G
Guest
Guest
I was at the filmed performance of the Eroica, but only now know why it was filmed. This is so exciting for me, and I hope some of you might be able to see the series on PBS. - Perdita
-----------------------------------------
Symphonic sounds like you've never heard them -- a new TV, online series goes deep inside S.F. orchestra - Jesse Hamlin, SF Chronicle, June 15, 2004
Gary Halvorson sat at the control panel in a trailer behind Davies Symphony Hall, surrounded by a half dozen other people in headsets watching TV monitors stacked along the wall or following cue-coded scores to Beethoven's Symphony No. 3.
Inside the hall, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony were rehearsing the famous funeral march from Beethoven's "Eroica," seemingly oblivious to the camera people stationed around the stage or the boom dangling over their heads.
"I need to see more basses!'' said Halvorson, directing the 10-camera video crew whose every shot -- more than 700 in all -- he'd choreographed according to the phrasing and orchestration of the music. Snapping his fingers on the upbeats, he called out a cue every few seconds, shifting from instrument to instrument, face to face, from wide shots to close-ups, as the piece unfolded.
A Juilliard-trained pianist who now makes his living directing sitcoms like "Everybody Loves Raymond'' and "Friends,'' Halvorson is directing all the performance segments in "Keeping Score: MTT on Music.'' That's the ambitious $20 million, five-year project the San Francisco Symphony is creating for TV, radio and the Internet in an effort to bring classical music to a wider audience by stressing its timeless power to express emotions we all experience.
Mixing documentary elements and live performances, "Keeping Score'' kicks off Wednesday night with a two-part program on Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, airing on PBS' "Great Performances."
Starting at 8 p.m. on KQED (Channel 9), the first segment, "The Making of a Performance,'' explores how Thomas and the musicians prepare to perform the work -- intellectually, technically and emotionally. And why they commit themselves to bringing a 127-year-old piece of music to life.
The second segment, starting at 9 p.m., features a complete performance of Tchaikovsky's Fourth recorded live at Davies. In the fall of 2005, the series will feature three programs dealing with the theme of revolution -- external and internal revolution. The first focuses on Beethoven's Third Symphony, the second on Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring'' and the third on Copland's music.
"I want this to be another step in making classical music a much more direct experience, helping people recognize what a direct, approachable kind of music it is,'' said Thomas, talking in his office recently between rehearsals.
"The main thing for me is that all these big pieces say such specific things about how you deal with life. They're kind of guides to how you deal with life and who you have to be at different times in your life to get through things -- where you accept your frustrations, where you find inspiration, where you take courage. It's all in the music.'' (It's true! P.)
Thomas riffs on that idea at the start of "The Making of a Performance,'' which, like the other documentary segments in the series, was produced and directed by the award-winning San Francisco team of David Kennard (producer of "Carl Sagan's Cosmos'') and Joan Saffa.
Thomas, who has always tried to take some of the starch out of classical music, hosts the show with a mix of charm and intensity. He talks from the empty Davies stage, and while driving around town in a sporty Volvo with his shades on. He notes the sounds of horns and birds, church bells and cable car clangs.
We see him rehearsing with the orchestra and individual musicians; playing with his poodle at Crissy Field as he discusses the playful mood of Tchaikovsky's third movement; humming and marking the score as he paces around his attic ("I'm looking for the little things, inflections or changes of mood''). He bangs out chords and sings melodies at the piano, while talking about the fateful foreboding and loneliness Tchaikovsky was exploring. And how the composer notated those feelings in a language others could play and share those emotions.
The music, Thomas tells the TV audience, "was about his inner life. And he never looks away when it gets too tough or too sentimental or too bitter. We recognize our own life in the notes written about his own life.''
In addition to the TV shows, "Keeping Score'' also includes a Web site (www.keepingscore.org) where viewers can see video clips, hear music and read more about the composers, themes and works being discussed. A 13-part companion radio series, produced with Minnesota Public Radio, which broadcast the Symphony's "American Mavericks" series, will be aired next year.
The first segment lays the foundation for the rest of the series, focusing on what it actually takes to perform this music. We meet musicians like oboist Bill Bennett, who shows how he makes his own reeds ("the bane of our existence,'' he says), and French horn soloist Robert Ward, who says there's nothing more exhilarating than "to be in the middle of a brass section in a Tchaikovsky symphony and just letting it rip.''
Piccolo player Catherine Payne speaks of the trepidation with which she and every other piccolo player approaches the dazzling and demanding piccolo solo in the third movement of the Tchaikovsky. "I have to come in and nail it,'' she says.
Then there's Russian-born fiddler Zoya Leybin, who likens the violin to a child that "has to have your heartbeat, your warm hands. And the response is similar -- very warm, very loving.'' Music, she says, "is the voice of the Russian soul, and Tchaikovsky's music mirrors that soul.''
Thomas and Halvorson, the director, wanted to underscore the communication between musicians during a performance, both visually and aurally, and the subtle ways countermelodies and orchestral colors are brought out and balanced.
"I'm trying to make it exciting, so that it's not the same, stodgy old way of doing things,'' said Halvorson, who began his TV career directing one of Leonard Bernstein's music shows (Thomas' approach to music making, of course, was influenced by Bernstein) and has filmed concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
"A lot of classical musicians will just stay in the score and only peripherally look at the conductor to get the downbeat. We're encouraging the musicians to free themselves a little bit from looking at the scores and watching Michael more, as he's watching them. That creates a tension and communication between them that helps the music grow, and it's much more visually interesting to watch on TV. It's like watching the quarterback with his players. You get to be inside with them.''
Thomas said the director often focuses a camera on the musicians he's looking at during a particular passage.
"Although a big theme may be crashing in the brass, I may actually be looking at and paying attention to some intricate switchback in the bass line to make sure it's really working, or I want it to emerge more. Very often in the past, when I've done videos with very good directors, there was something sort of unsettling when I saw the video. Although it was a wonderful representation of the piece, I realized that the camera was not looking at the things I would look at during the performances. That's a layer we've added here.''
Halvorson discusses the moods and meaning of each score with Thomas, and how to best to express them visually, whether through long pans or quick cuts. Then he goes through the piece and assigns a camera shot for every phrase. One of the pluses of watching classical music on the tube, he said, is that viewers get a better sense of the orchestration.
"The main melody is being played, then I cut to musicians playing the countermelody, and all of a sudden you hear the countermelody, which you wouldn't do if you were sitting in the back of the house. By visually showing the pizzicato, or the arco bass supporting the melody, you suddenly appreciate the orchestration and hear those voices that give this composer his voice.''
Of course, a certain amount of improvisation occurs. Sometimes Halvorson sees a shot he likes and decides to hold on it and skip the next cue. "Start to tighten on Michael,'' he told a cameraman while running through the Beethoven recently. "Keep going. Start moving. Stay right in there. Don't go any further. Hold."
Just before the scherzo began, Halvorson primed his crew: "Here we go guys. This goes like a bat out of hell.'' During the fourth movement, the camera zoomed in on flutist Robin McKee, revealing her blue-and-green nails. "Hey, what's with the Oakland nail polish?'' asked Halvorson, cracking up his assistants. "I love it.''
McKee is one of the musicians who appears in "The Making of a Performance'' documentary, which was written by Thomas, who does a lot of ad libbing, and director-producer Kennard.
For Kennard, the key to getting kids and adults excited about classical music is connecting it to their emotional lives -- the pain, joy, fear and hope that people have always felt.
His primary goal, he said, is "to create something where the drama of creating the music, the drama of what was in the composer's mind, the drama of the live event and the drama of the peoples' lives watching it are all linked. We want to say to people, this fantastic music is something you need as the soundtrack for your own life.''
Halvorson promised himself that if he became a successful sitcom director, he would get back to his roots in music. "To spend three weeks studying Beethoven's Third Symphony or 'The Rite of Spring' is so enriching for your soul. It's art, so it's always healing."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming Wednesday: Critic Joshua Kosman reviews PBS’ “Keeping Score: MTT on Music’’ and the Web site www.keepingscore.org. article w/pics
-----------------------------------------
Symphonic sounds like you've never heard them -- a new TV, online series goes deep inside S.F. orchestra - Jesse Hamlin, SF Chronicle, June 15, 2004
Gary Halvorson sat at the control panel in a trailer behind Davies Symphony Hall, surrounded by a half dozen other people in headsets watching TV monitors stacked along the wall or following cue-coded scores to Beethoven's Symphony No. 3.
Inside the hall, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony were rehearsing the famous funeral march from Beethoven's "Eroica," seemingly oblivious to the camera people stationed around the stage or the boom dangling over their heads.
"I need to see more basses!'' said Halvorson, directing the 10-camera video crew whose every shot -- more than 700 in all -- he'd choreographed according to the phrasing and orchestration of the music. Snapping his fingers on the upbeats, he called out a cue every few seconds, shifting from instrument to instrument, face to face, from wide shots to close-ups, as the piece unfolded.
A Juilliard-trained pianist who now makes his living directing sitcoms like "Everybody Loves Raymond'' and "Friends,'' Halvorson is directing all the performance segments in "Keeping Score: MTT on Music.'' That's the ambitious $20 million, five-year project the San Francisco Symphony is creating for TV, radio and the Internet in an effort to bring classical music to a wider audience by stressing its timeless power to express emotions we all experience.
Mixing documentary elements and live performances, "Keeping Score'' kicks off Wednesday night with a two-part program on Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, airing on PBS' "Great Performances."
Starting at 8 p.m. on KQED (Channel 9), the first segment, "The Making of a Performance,'' explores how Thomas and the musicians prepare to perform the work -- intellectually, technically and emotionally. And why they commit themselves to bringing a 127-year-old piece of music to life.
The second segment, starting at 9 p.m., features a complete performance of Tchaikovsky's Fourth recorded live at Davies. In the fall of 2005, the series will feature three programs dealing with the theme of revolution -- external and internal revolution. The first focuses on Beethoven's Third Symphony, the second on Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring'' and the third on Copland's music.
"I want this to be another step in making classical music a much more direct experience, helping people recognize what a direct, approachable kind of music it is,'' said Thomas, talking in his office recently between rehearsals.
"The main thing for me is that all these big pieces say such specific things about how you deal with life. They're kind of guides to how you deal with life and who you have to be at different times in your life to get through things -- where you accept your frustrations, where you find inspiration, where you take courage. It's all in the music.'' (It's true! P.)
Thomas riffs on that idea at the start of "The Making of a Performance,'' which, like the other documentary segments in the series, was produced and directed by the award-winning San Francisco team of David Kennard (producer of "Carl Sagan's Cosmos'') and Joan Saffa.
Thomas, who has always tried to take some of the starch out of classical music, hosts the show with a mix of charm and intensity. He talks from the empty Davies stage, and while driving around town in a sporty Volvo with his shades on. He notes the sounds of horns and birds, church bells and cable car clangs.
We see him rehearsing with the orchestra and individual musicians; playing with his poodle at Crissy Field as he discusses the playful mood of Tchaikovsky's third movement; humming and marking the score as he paces around his attic ("I'm looking for the little things, inflections or changes of mood''). He bangs out chords and sings melodies at the piano, while talking about the fateful foreboding and loneliness Tchaikovsky was exploring. And how the composer notated those feelings in a language others could play and share those emotions.
The music, Thomas tells the TV audience, "was about his inner life. And he never looks away when it gets too tough or too sentimental or too bitter. We recognize our own life in the notes written about his own life.''
In addition to the TV shows, "Keeping Score'' also includes a Web site (www.keepingscore.org) where viewers can see video clips, hear music and read more about the composers, themes and works being discussed. A 13-part companion radio series, produced with Minnesota Public Radio, which broadcast the Symphony's "American Mavericks" series, will be aired next year.
The first segment lays the foundation for the rest of the series, focusing on what it actually takes to perform this music. We meet musicians like oboist Bill Bennett, who shows how he makes his own reeds ("the bane of our existence,'' he says), and French horn soloist Robert Ward, who says there's nothing more exhilarating than "to be in the middle of a brass section in a Tchaikovsky symphony and just letting it rip.''
Piccolo player Catherine Payne speaks of the trepidation with which she and every other piccolo player approaches the dazzling and demanding piccolo solo in the third movement of the Tchaikovsky. "I have to come in and nail it,'' she says.
Then there's Russian-born fiddler Zoya Leybin, who likens the violin to a child that "has to have your heartbeat, your warm hands. And the response is similar -- very warm, very loving.'' Music, she says, "is the voice of the Russian soul, and Tchaikovsky's music mirrors that soul.''
Thomas and Halvorson, the director, wanted to underscore the communication between musicians during a performance, both visually and aurally, and the subtle ways countermelodies and orchestral colors are brought out and balanced.
"I'm trying to make it exciting, so that it's not the same, stodgy old way of doing things,'' said Halvorson, who began his TV career directing one of Leonard Bernstein's music shows (Thomas' approach to music making, of course, was influenced by Bernstein) and has filmed concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
"A lot of classical musicians will just stay in the score and only peripherally look at the conductor to get the downbeat. We're encouraging the musicians to free themselves a little bit from looking at the scores and watching Michael more, as he's watching them. That creates a tension and communication between them that helps the music grow, and it's much more visually interesting to watch on TV. It's like watching the quarterback with his players. You get to be inside with them.''
Thomas said the director often focuses a camera on the musicians he's looking at during a particular passage.
"Although a big theme may be crashing in the brass, I may actually be looking at and paying attention to some intricate switchback in the bass line to make sure it's really working, or I want it to emerge more. Very often in the past, when I've done videos with very good directors, there was something sort of unsettling when I saw the video. Although it was a wonderful representation of the piece, I realized that the camera was not looking at the things I would look at during the performances. That's a layer we've added here.''
Halvorson discusses the moods and meaning of each score with Thomas, and how to best to express them visually, whether through long pans or quick cuts. Then he goes through the piece and assigns a camera shot for every phrase. One of the pluses of watching classical music on the tube, he said, is that viewers get a better sense of the orchestration.
"The main melody is being played, then I cut to musicians playing the countermelody, and all of a sudden you hear the countermelody, which you wouldn't do if you were sitting in the back of the house. By visually showing the pizzicato, or the arco bass supporting the melody, you suddenly appreciate the orchestration and hear those voices that give this composer his voice.''
Of course, a certain amount of improvisation occurs. Sometimes Halvorson sees a shot he likes and decides to hold on it and skip the next cue. "Start to tighten on Michael,'' he told a cameraman while running through the Beethoven recently. "Keep going. Start moving. Stay right in there. Don't go any further. Hold."
Just before the scherzo began, Halvorson primed his crew: "Here we go guys. This goes like a bat out of hell.'' During the fourth movement, the camera zoomed in on flutist Robin McKee, revealing her blue-and-green nails. "Hey, what's with the Oakland nail polish?'' asked Halvorson, cracking up his assistants. "I love it.''
McKee is one of the musicians who appears in "The Making of a Performance'' documentary, which was written by Thomas, who does a lot of ad libbing, and director-producer Kennard.
For Kennard, the key to getting kids and adults excited about classical music is connecting it to their emotional lives -- the pain, joy, fear and hope that people have always felt.
His primary goal, he said, is "to create something where the drama of creating the music, the drama of what was in the composer's mind, the drama of the live event and the drama of the peoples' lives watching it are all linked. We want to say to people, this fantastic music is something you need as the soundtrack for your own life.''
Halvorson promised himself that if he became a successful sitcom director, he would get back to his roots in music. "To spend three weeks studying Beethoven's Third Symphony or 'The Rite of Spring' is so enriching for your soul. It's art, so it's always healing."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming Wednesday: Critic Joshua Kosman reviews PBS’ “Keeping Score: MTT on Music’’ and the Web site www.keepingscore.org. article w/pics
