What Would Scooby Do?……

I went to iTunes to look for a recording of American in Paris as I’m conducting it this week in Syracuse and I forgot to put it on my iPod before leaving on our trip.  I discovered that on iTunes you can’t buy it for 99 cents like you can for a single song or movement, you have purchase it as part of a whole album and they all cost $9.99 except for one that costs $3.99 which according to the one listener review is terrible, one star and we shouldn’t waste our time…Ormandy, Philly, live…what?….it’s now one of my favorite downloads and price has nothing (much) to do with it…..

In 1958 it might have made more news that Philly toured Russia with Ormandy, if it were not for Van Cliburn winning the Tchaikovsky and also that Munch and Boston were there before them in 1956.  Yet what’s significant about that tour is that there are 6 recordings including Gershwin’s American in Paris on volume 2 (Classical Masters is the label and only downloadable on iTunes it seems). Also on the album: Stravinsky’s Firebird, Barber’s Adagio and the Roy Harris Symphony No. 3, all for under 4 bucks!  Now there they were in Russia during the height of the cold war and they played American in Paris.  The NY Phil also played the same work in North Korea recently and yet I did not read of any comparison being made…well until now!

To be fair to the listener reviewer, I imagine the historical significance was not taken into account  (iTunes doesn’t mention it) and the sound quality and recording engineering seems rudimentary, but for that there is astonishing detail in this live unedited performance as well as an immediacy and excitement that is captivating.  It’s not perfect by any means, especially as the Trumpet in the Allegro solo swings and the Strings do not making the ensemble sound ragged, and yet, that didn’t bother me at all because it gave it an edge of the seat feeling missing in so many many “live” (aka patched together from multiple performances) recordings.  Maybe Ormandy answered the question, should it swing or not, by saying yes to both!  Also in the enormous Largo climax near the end, the Bass Drum and Cymbal  don’t come in which gave it a very different kind of impact, and also made me imagine the look he might have given!  I thought maybe it was that they were distant from the mics, and yet they were loud and clear right before the end!

Pointedly, “perfect recordings” maybe are what many people want (no problem it is a personal thing), and, some might want the Mona Lisa’s hair done differently too.  Like in the recently uncovered rantings of Bill O’Reilly I say…I’LL DO IT LIVE!!!!  I couldn’t be happier to have discovered such a moment in time, a performance that might not be perfect, but is captured perfectly.  The unbridled applause from the Russian audience was also surprising and joyful to hear.

Now the title to this post may seem cryptic, but What Would Scooby Do? was the funniest bumper sticker we saw between Indianapolis and Buffalo.  I mean, it made us think and laugh, it didn’t reveal anything about the driver’s political leanings, opinions about the issues, their exes or which elementary school their child was an honor student of!  It would be the perfect slogan for the Ireverrant Party!  Other highlights included:

• A truck pulling a large trailer jackknifing right after it overtook us (everyone was ok, except for the trailer!)
• Outside Indy crossing Nameless Creek, which means it isn’t nameless!
• In Ohio seeing the exits for Plain City and Chagrin Road…Crossing a Nameless Creek traveling to Chagrin Road through Plain City….sounds like something TS Elliot would write!
• At a rest stop in Pennsylvania asking a cameraman (nicely) standing right behind our van filming the freeway if he wouldn’t mind moving, followed by him telling me (rudely) “I don’t have eyes in the back of my head!”, to which I replied (in my mind), “well if you don’t move when I start to back up, pretty soon you will!”

We had a great couple days in Buffalo, and for the record my advice if you ever go, is that for the biggest and best wings, go to Gabriel’s Gate on Allen Street (my cohort Bill who is a native may have other suggestions)… now on to Syracuse!