of this year – meaning it's not a rainy summer for Picnic with the Pops – the symphony believes it can break even.

The symphony board leadership is formidable. Martin Inglis, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Battelle, took over as the board chairman in October 2008 and has worked hard to keep the organization alive and to find ways to make it thrive. Before that, he had risen through the ranks of Ford, at one time serving as its head of North American operations.

2008 was a year of distrust and angry words between the symphony management, board and musicians. Now the management team, headed since July 2009 by CSO President Roland Valliere, and the board have been open with the musicians, giving them unprecedented access to board meetings and materials. Valliere and Inglis express their concern about the well-being of the musicians as people who are vital to this community and who have families to support and bills to pay.

Unfortunately, hard times are reality for arts groups all over the country – even for metropolitan orchestras that, unlike CSO, enjoy large endowments. Now Cleveland's world-renowned symphony is struggling, as is Philadelphia's.

With stability and strong leadership, the Columbus symphony might break out of its cycle of crises so that donors can again view it as a good investment. Subscription sales will rise as the economy picks up – and also when the symphony finally hires a music director. The new maestro should be a respected leader, charismatic, expressive, musically talented and, of course, affordable.

Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” – InstantEncore.

The program includes Beethoven Leonora #2, which is very different from #3 and is also more difficult to perform accurately. The trumpet call is completely different. Whole passages are developed in an entirely different way from #3, and the main theme crashes through in the minor at one point. That was really shocking.

The Leshnoff double concert for violin and viola is “modern romantic” and very accessible. It’s also very well performed by violist Roberto Diaz and our Concert Master Charles Wetherbee.

The Tchaikovsky performance came across well, quite expansively, if perhaps a bit to slow in spots for my taste.

For those interested, I played a new Hawkins B I just picked out and love, with an untouched (no need to adjust the newer ones) Legere Signature #4.

Enjoy.

Tonight the Columbus Symphony plays Peter Tchaikovsky’s 6th and last symphony, the “Pathetique”. I’ll discuss some of the technical issues in the piece, mainly the difficult clarinet entrance on the first page. But first a few words about the composer.

Tchaikovsky died nine days after the premiere, on November 6, 1893. The cause of his death is still not known for sure, though common accounts blame it on cholera. However, the facts surrounding his death are suspicious, such as that he died very quickly for someone with cholera, and did not receive the usual care for someone in such condition. The news reports of his death at the time also questioned the circumstances.

You can find the full scoop on his death in this article from The Straight Dope, How did Tchaikovsky really die?

Now for some technical tips for the first excerpt.

First clarinet: Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony

The soft articulated entrance, 5 bars after B on a high e after a sixteenth rest, creates a stressful situation. The entrance cannot be late. Moreover, it cannot be too loud. Luckily the crescendo indicated allows the player to get a good foothold as soon as the first few notes come out.

To prepare for this excerpt, and others like it which require soft, high staccato attacks (such as the e-b cuckoo) I first practice getting the note to speak softly with only an air attack, no tongue. This can be a journey in itself, requiring the tongue position and soft palette to be in just the right position.

Then I practice attacking the note “on the air”, by which I mean that I blow through the instrument as if I am about to attack the note with just air, and just before the note speaks, I articulate it lightly with the tongue. If done correctly, the tongue feels as if it gets caught in the air flow, then can lightly release the note.

This method has two benefits. First it helps to prevent biting and “choking” the reed. Second it prepares the air by getting it moving BEFORE the note is played.

I also tried a special soft fingering for the high e, which is notated in the photo of the part. But I have decided not to use it, because it plays a bit flat. I half-hole the high e and it works fine that way.

In the famous second theme, Tchaikovsky uses the clarinet masterfully by having it play the theme almost alone, and incredibly soft, as if barely alive. This kind of sotto voce writing is perfect for clarinet.

Our conductor this week, Delta David Gier, draws a heavy and depressing interpretation of this symphony, perhaps appropriate for a piece called “Pathetique” written by a desperately depressed man!