To the editors:
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In the case of the Grant Park orchestra, where each program gets two rehearsals and conductors are around for a few days at most, their impact is minimal. In their rehearsal time of four hours and ten minutes, they can usually run through the program a couple of times, and perhaps make a few comments or work out a tricky spot or two. It is the job of the orchestra to pull together and give a reasonably polished performance, despite poor playing conditions–a noise level that makes hearing each other sometimes impossible, wind that can blow one’s music off the stand at any time, clouds of insects, extreme heat or cold (when it’s 102 degrees onstage and a piano is tuned to A-440, winds are going to be sharp to it, Mr. Polkow, no matter how valiantly they struggle to play down to pitch).
James Paul, whom Mr. Polkow found so objectionable (while another Chicago critic was pushing him as a candidate for Music Director!), is representative of the majority of conductors–fairly competent, not very interesting, but not too difficult to work with. In his favor, he has a good sense of humor and demonstrates some respect for his players. But his programming is dull (we all could have done without Sylvia) and his rehearsal technique consists mainly of playing through the music. Not having much to say, he even lets the musicians go early, which they love (even if they know what good use a fine conductor could have made of it).
As I write this, we have just finished a concert with Paul Freeman, a man who has next to nothing to say about music and sometimes can’t even put the stick in the right place at the right time, but who, like Cleve, consistently gets glowing reviews. Why? Is it his conducting from memory (although he needed it for the concerto, he had his music stand removed for the overture and then carried back out, clearly so that the audience would be sure to know that he wasn’t using a score)? Or do TV-fed audiences and critics love his theatrical posing–crouching down, leaning on his special railing, stepping off the podium to conduct over the violins? Orchestral musicians everywhere would like to know–and please check out the view from this side sometime.
