Charlotte Part Deux….

It has been an interesting day here in Charlotte so this will probably be a long post.  Sit down and make yourself comfortable.

The first thing I realized is that the hotel I’m staying is right next to the hall.  Also, the rooms only have two outlets (that I can find) which are taken up by the plugs for the lamps.  For any business traveler this is an amazing yet familiar situation.  Most of us travel with a laptop and a cell phone, plus assorted electronics.  We need at least two sockets, but our friends @ the Omni haven’t seemed to figure that out.  But in the lobby are two stores to warm every professional musician’s heart – a Starbucks and a wine shop.

I arrived at the hall around 8 am and immediately heard the gentle ministrations of the piano tuner, James.  This is either a good or a bad sign – it means he is either anal-retentive about the instrument or the piano sucks.  What I found was a little bit of both.  It’s a German Steinway – once again good and bad.  I’m very used to the German pianos because I played them frequently in Chicago during my tenure @ that CSO (thank you again Daniel Barenboim).  These German instruments are also closer in feel to the old fortepianos which I’m familiar with.  I like playing them when I do Mozart.  But the downside is that German instruments don’t do well in this country.  This is either because of weather, or that piano technicians don’t understand them, or a combination or both and some other factor I haven’t thought of.  This particular instrument is past it’s prime and has some “issues.”  When German Steinways go south the upper register sounds like broken glass, while if you play anything over a mezzo-forte below middle C it sounds like you’ve taken a sledgehammer to a wet cardboard box.  But I’m getting used to it.

But the piano situation brings up information on the hall itself.  James (who has a central Atlantic states accent thick enough to be used as motor oil in a pinch) told me that when the hall was built they had to change some of the design on the fly.  Hence the “piano room” ended up upstairs rather than off of the stage.  So the instrument lives up there and is brought down occasionally.  The added problem is that the upstairs piano room is a controlled environment while the hall has no humidity control!!  This happens frequently – designs get changed at the last minute, or the hall financiers run out of money, and one of the first things to go is temperature/humidity control.  This is a bad mistake but it is not the orchestra’s fault.  They have to live with it.

Rehearsal was interesting.  I always forget that Tchaik V is a problem to rehearse because orchestras are so used to playing it in the “every man for himself” style.  This is popular amongst conductors and audiences alike, but I’m a “print” kinda guy.  Follow Tchaikovsky’s directions, and for godsakes FF does NOT mean play as loud as possible.  There is also a lot of detail work involved getting the right balances, using the proper phrasings, and actually making music out of the piece.  But we worked hard and much progress was made.  We shall see in tomorrow’s rehearsal how things progress.  Offhand I’m not getting enough bass response out of the hall.  I think this has more to do with the design than anything else.  Kirkegard was the acoustician and, to be honest, I haven’t yet found a hall that he built that I really like.  But that’s just me – some people love his halls.  C’est la vie.

Having only conducted this orchestra once before, and that several years ago, much of the rehearsal was spent getting used to each other.  I suspect that I am a very different conductor than their current MD, Christoph Perick.  But that’s the beauty of the business.  I know a couple of people in the band including an old friend from my USC days.  Sushi dinner with her tonight for sure.

Lunch was with the Artistic Director here, one Chris Barton.  He’s been here 4 years and seems to be a very nice guy.  He gave me an interesting assessment of the CSO, none of which I shall report here.  Some things are best kept sotto voce.

After lunch I was whisked off by the Tuba player David Mills, an obvious lunatic and a fellow pedal-head.  He took me a few miles south of downtown to do some cycling.  Our goal was a route he referred to as the “Booty loop.”  I shall refrain from further comment on that.  As we were heading towards the route we passed the Covenant Presbyterian Church which David mentioned was his own church.  According to him Charlotte is simply overrun by the Presbyterians, or as David put it “God’s Frozen Chosen.”  I had to laugh. But there does seem to be a surfeit of Presbyterian churches in Charlotte.  The Booty loop circles a neighborhood that is home to Queen’s University which is celebrating it’s 151st year in existence.  The neighborhood was quite beautiful with many handsome houses from 1900-1930.  Those with good judgment have bought these classic houses and fixed them up nicely.  Those without have bought these houses, knocked them down, and put up the most god-awful excuses for McMansions you’ve ever seen.  Being the architecture junkie that I am I hope that there is a special room in Hell reserved for these people.  It just goes to prove that the two things money can’t buy are happiness and good taste.  After 1 1/2 hours on the bike I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow.

This evening I met with Scott Jarrett, who is the Master of the Choir.  Scott lives in Boston but flies down here every Tuesday to rehearse the choir.  I’m an old choir hound, having sung as a youngster in the St. Paul Cathedral choir in my home town of Buffalo, N.Y.  Scott and I got along like a house afire, and I hope to hope to have the opportunity to work with him in the future.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be an interesting day.  The second rehearsal day always brings challenges.  We shall see if we continue the progress of today in rehearsal.  Then there is an interview with the local radio station, and then a very interesting moment – I meet with the search committee for dinner.  I hope to get a very good idea of what they are thinking for the future of the CSO.

Enough, I am tired again.  I shall post again Wednesday night.