The end of the course

The Master Course is now over and I am back home in Surrey. Normal life is resuming, the wife has what she calls a stinking cold and I would call the sniffles while daughter No. 4 has the sniffles and calls it the sniffles. No.3 is off to University at the weekend and is cross with me for forgetting her birthday whilst I was away. I was too busy chatting up photographers. There is a mountain of post and the tax on my car needs renewing urgently.

The course ended with a concert in which I conducted the last movement of Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. It went well and was well received. My tempo was a little fast but in the circumstances was not a bad choice, though if I were to do the whole symphony and have adequate rehearsal time I would probably take it a little slower. The orchestra played well and with spirit.

Unusually for me I felt a little nervous before going on; I am rarely nervous before conducting. I had to calm down and breathe deeply for a few moments. Even so when the moment came to go to the podium I strode on as if I owned the place, took my bow, preened myself a little to show the orchestra that I had had a haircut (smiles from the woodwind), and launched into the music without a worry, all nerves gone.

The orchestra reacted beautifully to everything that I did, the pianissimos were very quiet and the fortissimos powerful. After the performance the orchestra were very complimentary and many of the players congratulated me. I was very pleased about this as orchestral players won’t congratulate a conductor unless they mean it. Panula seemed happy as well, and was all smiles and congratulations. I asked if I had done anything wrong technically, “You bent your knees, but only once”. This man is strict!

I have put the videos from my camera, with sound from the camera, on YouTube. When I have the version with sound from the separate microphones I will add them as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiFqdC6sR24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvAPrcXkFX0

The next morning I was booked on the early car to Sofia, I had to get up at 4:15 to be ready to leave at 4:45, farewells were taken at the after concert party and final thanks given. I packed and got a few hours sleep before my alarm. The journey home was uneventful apart from the fact that I stupidly left the DVDs of the course which had been rushed through for me in the car at the airport. I am VERY cross with myself about this.

After a coffee and catch-up with an old friend at Gatwick the taxi bore me home and back to reality. The post and the sniffles need to be dealt with, the taxman must be paid and the kids educated.

The course was a wonderful experience, and has given me a great deal to think about. The comments of Panula and my colleagues will be brooded over and the videos studied. The orchestra was hard working and committed, they were unfamiliar with all the music (even Sibelius 2, which did surprise us, it is a standard work in Western Europe) and struggled to sight read some of it, but worked hard at learning it and with dealing with 18 conductors with varying degrees of experience and skill. Congratulations to them.

The course was well run and good value, credit is due to the organizers.

Looking back at my sessions a pattern is starting to emerge. For the first three sessions I was trying to prove something. At the first that I could control an orchestra and get them to play in a disciplined fashion, at the second that I could control a choir, at the third that I had enough technique to get the orchestra to do outrageous rubato. I then realised that continually trying to prove myself was not really what I was there for, so the fourth was about getting the passion and drama out of some very powerful music. From then on I settled down to some conducting and building a working musical relationship with the orchestra. Fortunately there was just enough time for this to be achieved before the concert, the sessions ended with both me and the orchestra happy.

Maestro Panula was critical of some of my conducting but seemed to like other parts, I have to think hard about what he suggests as some of the things he does not like are very built into my technique. I will also reflect on what my colleagues said during the course, there were some fine conductors there and they made many useful and interesting comments. I made some good friends too, I hope to stay in touch and I will follow their careers with interest.

One thing is already clear to me from watching my videos, if I am to continue conducting, I have to lose some weight!