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Quick
Facts
about the
Competition
Preliminary rounds in
New
York
Besancon
& Beijing
18 conductors
invited to
Besancon
Jury
Claus Peter
Flor
Peter
Csaba
Michel
Decoust
Erich
Gruenberg
Tamas
Korner
Jan Willem
Loot
Joseph W.
Polisi
Ensembles for the
competition
Orchestre de
Besancon
Orchestrae National de
Lyon
Choeur Philharmonique de Prague
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Besancon International Conducting
Competition
Journal of one
participant
I hope you will be able to learn from my experiences. As
this site is also for my friends and families I have
included journal entries which might not be interesting to
everyone. I confess I am not a writer, in fact English is my
second language. So please forgive me for my
errors.
9.13
Monday
10:30 am
I leave for Waukegan for my first rehearsal with the
community orchestra. I am the finalist for their music
search so I'm doing the weekly rehearsals for the November
cocnert, starting today. I spent the entire month of August
studying for the competition and these rehearsals. They all
happen at the same time.
4:30 pm
I finally arrive in Waukegan, what a drive! After a short
chat with Dr. Schornick we head for a dinner. 7 pm I arrive
at the high school for the rehearsal, on the docket,
Beethoven Coriolan Overture and Dvorak Czech Suite. It goes
well, but we are missing quite a few instruments; no violas,
no basses, no bassoons, only one horn, no timpani, no
trumpets.
10 pm
rehearsal ends
10:30 pm
I start my drive back to Ann Arbor. I have to catch a flight
from Detroit tomorrow afternoon. I stop driving at 1am
detroit time.
9.14 Tuesday
8:30 am
I leave Michigan city to continue my drive back to Ann
Arbor, I am really tired.
11 am
I finally arrive in Ann Arbor.
1:15 pm
Tania gives me a ride to the airport
4:15 pm
NW flight for Newark leaves an hour and 15 minutes late.
Hmmm, is
this how it is going to be?
6:40 pm
arrive in Newark
8:40 pm
Swiss Air leaves Newark on schedule. I try to study on the
plane but I am too exausted to stay up, I sleep most of the
flight to Basel.
9.15 Wednesday
9:30 am
We arrive in Basel. I take Airport bus #50 to the Basel
Train station. Then I take Tram #2 to the Kunstmuseum then
walk the rest of the way to the youth hostel. The walk is
not too bad, when you are a struggling young musician you
have to save money any way you can, especially in Basel
where it costs you 2SF to go to the bathroom at the train
station. I arrive at the youth hostel, it is surprisingly
clean and quite. After a shower I actually get some studying
done. After grabbing some bread from the hostel restaurant I
am drift off to sleep.
9.16 Thursday
After a breakfast at the
hostel, I leave the hostel to walk around the city, It is a
beautiful city. 1pm I meet up with Johannes Schlaefli, whom
I had met at a workshop before for advice and possibly
studying with him in Zurich. The video I sent him is in NTSC
and I must convert it to PAL system. I promise to do this as
soon as possible.
7 pm
I venture a chinese restaurant, oy! Never try that again.
After dinner I sit by the famous fountain in the city center
and get some studying done.
9.17 Friday
I am getting antsy, I want
to get there.
10 am
I leave the youth hostel, making a reservation for my way
back.
11 am
since my train does not leave until 12:24 pm I bike around
town for an hour. The bike is free, thanks to the city of
Basel.
12:24 pm
board the train to Besancon
4:50 pm
I arrive in Besancon, I meet Madame Becque, we instantly
recognize each other, well she recognizes me and I recognize
my name which she is holding oup on a white card. During the
short 10 minute ride to her house, I realize I am going to
have to draw up every bit of my high school french to be
able to communicate with her. She does not speak a word of
English. This is actually what I was hoping for. I was
hoping for a chance to practice my french. After settling in
and having a quick but nice dinner, Madame Becque and
Monsieur Becque and I had to the music hall.
8:30 pm
is the start of the concert but the roads around the music
hall are jammed up with cars and people. At first I thought
there was some kind of sporting event occuring at the same
complex. There wasn't. Everyone was here for the opening
concert. It was truly exciting to see all these people here
for a classical music concert given by the home town
orchestra, Orchestra de Besancon. The concert does not start
until five minutes after 9 pm since people were still trying
to get in at that point.
The program was
Brahms Hungarian Dances
Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for winds 1st movement
Mozart Ch'io mi scordi di te?
Beethoven Triple 1st movement
Mozart concerto for fl & harp 1st movement
then Dvorak Czech Suite. with Peter Csaba
conducting.
I get home and study for
about 2 hours then fall asleep.
9.18 Saturday
I get up quite early and get
a good bit of work done.
3 pm
Helene the daughter of the Becque family is home for the
weekend.
5 pm
we head over to the Kursaal, which is small recital hall for
the first round. The meeting does not start until 5:45 pm we
are here to draw numbers to determine the order of the 1st
round. There are 18 conductors in all. Out of those 18, 4
are Americans. The youngest conductor is a 20 year old
conductor from China. I think to myself when I was 20 I
didn't know anything. Now I know how much I don't know. The
jury is introduced which includes 7 members. The president
of the Jury is Claus Peter Flor, German Conductor who is the
principal conductor of the Dallas Symphony. Joe Polisi,
President of the Juilliard school, Erich Gruenberg,
Violinist from the Royal conservatory of music in England,
Jan Willem Loot; the general director of the Concertgebouw
orchestra, Peter Csaba the music director of Orchestra de
Besancon, Tamas Korner, the director of the Budapest
Festival Orchestra, and Michl Decoust, a composer who won
the competition a while ago who is French. After the
introduction we are asked to verify who we are by showing
our IDs, like someone is really going to try to sneak in to
the competition. Afterwards we are called up one by one to
pick our number. When the number 1 spot is picked every
clapps and sighs in relief. I pick #17 next to last. This
means I will be conducting the orchestra at the end of the
day at 10:55 pm after they have been playing the entire day.
We are told we will not be able to watch any of the other
conductors. We must remain outside the theatre until 30
minutes before our "passing" time. I return home and Oliver
offers to drive me around the city of Besancon, I feel like
studying a bit but I feel pretty good about my preparation
and I really would like to see the city, so we go for a
drive around the city for an hour or so, afterwards we eat
like Kings, This family is so wonderful. By the time
midnight comes around, I fall asleep.
9.19 Sunday First Round
Although some of the
conductors conduct at 10 am I do not wake up until 11 am. I
can not see them anyway so might as well, try to adjust my
body clock so that 10:55 pm feels like 8 pm or so. At 2pm I
have lunch with the Becque family. I study for a while then
I chat with the Becque family in what must be awful French
but we are managing to communicate thanks to Oliver and my
frequent search through our dictionaries. At 4 pm Karen
calls me, she is one of the American conductors I met at the
first meeting. She asks if I am nervous. I consider the
question and realize I am not. After I hang up, I start to
think maybe I should be, then I chat some more with Oliver
and Larence and I am fine. 6 pm We have a light dinner, then
afterwards I take a walk around the old town center with
Helene who points out all the monuments and all the double
courtyards unique to Besancon region. We walk for almost 2
hours. I
return home and I still have 2 more hours. So I study one
last time then I head to the hall at 10:20 pm, it is only a
5 minute walk to the hall.
10:25 pm
I am led to a dressing room where on the table are three
pieces of paper. I am told to pick two. The paper says
Bartok and Milhaud. I am told to start with the first
movement of Bartok then I will be told when to go on to the
Milhaud. I am a bit disppointed in not getting to do the
Kodaly Dances of Galanta as that was the only piece I had
performed before in a concert of the competition
repertoire.
10:55 pm
I enter the stage, I start with the Divertimento, the
orchestra sounds really good! It goes very well. When I
finish the movement the jury tells me to start the Milhaud
from the beginning. My time runs out by the time I had
reached the 5th rondo.
11:12 pm
I walk out of the hall where many of the conductors are
smoking and chatting with each other. I join them to chat. I
feel pretty good about my session but when I was at the
Prokofiev competition in April, I felt very good about my
first session also and I got knocked in the first round
there. So I was quite content whether or not I would go on
to the next round. I just wanted to do well for my first
round. I think that's why I was mot so nervous.
12:15 pm
Jury announces they will pass 10 conductors to the second
round. They start calling the names. My name is the last one
called. Oliver who is standing next to me leaps up and
yells. I stare at him and around me like a deer in
headlight. I can't believe it, I am going to the 2nd round.
They will keep the same order minus the 8 people. So my
passing time is again late, 10:58 pm the next day. Now Karen
and I are the only Americans left. I study until about 2:30
pm or so then fall asleep.
9.20 Monday Second Round
I wake at 11:30 am I shower
and then eat lunch with the family. I am going to gain at
least 10 pounds eating like this. I pretty much repeat my
routine of yesterday of mixing studying and chatting with
the Becque family and I again take a walk after dinner
around the city, It is a quintessential french small town.
I
would love to live here. While I am walking I see a few
judges eating at one of the side walk cafes, we are not
allowed to talk to them so I pass by. I think to myself how
lucky I am to have found the Becque Family.
11:28 pm
I arrive at the hall for the lottery. Tonight I am picking
from four pieces; Debussy La mer, Shostakovich 9th symphony,
Webern Passacagille and Martinu 5th Symphony. I pick the
first three. Thus I will not get to conduct the Martinu. I
am the last conductor to conduct in the second round,
although I have not been able to see any of them Karen the
other American, 1 Japanese conductor, 2 Chinese conductors,
2 French conductors, Estonian Conductor, Spanish Conductor
and a conductor from Netherlands have all finished and are
waiting out side the theatre.
11:58 pm
It is so late! Tonight's orchestra is Orchestra de Lyon. I
start with the 1st movement of the Debussy. They play quite
a bit behind the beat. I rehearse a few spots in the Debussy
then I am told to move on. I conduct the Shostakovich 9th's
first movement. At the 5/4 bar the snare drum does not play,
so I go back to rehearse him, when I find out that the
orchestra and I have different rehearsal system. I have
numbers they have letters. OY! We finally find a spot to
start and I finish the movement. I start the Webern. It is
one thing if they play behind but it is not together and it
is loud. I ask the orchestra that it must be together and it
must be triple ppp as written. We start again, it is much
better. I go pretty much to the end of the 2nd big climax,
then my time is up. About half hour later they announce they
will pass only 5 conductors to the semi final round. This
time my name is called first. The five semi finalists are
Naoki Tokuoka from Japan, Lukas Groen from Netherlands,
Faycal Karoui from France, Alvaro Albiach Fernandez from
Spain and me, now the lone American. I study for another
hour or so before falling asleep.
9.21 Tuesday Semi Final Rounds
In the Semi final round all
the five conductors conduct twice. First there is the opera
round in which we conduct Stravinsky's Rake's Progress ACt 1
Scene 2 then in the evening is the oratorio round in which
we will conduct the Szymanowsky Stabat Mater. I wake at 11
am, I am mentally and physically pretty tired. It would have
been nice to take a day off, but this is a competition!
After lunch I had to take a nap, otherwise I would fell
asleep in the pit.
2:30 pm
I arrive at the hall. No lottery today. I am up first,
unfortunately this means the orchestra will be sight
reading. Apparently I was quite lucky to have gone second to
last and last in the first two rounds since by that point
the orchestra could play the music without any problem.
3pm
I step into the pit,
but before I do I am told not to stop, no matter what happens and finish the scene before starting to rehearse. I am in the pit the soloists and the choir are sitting on stage. I start the Scene, after only a few bars it is apparent that everyone is sight reading. I am cueing entrances in, holding off early ones, but we keep going. At the end of the act Shadow sings alone and is suppose to finish the act. I look right at him, for his entrance. He is looking straight back at me but not singing. I mouth his words, I finally start singing his part. We finish the scene. then I ask if there is a problem? shadow says he does not have the music. !?@#$!#@? Uh all right then we'll go back and rehearse a few spots. Later I found out that he thought the excerpt stopped before his solo at the end of the scene. He was provided with the rest of the music for the final three conductors. I return home take a shower and a nap. I wake at 6:30 pm thinking I do not have an ounce of energy left in my entire body. this is very physical and mental game, this business of competitions. I eat a light dinner, then look through Szymanowski one last time through, then head to the hall at 8:20 pm. I am led to the same dressing room, by the same German Girl Christie who has been a wonderful volunteer through the last couple days. she looks quite tired. There are many wonderful people who are working for the competition.I hear some very slow tempos going on through the wall. I am the second conductor to conduct the Szymanowski. The orchestra sounds unprepared.
9 pm
I am led back stage. As Naoki comes out he says, "Watch out
for Orchestra." I walk on stage bow to the audience, then
Claus Peter Flor asks me to start the second movement. Choir
is very slow to respond. I see a lot of heads buried in the
score. It is obvious many of them do not know their parts. I
stop many times to regroup the orchestra and choir and the
soloist. By the time my time is up, I feel quite frustrated
about the level of preparation shown by the orchestra and
choir. Many times I stopped simply to get people to be in
the same place. I try to bring them in as I had done in the
opera session, but his time it is much harder as many people
are simply not watching me.
Afterwards, I sit in a cafe by the theatre talking to Naoki
and Nicolas. Nicolas was one of the pianist who played for
all the conductors in the preliminary round. He told me that
he and Christine(the other pianist) played for 175
conductors in all. We have a very nice conversation about
neglected French composers.
12 am
The jury announces 3 finalist for the final round; Lucas
Groen(Netherland), Alvaro Albiach Fernandez(Spain) and aycal
Karoui(France). Afterwards I come home and have a very nice
conversation about many different things. For the first time
I have trouble falling asleep since I have been in Besancon,
I finally fall asleep around 3 am.
9.22
Wednesday I wake around 9:30 am to check up on email, I am
definitely addicted to email! 11 am I have lunch with the
Becque family until 2 'o clock or so. I am beginning to
understand a lot more French and our conversations are
becoming much more sophisticated. I found out about the
Earthquake in Taiwan, boy I guess the world really is coming
to an end. After lunch I meet up with some of the other
conductors in the competition and then attend a Beethoven 9
Rehearsal by the President of the jury Calus Peter Flor in
the Kursaal. For the first hour he worked with thesoloists,
then after an hour the Czech noational Choir came in for
their portion of the rehearsal. His guestures were quite
forceful yet very musical. Claus was using the new Del Maar
scores which he says are quite different than what he is
used to. Afterwards Jose and I discuss two different types
of conducting. One type of conducting which has a lot of
energy and strong gestures or "more the better" school, and
the another type of conducting in which there is an economy
of gestures, almost inward looking. Both can be musical but
for me, the latter is more about the music than about the
conductor. Unfortunately we are not allowed to observe the
finalists in rehearsal today. Each of the finalists had two
50 minute rehearsals for the Emura(Commissioned
piece),Rhapsody in Blue with the soloist and Ravel's La
Valse.
9.23
Thursday
I
spend the morning observing the rehearsal of Beethoven 9
with Claus Peter Flor and the Orchestra de Lyon and the
Czech National choir. I leave the rehearsal quite impressed
with his conducting technique and his will over the
orchestra. He set his tempo and eventhough the orchestra
fought the many tempi(many were faster than conventional, I
believe he was trying to follow some of the actual metronome
markings), but in the end he got the tempi he was after.
After a quick lunch, I was finally able to enjoy myself as a
tourist with the Becque family. We drove out to their
countryhouse in the Loue Valley. What a gorgeous place.
Eventhough it rained, it just added to the beauty of the
country side. We returned to the city in time for a quick
dinner and to attend the Beethoven 9 concert. During the
week the Ysaye quartet were performing the entire Beethoven
String Quartet cycle. I wished I had had time to attend some
of those, but I was busy with the competition. The concert
as usual was completely packed. It was equivalent to a
sporting event in the states. I was deeply impressed with
the city of Besancon and their love for classical music.
9.24
Friday - Finale
During
my morning walk around town, I saw Lukas sitting in one of
the many cafes in town with his whole family; his wife,
mother, and father. It was very nice to see them all. He
says the rehearsals are going fine. In the afternoon, I
occupy a place in a cafe by the river Doubs and study some
scores for my post compeition gigs. I reflect on how
difficult this whole competition would have been without my
host family. I was truly blessed to have found them. After a
wonderful dinner with the Becque family we head for the
Theatre where the Finals are being held. Each of the
finalist will conduct the exact same program of Emura,
Gershwin and Ravel in the same order, and in performance
setting, no rehearsals as in the previous rounds. The order
of the finalists are LukasGroen(Netherland), Alvaro Albiach
Fernandez (Spain) and Faycal Karoui(France). By the time
Alvaro, the spanish conductor had finished the Rhapsody, it
was quite obvious to me who the winner should be. Alvaro
actually made sense out of the ultra complex piece by Emura.
That was quite impressive. The Gershwin has pitfalls in
which it can become yet another sound wall paper by United
Airlines. Yet, Alvaro, with his sensitive accompaniment was
always with the soloist. The E major "love theme" section
was so musically played and conducted that it really was a
pleasure to listen and watch. Alvaro turned the first three
pages or so of the La Valse and after that the score was
never looked again. Alvaro was too busy shaping and flexing
time and communicating with the entire orchestra. All his
gestureswere for the music and were not in the least bit
distracting. I believe to pull off La Valse, one must keep
the shadow of death at close hand. Otherwise La Valse just
becomes a sentimental, nostalgic look back to the Viennese
Schmaltz, uh ... I mean Waltz. The performance of the La
Valse by the Spanish conductor Alvaro Albiach Fernandez was
so electric, that by the half way point I had decided to
actuall boo the jury if they did not select him as the
winner. As soon as Alvaro had left the stage, the audience
started to not only clap but clap in unison for Alvaro to
take a curtain call. However, none of the finalists were
allowed to get curtain calls. All of the audience members
were given an envelope and three cards with each of the
finalists name onthe color coded cards. At the end of the
concert there was a box in the lobby for the audience to
vote. After all three finalists had conducted it took the
jury perhaps 20 minutes to decide. First the audience vote
winner was announced, The spanish had prevailed. Then Claus
Peter Flor made the announcement that the jury had also
agreed with the audience. I was quite happy to see that the
jury was fair in their decision.
I
learned a great deal participating in this competition. Each
time I got past a round, I was pleasantly surprised at my
luck. The more I learn about conducting the more I realize
how much I have yet to learn. Best part of being a conductor
for me is the fact that I won't be any good or even close to
decent until I will be about 65 or so. Until then I am on a
journey to learn all that wonderful music and meet all those
wonderful people along the way. I want to thank the Becque
family for their frienship and generosity. I would also like
to thank all my teachers for their wisdom and guidance, and
thanks to mom and dad for their support of my journey to
become a better musician.
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