Senza Malizia, Ma Non Sempre Con Ardore ('Not Intentionally Rude, But Sometimes Slightly Critical')

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

210-211

text excerpt

Seiji Ozawa... there was a really amusing incident when the celebrated trumpet soloist Maurice André was rehearsing the Hummel Concerto with us at the Festspielhaus one morning in 1982. He got nicely warmed up and in tune, smiling around as the orchestra played the ritornello which leads up to his entry (which should sound like the arrival of Solomon in all his glory). He raised his beautifully polished trumpet to his lips and we waited with bated breath. Two beats before he was due to give voice, Ozawa stopped the orchestra, cut to the next tutti passage and continued to instruct the strings in their bowing and dynamics. As the next entry approached André again prepared to play - and exactly the same thing happened. What is more, it continued to happen right through to the end of the movement, and through the Andante and Rondo which followed. André stopped looking puzzled at a time, but never failed to be 'at the ready' whenever he should have made an entry. He was never allowed to play a note. As the final cadence rang out, to the sarcastic applause of the whole orchestra, he bowed, smiled, said 'Zank you verra mooch', and quickly left the stage. The orchestra fell about laughing. Not Ozawa. He wasn't amused. He wasn't even annoyed at the sarcastic applause. Somehow this lack of mental empathy between conductor and orchestra did have its effect upon the performance. There was never a moment of unpleasantness during the whole series; not a wrong note or a fumbled beat.

excerpt from 'Senza Malizia, Ma Non Sempre Con Ardore ('Not Intentionally Rude, But Sometimes Slightly Critical')' pp. 210-211 (258 words)

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