Monday Musicale with the Maestro – November 2, 2020 – The Joys of a Life in Place: Brentwood Park and Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”
My life as a professional symphony orchestra conductor for half a century has been one of constant change and rootlessness. I have been on the conducting staffs of 12 American orchestras. As a guest conductor in this country, I have worked with 45 orchestras, four opera companies, and three ballet companies. And in Asia I have guest-conducted four orchestras. All of these experiences have been artistically and personally satisfying. But there are challenges to this kind of peripatetic existence, including having to say goodbye to both old and new friends—sometimes remaining in touch, sometimes not.
Contrast this with the fact that 98% of the players in American orchestras are granted tenure after only a few years. For instance, my brother Ralph (a cellist), joined the Cleveland Orchestra in 1979, was given tenure two years later, and is still there after 40 years! Job security is a lovely thing to count on. But fewer and fewer jobs grant tenure in the 21st century—and for conductors, tenure does not exist and has never existed.
The only exception to that was when Herbert von Karajan insisted on a lifetime contract (much like our Supreme Court justices) when he became Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic. But he was a true anomaly in a profession where contracts typically range only from 1-5 years. In the previous century, some conductors were in residence for decades (e.g. Eugene Ormandy and Seiji Ozawa), but this was only because they were continually re-engaged with new contracts. Ozawa conducted the Boston Symphony for 29 years on such terms, and Ormandy directed the Philadelphia orchestra for 44 years. But in the second half of the 20th century, the average length of a conductor’s stay was only from 8-12 years, and in this century so far, the average has been only 6-8 years per contract. There are two reasons for this—and I hasten to add that declining quality in conductors is not one of them!
- Symphonies often change conductors for marketing reasons, in the belief that “re-branding” is a panacea for slow sales. In this way, symphonies have become rather like professional sports teams. If ticket sales are down in sports, they don’t fire the whole team—just the coach. And then follows a series of new ads with the new face, trumpeting the advent of “A Bold New Era” and the leadership that can take the team (the Dubuque Chargers or whoever) to a whole new level of excellence! Blah, blah, blah. And what of the worthy conductor or coach whose contract is not renewed? I’m reminded of a Stephen Sondheim lyric from Gypsy: “Thanks a lot and out with the garbage!”
- For decades now, the conductor’s power to hire or remove players as needed has been increasingly curtailed. This is an insidious trend with implications for both the quality of an orchestra and the cascade of reactive “marketing” decisions I noted in item one!
The evolving history of this problem is worth a small digression. In the first 60 years of the 20th century, American conductors had the power to hire and fire their players at will—not necessarily a good thing. My great first music teacher and mentor (violinist Eugene Reichenfeld) played briefly with the Radio City Music Hall orchestra in the 1930s, conducted by legendary tyrant Ernö Rapée. They played a great deal of classical music between the various movies and performing acts, and one day Reichenfeld was playing a piece by Tchaikovsky when he saw Rapée staring intently at his stand partner. When Rapée knew the violinist had seen him, he held up two fingers and pointed them directly at the unfortunate violinist. After the performance, Reichenfield’s stand partner was disconsolate and almost in tears. When Reichenfeld asked what was troubling him, his friend answered, “I’ve just been given my two weeks notice!”
That kind of naked cruelty was by no means unusual before musicians’ unions gained a foothold in the 1940’s and began offering protections. But since then, it’s become increasingly difficult to remove even musicians whose playing has slipped or who are holding back the quality of the orchestra for other reasons. That point was first made to me—vividly and in the form of a warning—by a bass player from the National Symphony Orchestra whom I met during my 1976 conducting debut with the Richmond Symphony.
As you may recall from an earlier Monday Musicale, I was chosen at the last minute (age 21) to conduct Beethoven’s 9th with the Richmond Symphony after its own music director fell ill. As it happened, one of the bass players was also ill and was replaced by a sub from the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. I had never met him before, but after the concert, he asked if he could take me out to lunch. I was delighted, and at the restaurant the next day, he very quickly got to two points he wanted to share with me, the new young conductor.
The first was an affirmation that, based on what he’d seen in the performance, I had the requisite talent, love for music, and gift of “personality projection” to do well in the business and that I MUST keep conducting.
But his second point was that conductors no longer have the ability to remove even a 3rd-rate player from the orchestra. “You can’t even get them out with a stick of dynamite!” he said. Those were his exact words, and the example he gave was chilling. The previous season, in the middle of a Kennedy Center rehearsal, a violinist in the National Symphony had pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed it threateningly at the head of the music director, Antal Dorati! Needless to say, bedlam ensued, and that was the end of the rehearsal. But after the musicians’ union got involved, the player was NOT fired, but was merely given a two-week leave of absence without pay!
How strongly this contrasts with the attitude toward conductors, who seem to have a “shelf life” regardless of quality. This has been my experience—and that of other professional conductors: “Hey, nothing personal, Maestro.” You have a shelf life. . .ha ha. . .and “Thanks a lot and out with the garbage!”
This reality is not well understood—by audiences or symphony musicians either. And no young conductor is ever told this as part of his training. In my 50-year career, I have never known a single orchestral player who had even the slightest sympathy for what it’s like to give one’s best efforts to an ensemble, face a lifetime of revolving door contracts, and then be shown the door—not for musical or legitimate personal reasons, but because of a “shelf life” and a marketing department’s urge to re-brand. Because of this nomadic type of existence, the idea of buying a house and “settling down” is for many conductors not even a consideration. Many wind up renting apartments or living in hotels for decades.
But my 20-year relationship with the North Carolina Symphony as its Resident Conductor changed my life in this regard and is another wonderful anomaly in the world of conducting. At the time I retired, no other working conductor of an American symphony orchestra could claim such longevity. Mine was no doubt due to the “love affair” I experienced with the players and community.
It was something very special—even exceptional. After being here for only 3 years, I intuitively and confidently knew that I could take root in a city at last and finally buy a house. A home. A home I could paint bright pink if I wanted to. A home where I could blare my music at 4 AM. I purchased my first home in the Brentwood area in North Raleigh, and one of the great features of this house is that it is located directly across from Brentwood Park.
A few years ago, I realized that if I wanted to live a better (and longer) life, I had to be serious about losing a great deal of weight. And so this August (after three years), I have finally reached my goal of losing 200 pounds. I will describe how I achieved this in a non-music blog in the near future. But for now, I will simply note that my daily walks of from 3-5 miles a day in Brentwood Park have been not only key to my weight loss, but also extremely helpful as a stress-releaser, a mental health benefit extraordinaire that I now look forward to.
This park is seemingly an undiscovered treasure. In the Covid-19 era, it has seen an increase in couples walking their dogs, adorable families, and some of those “show-off” runners who leave me in the dust both figuratively and literally. Yet for the most part it’s still quiet and secluded—the silence broken only (and pleasantly) each day by the arrival of the 6 PM ice cream truck!
For 40 years this truck has been playing only one tune—ONE!—and that is Scott Joplin’s rag “The Entertainer.” Yet I’m completely serious (though perhaps a little insane) when I tell you that I have never tired of hearing this melody! For me, the experience is reminiscent of my time living in New Orleans, during the first half of the 1990s. Every time I went down to the beautiful, fragrant, and atmospheric French Quarter, there was always a band there playing the city’s theme song, “ When the Saints Go Marching In.” The natives, the tourists, and I never tired of hearing it! Hearing the song now brings to mind the entire experience of the place. How can one describe or analyze the joy and “staying power” of a catchy melody? You can’t, of course. You just enjoy it – click here for that melody as played by an ice cream truck!
Over the last six months I have enjoyed taking pictures of some of the charming sights in this park. Here are some highlights!
Halloween in Brentwood:
Encountering Nature:
I’ve learned to keep my eye on the sky
…AND the path…
all the better to see who else is enjoying the park with me!
Neighbors
During each walk I stop and talk to about a dozen familiar faces. Everyone is neighborly and very glad to be outside in the fresh air during this “in-house” era.
I talked to one mother who took her eyes briefly off her two young daredevil sons on their bicycles.
Suddenly I saw the big brother crash (on purpose) into his little brother’s bike. Mom was unamused. Don’t you just hate when big brothers do that? I know MY little brother did!
I chat frequently with a lovely Latino family, and I love their dog, Mia—dressed here for her birthday!
I love the many surprises I come upon every day in the park—especially those that give me hope and optimism for the future.
I suppose you could say that “The Entertainer Rag” is the theme song of Brentwood Park, one of my favorite community spaces. So here, from the Durham Symphony’s performance in another of my favorite spaces, is the same toe-tapping and joyful masterpiece. This video is from our concert Songs of the South at Durham’s Hayti Heritage Center on 3 March 2019.
William Henry Curry
Music Director
Durham Symphony Orchestra
The Entertainer Rag – Scott Joplin
arr. D.S. Delisle, edited Schuller
Durham Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by William Henry Curry
Celebrating Maestro Curry’s 50 years conducting &
11 years with the Durham Symphony!
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