The Rite of Spring, a Russian ballet by Igor Stravinsky, is considered one of the most scandalous works in the history of music. The piece depicts pagan rituals that culminate in the sacrifice of a young woman, whose death is intended to appease or pacify the gods of spring. When the piece premiered in Paris, it shocked the audience and sparked a riot due to its dissonant score and unusual dance.
The riot at the 1913 premiere of The Rite of Spring was one of the most famous scandals in the history of the arts. The ballet was performed by the pioneering Russian ballet corps Ballet Russes, and it was widely regarded as a seminal work of modernism. The ballet was frenetic, jagged orchestral ballet that boldly rejected the ordered harmonies and comfort of traditional composition.
The most likely culprit for the riot was the choreography for the ballet, created by Vaslav Nijinsky. Nijinsky made an unusual dance that evoked feelings of rage, shame, and disgust, leading to a chaotic atmosphere. The audience was primed for a scandal, with rumors swirling about the new work from Stravinsky, who believed that the crowd had come for Scheherazade or Cleopatra and saw the Sacre du Printemps.
The audience for the premiere of the Rite of Spring was primed for a scandal, as traditional melody and tonal-ish harmony were disappearing in favor of tone rows and dissonance. Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” is widely regarded as a seminal work of modernism, with its frenetic, jagged orchestral ballet and dissonant score contributing to its popularity.
📹 SURFER GETS SUCKED INTO STORM DRAIN #shorts
Why is Stravinsky so good?
Igor Stravinsky, a Russian composer, transformed 20th-century musical thought with his work, most notably in The Rite of Spring. This piece introduced a novel concept of music, characterised by a dynamic and evolving rhythm, a shifting of metric emphasis, an unconventional orchestration, and a bold exploration of dissonant harmonies.
What did the opening night audience find so shocking and upsetting about Rite of Spring?
The unconventional musical style, hitherto unperformed in public, provoked a strong emotional response in the audience, evoking feelings of rage, shame, and disgust. These were a result of the piece’s rapid tempo, unsavoury choreography, and demonic overtones, which culminated in vocal expressions of disquiet and physical gestures of disapproval.
Why was The Rite of Spring so influential?
The Rite of Spring, a 20th-century ballet, is considered one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Its score is the world’s first modernist orchestral work and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire. Over 190 reconstructions and derivations have been mounted on professional stages worldwide, including South African choreographer Dada Masilo’s The Sacrifice, which will be on view at Spoleto Festival USA from June 1 to 4.
The Ballets Russes, founded by impresario Diaghilev in 1909, aimed to introduce Russian artists like Stravinsky, Leon Bakst, Michel Fokine, and Rimsky-Korsakov to the Western world. The Rite of Spring was a collaboration between composer Stravinsky, visual artist Nicholas Roerich, and choreographer Nijinsky, celebrating the advent of spring and its darker plot of ritual sacrifice. The ballet received five performances in Paris and four in London before closing due to World War I, a falling out between Nijinsky and Diaghilev, and Nijinsky’s declining mental health.
Who was the Russian ballet defect?
In 1974, Sergei Baryshnikov defected from the Bolshoi Ballet in Toronto, seeking political asylum in Canada. Ballet critic John Fraser helped him escape by recording phone numbers and distracting a KGB officer who followed him. Baryshnikov joined the National Ballet of Canada briefly as a guest and announced he would not return to the USSR. Christina Berlin, an American friend, helped engineer his defection during his 1970 tour of London. His first televised performance was with the National Ballet of Canada in La Sylphide.
He then went to the United States, where he and his dance partner Natalia Makarova featured prominently in an episode of the BBC television series Arena in December 1975. In the first two years after his defection, Baryshnikov danced for 13 different choreographers, including Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Alvin Ailey, and Twyla Tharp. He cited his fascination with Ailey’s mix of classical and modern technique and his initial discomfort when Tharp insisted on eccentric personal gestures in dance. Baryshnikov served as principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre from 1974-1978.
Why did people not like The Rite of Spring?
The Rite of Spring, a ballet by Igor Stravinsky, premiered in Paris on May 29, 1913, and was expected to be a major cultural event due to the talent involved. The Ballets Russes, or “Russian Ballet”, was a hot ticket due to the Eastern exoticism of previous productions, such as Firebird and Petrushka, both composed by Stravinsky. The audience was shocked by the ugly costumes, heavy choreography, and harsh music, which was expected to shock the audience.
The choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky, was known for his shocking and often risqué choreography, such as his 1912 performance of Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune. The audience was shocked and with good reason.
What did audiences find shocking about The Rite of Spring?
The opening notes of a ballet sparked a ruckus in the auditorium due to the high-pitched bassoon solo. The audience’s wild shouting made it difficult to hear the music. Stravinsky panicked and ran backstage, but chaos ensued. Diaghilev had expected a ruckus, but he instructed the conductor, Pierre Monteux, to keep going despite the chaos. The performance continued, and Stravinsky and Nijinsky were unaware of the chaos. The performance was a testament to the power of music and the power of imagination.
Why was ballet so popular in Russia?
Peter the Great introduced ballet to Russia to improve its cultural standing and impress the aristocracy, who were wealthy and seeking new entertainment forms. Ballet’s unique style of dance and compelling storytelling became popular, leading to elaborate costumes and moving performances. Elena Andreianova convinced Marius Petipa to join the Bolshoi company after a dispute with the Paris Opera. Petipa became a renowned choreographer and helped create several popular ballets. In 1846, the Bolshoi company traveled around Europe, performing with the Paris Opera, but things took a turn for the worse when the company arrived for their performance with the opera.
What was unusual about The Rite of Spring?
The Rite of Spring, a ballet by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, premiered in Paris on May 29, 1913, and is considered one of the first examples of Modernism in music. The piece is known for its brutality, barbaric rhythms, and dissonance, with its opening performance being one of the most scandalous in history. The piece was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev, the impresario of the Ballets Russes, and developed by Stravinsky with the help of artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich.
The production was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, and its sets and costumes were designed by Roerich. The Rite of Spring, inspired by Russian culture, challenged the audience with its chaotic percussive momentum, making it a startlingly modern work.
What is so special about The Rite of Spring?
The Rite of Spring, a ballet by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, premiered in Paris on May 29, 1913, and is considered one of the first examples of Modernism in music. The piece is known for its brutality, barbaric rhythms, and dissonance, with its opening performance being one of the most scandalous in history. The piece was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev, the impresario of the Ballets Russes, and developed by Stravinsky with the help of artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich.
The production was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, and its sets and costumes were designed by Roerich. The Rite of Spring, inspired by Russian culture, challenged the audience with its chaotic percussive momentum, making it a startlingly modern work.
Why did people riot at The Rite of Spring?
The Rite of Spring is a ballet and orchestral concert work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company in 1913. The avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation when first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913. The music achieved equal or greater recognition as a concert piece and is widely considered one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century.
Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes. The concept behind The Rite of Spring, developed by Nicholas Roerich from Stravinsky’s outline idea, is suggested by its subtitle, “Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts”. The scenario depicts primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death.
The ballet was not performed again until the 1920s, when a version choreographed by Léonide Massine replaced Nijinsky’s original, which saw only eight performances. Massine’s production was the forerunner of many innovative productions directed by the world’s leading choreographers, gaining work worldwide acceptance. In the 1980s, Nijinsky’s original choreography was reconstructed by the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles. Stravinsky’s score contains many novel features for its time, including experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress, and dissonance.
📹 Trumpet Player Disagrees with Bernstein in Rehearsal – BBC Orchestra
Trumpets: what not to do when you’re working with one of the greatest musical minds of your time. Rehearsing Elgar’s Enigma …
I remember my trumpet teacher, who shall remain nameless, telling me of an incident he had with Zubin Mehta. The maestro asked the trumpet player to use a C-trumpet rather than a Bb for a particular passage. My teacher did not have his C with him, but rather than say that, he simply said “certainly maestro”. He took the mouthpiece out of his Bb, and reached over to his trumpet case, pretending to change instruments. He played the passage once again on the same Bb instrument. Mehta said “Ah yes, that was the sound I was looking for”.
What we trumpet players hear from behind the bell and also through our inner ear is not what the audience (or conductor) hears. I think Bernstein was being completely reasonable. It is his job as the conductor to shape the style and sound of the performance. It is the musicians’ jobs to do their best to do as directed. I also think Bernstein showed decorum the way he took the high road and chose to be polite in his reaction to the trumpet player’s haughty comments.
I’m a trumpeter, and generally I tend to agree with my section, but in any musical group, there are as many opinions about the sound as there are musicians. What makes the music beautiful is unifying it through one concept, that of the conductor, no matter what he says. If you all play in the style he is asking, you are playing as one, and that is better than playing as a group of different individuals.
Strangely enough, Lenny was correct, and there was a difference in the final product. Sometimes musicians tend to think they did not do anything different, but he said it himself…they were following the leader of the section. The leader changed his tone and interpretation and the others followed. As a conductor myself, I have run into plenty of instrumentalists that just want to create a scene. No problem here and Bernstein handled it quite professionally, in my opinion.
As somebody who has played in professional orchestras for about 30 years (including with Bernstein conducting on a few occasions), I’m unable to see how he was being ‘difficult’ or ‘disrespectful’ in this clip. He WAS being picky, and asking for something very specific. But he wasn’t being rude or unpleasant. I think just about anybody listening to the clip can hear the difference in the sound quality by the end. As with anything aesthetic, there’s room for disagreement about whether it’s ‘better’ (personally, I think it sounds MUCH better). But, as a conductor, it wasn’t unreasonable for him to ask for something very specific from the players and to keep trying until he got it. By the way, as a musician, being asked by somebody to do something in a way that’s very different from the way you would do it can be very good for you. It can open your ears, stretch your imagination, give you new ideas and a different way of understanding a piece of music that may have become so familiar to you that you take it for granted. Pouty trumpet guy shows signs of doing just that.
I will never forget the time I went to the MET OPERA IN NYC. Leonard Bernstein graciously agreed to meet with me and my fellow students per a request from my sophomore English teacher who was a Bernstein fanatic. Leonard Bernstein spent over an hour with us, inspiring us with tales of his journey and with anecdotes for loving and living life. Sadly, he died shortly after that and left me with the honor of having seen his last performance and having spent time with him.
As a trumpet player, we need to make the initial musical decision, but the conductor should make the final one, and our job is to convey the music in the way the conductor is imagining. This trumpet player is overstepping his bounds and forgetting his role in the orchestra. Bernstein was very gracious with him. But hey, this guys was playing with the BBC orchestra, and he probably didn’t get there with a lack of confidence.
Disagreeing wasn’t the problem. Being fresh and rolling his eyes was. The third trumpet was asked how Bernstein wants it played in a polite manner. The second basically said he was playing it right all along and that Bernstein was being super aggressive with his comments. It’s ok to disagree but you can’t just make childish comments at the conductor if you’re not hearing what he’s hearing.
Two anecdotes on conductors: Our chorus was rehearsing one of the choral masterpieces with a well-known conductor for a summertime presentation of the Beethoven Ninth. The conductor stopped the rehearsal in the middle and looked at our conductor and demanded: “You vill get more tenors.” Our conductor took care of the problem by 1) shifting those baritones who could to sing tenor for the few bars at issue, and 2) directing us to look more intense when singing the passage. Furrowed brows! Next anecdote: Same chorus was singing another big work for a different audience and in a different summer season and venue. Different conductor also, but similarly well-known. Rehearsal was 5 minutes from ending when suddenly the big name conductor stopped the rehearsal and sent everyone to lunch. We were about to rehearse a tricky section where our own conductor was going to conduct an offstage passage for the men while perusal the big name conductor for the tempo. Upshot was that we sang the passage without rehearsal. Luckily we all were very conscientious and used part of lunchtime to go over the passage ourselves a few times. As Jimmy Durante would say, “I got a million of them.”
What it sounded like from the chair of the player and from the podium could be two different things, the resultant of all the horns playing together and when they reach various places is the sound waves combining and interacting can be very complex, so it’s quite possible that the sound at the chairs of the players is very different from what is heard farther out, especially because of bone-transmission and even cavity-resonances in the horn players’ bodies, just like hearing our own voice playback of the recording versus our own voice in our own bodies there is a vast difference.One thing great to notice here is how professionally Lenny handled the “dissent”,he simply said what he heard and try to make it better and then moved on. Thank you L.B., eternally!
As a 14-year-old boy chorister in 1971 I corrected Lenny in a studio session he was leading. There were 5 of us boys and various wind players recording a small portion of his “MASS” to be played in live performances. LB: “Now sopranos, in measure 8 (or whatever) I need more sound, OK?” My hand shot up like a railway signal and he said, “Yeeeees?” ME: “Mr. Bernstein, we are not sopranos, we are trebles…” My choirmaster was in the sound booth in sheer terror of the excoriation Lenny could direct at me. But it was not to be. LB: Thank-you, young man, for the correction. Trebles, is it? Ah yes, trebles, I need more sound at that point…” Good times.
Trumpet player here. One thing to keep in mind, you hear mostly your own trumpet (because you are concentrating on that), and (if you are 2nd Trumpet) you hear the other two trumpets coming from each side of you. Of both the other trumpets coming from one side if you are first or third trumpet. But the conductor hears all three of you coming from straight ahead. And the sound from behind the bell is different than the sound in front of your bell. So, he really does hear a different sound than you do, especially if you have a really keen ear like a good conductor will have.
I see a lot of comments that are just straight up wrong here, but this time around its something I know very well. Source if you care : am a professional trumpet player. The conductor was asking for something but identified what was wrong incorrectly – but his expertise is not the instrument it is the SOUND. Also worth noting, I did have the rewatch once to understand his POV. The difference between the last two attempts is that the in final one that was more well done, the middle voice (2nd trumpet) backed off on the volume to allow the three voices to blend much better to create a much more peaceful harmony. What stuck out as a “bwah” or sort of “brassy” sound was the clash between the different notes trying to overlap at different volumes, almost like it was producing a dissonant sound despite the notes being exactly the same. Sound is a complicated science, and an even more complicated art. Why did this happen though? Because the conductor asked them to more present and make the crescendo far more prevalent in their playing of their rendition of the piece. 1st attempt they all played in unison, slight crescendo. 2nd attempt they all have more sound, but its imbalanced (of course it is they are trying to meet the conductors request, doing the same thing/being timid/hiding accomplishes NOTHING and each player will have a different interpretation even if they are trying to follow their 1st chair), then with the desired result established but a tweak being requested, the players again attempt to modulate and meet the request exactly as the conductor wanted it, this time with success.
I hear two things in the comments: “Don’t argue with the conductor! He is the maestro! He hears all the parts” and “Well the trumpet player is doing his job” How about two extremely professional musicians just happen to disagree on an interpretation. That trumpet player knows more about his instrument than Bernstein ever could. Bernstein knows more about the orchestration and goals of the piece than that trumpet player probably will. It wasn’t some bitchfest, it was two extremely accomplished men disagreeing on a particular interpretation. This is how it should go if there is an egregious disagreement, especially if you’re on a schedule.
I gave a couple of massages to the maestro when I was working as a massage therapist at the Watergate Hotel. He opened the door to his suite and his warmth as a human being was immediately apparent. He also got on the phone with someone he knew and once again you could feel his caring for the other person on the line. He was a wonderful person.
I studied with a NY Phil trumpet player who performed with that orchestra during the Lenny years, and was fortunate to have been taught ethics of professional musicianship that carried over into other areas of my life. And I believe that much of what success I might have enjoyed in music benefited from the lessons of being on time, knowing the music, and never EVER taking up valuable ensemble rehearsal time flexing one’s ego in front of the conductor.
Part of it’s a learning curve for the player: the relationship within the section creates a particular soundscape, the conductor wants something else, the section has to adjust. The dots are just a guide, and on a loud instrument like a trumpet the individual performer cannot always hear the clear meld of the section’s sound as a balanced whole. Listen to where they start and where they get to – and ask yourself where that could take them given enough rehearsal time.
In my experience these tense cascading awkward moments start where there is some preexisting tension in the relationship, perhaps unacknowledged and where there is unexpected stress in an area that has ego invested. They had probably played this passage for another maestro and felt good about it then Bernstein’s criticism is a sudden shock and the mask slips and things get just a little out if control. In other circumstances he would probably react very differently.
I’ve had my share of issues with conductors as a professional trpt player over the yrs, but there is no doubt that Bernstein achieved a superior result after isolating this. You can obviously see from the 2nd trpts body language early on, that he was in a foul mood & not open to Lenny’s musical direction. The principal trumpet should’ve put him in his place & told him to be respectful. I’d never want to have an event like this memorialized where I blatantly disrespected a legendary maestro like this. How shameful!!
Forgive me. I am just a dumb rock guy but I think I may have an explanation. It simply sounds different BEHIND the trumpet. Bernstein is several feet away but in FRONT of the instrument. I wonder if there is an acoustic dynamic in brass/wood instruments that prevents a horn player from hearing exactly how his instrument sounds from playing position? I am an electric bass player. If I stand directly behind or adjacent to my amplifier it sounds completely different to those who are just a few feet away or to the side. Just a theory.
Unless we really know the context of what was happening in this rehearsal, it is tough to really fault anyone in this exchange. For all we know, it is at the end of a tough rehearsal, and both conductor and players are getting tired, and perhaps a bit impatient. It happens… Besides, the trumpeter, although a bit rude, was just having an honest reaction. I love how Bernstein did not seem troubled by it, and just moved on. That is what pros do…
Hours late to rehearsals and picking on marginal differences like this was probably what pissed them off. That was Norman Burgess and Iaan Wilson talking back to him. Top class trumpet players both, although you wouldn’t think it by the way he was talking to them. Rather than asking them for the outcome he wanted he verged into telling them how to play their instruments (not really the done thing for a professional orchestra and more suitable for a youth orchestra) and presumably they didn’t much care for his interpretation, but that is personal taste. You have to remember that these guys will have played Elgar hundreds of times before.
Well….there’s a clear difference. No question. Much better at the end. Fuller. Exactly what was being asked of them. Ego is a tough thing to negotiate sometimes and this is clear example of it getting in the way. “You don’t hear that? Beautiful…..Ok let’s move on.” I heard it and That’s about right.
I think this is a matter of just playing in tune. Trumpet 2 thought his tone was fine (which it was) but because the section was out of tune from the principal, the tone came across more strident and the overall blend of tone from the section was off-par. This is what I’m hearing, anyways. Regardless, the trumpet probably could have kept those comments to himself or spoken to Bernstein after the rehearsal was done to sort out a disagreement. If I had the opportunity to play under him and he said something sounded much better after isolating it a rehearsal, would be inclined to believe him!
My conducting teacher while I was working on my Masters Degree, confided to me that often, composers would come to him for advice, then would NOT take that advice in writing their music. Then when this conductor performed that music in a concert, he would change it back to what HE felt it should be, and without exception the composer would come to him later and say, “You were right to do (that passage) the way you did.” Leonard Bernstein was one of the greatest. He even performed Shostakovich’s Symphony #5, final movement, at a tempo he felt the music demanded, against what Shostakovich indicated in the score. Shostakovich came to Bernstein after the concert and admitted that Bernstein’s interpretation was right on.
I don’t own this… “Leonard Bernstein’s only engagement with the BBC Symphony Orchestra took place in April 1982. It was a troubled time for Great Britain, with the long-running dispute over the Falkland Islands transformed into open war by the Argentinian invasion earlier in the month: the all-out military response ordered by Mrs Thatcher was still to come (a naval task force was on its way to the South Atlantic) when Bernstein conducted this concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 14 April. A few days later, he referred with withering sarcasm to the jingoist spirit of Elgar’s patriotic music when (without preliminary rehearsal) he recorded two of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches as fillers to his CD recording of the ‘Enigma’ Variations, later issued on Deutsche Grammophon. An East Coast liberal, Bernstein was uneasy about England and its imperialist past. He loved Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and the Listener magazine’s crossword puzzles but had hated his first visit to London in 1946. On that occasion (arranged by the music publisher Ralph Hawkes, a friend of his mentor Aaron Copland), Bernstein had conducted the London Philharmonic in six concerts and the newly formed Philharmonia for a recording of Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto that was sufficiently problematic to never be issued in the UK. Bernstein had been ill, lonely, depressed by bomb-ravaged London and unimpressed by the quality of its orchestral musicians. Over the next three decades his London concerts (apart from appearances with the New York Philharmonic on various tours) had all been given with the adventurous London Symphony Orchestra, including a memorable Mahler Eight at the Royal Albert Hall in 1966 and a Stravinsky memorial concert in 1972.
Oh Lord this brings me back to my college music days…trumpets and our big heads!!! LMAO!! One of the trumpets wasn’t doing the crescendo in the unison sound he was looking for…sounds like one trumpet when its in tune and done the same as the others…I hear the difference!!! One of the trumpets was out of tune as well
What’s really interesting about this is the classical music world versus the rest of the world… I’m a music teacher and I kind of see both sides actually teach middle school and possibly because of that I have found myself from time to time drifting into YouTube articles… And then you look at the title “trumpet player disagrees with Leonard Bernstein”… Compared to some of these articles about Karen’s arguing in the street starting fights that’s not exactly a disagreement in my opinion they’re just having a very quiet polite conversation so interesting perspective and poignant contrast I think… LOL….
When you play an instrument in a band or orchestra, you play what the conductor/band leader wants you to play – Your individual knowledge and ability do not override the conductor’s direction. Period. If you are not willing to accept that, go play in another band/orchestra, or create your own. At age 85, I look back at years of playing trumpet in high school, college, dance bands, and American Legion bands over the last 70 plus years. Enjoyed it all, although there were occasional times when I did not always agree with the band director. Bands and orchestras are groups/organizations, and your job is to contribute to the musical effect the director/conductor wishes. You may think the correct beginning of a phrase requires SFORZANDO, but the conductor wants FORTISSIMO. The conductor wins.
This is the BBC Symphony Orchestra I’m guessing early 1980s. It was the first time Bernstein had conducted them. Trumpeter on left with glasses is Norman Burgess and the one in the middle is Ian MacIntosh (son of the great Cornetist Jack who played in the same orchestra 50 years earlier ). The name of the trumpeter on the right escapes me.
I am retired from teaching horn at a university now. Early in my career I was exclusively an orchestral horn player. One of the main reasons I left orchestral playing was precisely the kind of attitude we see from 2nd trumpet player here. That said, one should not make generalizations from a 2-minute clip. It appears to me that something else is going on here in addition to the foul attitude. Note that at 34″, Maestro Bernstein looks at his watch. It was time for the rehearsal to be over OR to have a break. In an effort to get one more thing done, he was less than tactful. No pro ever wants his/her sound to be characterized as Bernstein did. He poured gasoline (petrol!) on the fire.
I knew Vacchiano’s trumpet repair guy, who also did work for me. A famous conductor he wanted a particular solo on a D trumpet. Bill took a Bb to our guy and he adapted it to LOOK like the D. Following week Bill played it on the adaptation, he complemented him and noted that he was right . Vacchiano agreed .
There’s a great DVD out there of the 1998 re-recording of the music of West Side Story: Bernstein conducting, amongst others, operatic singers (good luck with that)… one being Jose Carreras. Carreras kept flubbing his part over and over again in exactly the same way; it became tough to watch. It was torture. One could see Bernstein’s frustration growing. He finally ended that portion of the session and all Carreras could do was slink off the stage in disgrace. There very soon was a cut to Bernstein’s Manhattan apartment, he (calm now) working with Carreras, trying to tease out a performance worthy of being recorded. All’s well… and all that.
This is not at all a true representation of Bernstein’s relationship with an orchestra. It’s at the end of his life after a lot of personal issues, he comes across as arrogant and just mauls the piece. After the conductors that orchestra have played this piece for they are to some extent justified in their arguments.
Bernstein was considered “difficult,” but he wasn’t difficult. He knew exactly what he wanted, and he insisted until he got it. This passage is hard – it’s low and uncomfortable, and I think the trumpet player was nervous, felt he was being attacked and got a bit defensive. OK, so what? These are artists and these kinds emotions are part of what makes them good. Trumpet and horn are super high-stress instruments, and the top players are a bit high strung, always. Still, you just can’t talk back to a conductor like that in front of the orchestra, most certainly not to Leonard Bernstein. I’ve worked with lesser conductors who would have asked the orchestra manager to remove the player from the rehearsal, possibly even the concert. What I would like to know is if Lennie and the trumpet player didn’t get together afterwards, talk it out, and then shake hands.
1. Bernstein was right; he had a legendary inhuman ear and the trumpet player just had something up his butt. That said, and 2. I remember playing (trumpet) under Leonard Atherton, the famous choral conductor. At a certain passage, trumpets are both high and soft. We played it for him 2 or 3 times in a row with the orchestra, each time softer than the last because, for him, we were simply TOO LOUD! The last time, we didn’t play at all — we pantomimed. “Perfect!” he beamed.
Do not roll your eyes, and do not argue with the conductor or whoever else is in charge. In worse case scenario, it is grounds for dismissal or other disciplinary action. I did that a couple times in other professional venues and it almost cost me my job. Bottom line – do as you’re told and you’ll be fine.
Bernstein wasn’t attacking the trumpet players personally so the second trumpet needed to keep his ego in check. Bernstein was merely asking for a different color to the sound, that’s all. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask the conductor for clarification but to shake your head, roll your eyes, and be overly dramatic, is grounds for dismissal.
Judging from Norman’s expression this wasn’t the start of the friction between Bernstein and the orchestra. You can lead by consent and respect or you can try to belittle and show your own importance and I think we can see what’s going on here. The way Bernstein glances at his watch as is classic “my time is so valuable and you are wasting it” gesture. I studied with Norman and whilst I disagreed with him on some fundamentals he was a gentleman, a professional and I’m sure would not normally have questioned someone who had been treating him and his colleagues with respect. With regard to their performance improving- it’s hard to judge as at their first attempt there is obviously some confusion about exactly where he wants them to start from. I can’t hear anything horrible with Iaan’s intonation and that particular note sounds identical (to me) when they repeat it and Bernstein approves. Maybe this sort of ‘maestro’ behaviour impresses the masses but to those in the know it is just posturing and ego and can often just get in the way of a smooth rehearsal and a good performance.
2 comments: The great conductor and gun-carrying Artur Rodzinski would probably have shot the trumpeter. For those who deprecate Bernstein’s composing abilities, most professional musicians in and out of academia would consider the overture to Candide to be a masterpiece on the page and in performance.
I loved his casual glance at his watch halfway through. Reminds me of perusal the CBSO rehearse once, when my wife was in the choir, and bang on 9:30 pm, everyone upped and left(well, I think it was led by the brass and double bass players), even though they were halfway through playing… they won’t play if they’re not being paid….
That middle trumpet player was being pretty haughty and testy. It’s like he let his personal sense of having been offended at Bernstein’s characterization of his brassy sound interfere with respectful communication with the conductor. And Bernstein was very gracious about it. I know some conductors who would have been testy and rude right back, but that’s not what he did.
I’m the principal trumpet in my high school orchestra and I found it slightly difficult to switch to warm and dark sounds, probably due to inexperience, but the conductor asked for it and I did it. Leonard was being reasonable with them and even complimented them on how they sounded yet they still seemed mad. Trumpet players are funny.
First question I have is, why does that guy have a Bb when the other two have C’s. To my ear, that is the reason why it’s not blending well, on top of the fact that the second player is playing too loud (IMO), or I guess maybe the 1st too soft. I don’t care how you feel about the conductor, proper etiquette is to follow direction, even if you disagree. It’s not your job to dictate interpretation, that’s the conductors job.
no matter how much of a high art you’re dealing with, music is supposed to be collaborative. the musician disagreeing with a conductor in moderation only adds to the flavor of the music being produced, and is honestly very healthy in my opinion. Besides adding fresh ideas into the mix, it strengthens the relationship between the conductor and the musician, an integral aspect to all kinds of music. The trumpet player’s disagreement may have not been that valuable, but the virtue of this kind of interaction explains why Bernstein didn’t just flip out as most musical figures of his stature would’ve.
As a long time orchestral player, it is not fair of us to judge the player badly on this little clip of a rehearsal. We don’t know what type of exchanges may have already taken place between the orchestra and Lenny, or with the trumpets specifically. Lenny’s mistake on the podium here is to answer the question of “how do you want it to sound there” with a condescending “well it should not sound waughoughghgh” and making an obviously poopy sound. A conductor does not have to resort to that to communicate to the players. We don’t know if Lenny has been demeaning to another player, section or the orchestra as a whole previously in the rehearsal. Would it have been better for the player to simply nod his head and use his radar with his section to satisfy the conductor? Yes. But there are moments when one’s frustration does reach the podium. A fine conductor can be monumentally demanding but also polite and collegial. They can even be blunt and undiplomatic but they should never be demeaning or condescending. This will kill the mood on stage faster than anything. However, I believe Lenny’s personality was such that he probably was not intending to be demeaning, and might have given the player a hug backstage at intermission and all was fine. Let’s also remember that the London orchestras know Elgar’s music from top to bottom, probably better than Lenny himself, and they have much pride in their point of view in this repertoire, even though it is our job as players to achieve the conductor’s vision.
I’ll give the trumpeter the benefit of the doubt for not being able to heard the difference due to relative position. However, because he was oblivious doesn’t warrant the incompetence he chose to display. Regardless of the Maestro’s talents, Bernstein was professional and respectful throughout this ordeal and I commend him for making the change, despite the disagreement.
It does not matter that Bernstein is a “great musical mind”, he is still human and subject to making mistakes or simply having a different musical idea. This said, he is the Conductor so the trumpet player should play it as directed regardless of his opinion. I dislike that you indicate that the trumpet player can not disagree. I also dislike that you imply that the Trumpet player is a lesser musician. If he is GOOD ENOUGH to play for a Professional Symphony Orchestra, HE IS DAMNED GOOD and his thoughts on the matter should not be summarily rejected just because he is at odds with a FAMOUS Conductor.. It is an arrogant and entitled way of thinking that needs to go the way of the dinosaurs.
My experience: musicians are there to play, not to talk. A rehearsal environment is fragile. The conductor is generally receptive to questions in the break. These conventions make the process easier. An orchestra is anything but a democracy. As a general statement, the conductor doesn’t care what an individual musician thinks. And yes, for my ears it sounded better after it was rehearsed.
I really can’t understand why everybody is treating Bernstein as like a god. sure, he’s great, but why should it be almost a crime to critisice him? When THIS would be disrespecting, then everybody of you should feel guilty about all the prejudgements an unfair comments you commit every day. because that is certainly a crime that’s much worse. I guarantee.
Well it seems like Bernstein achieved the sound he wanted, I can hear the difference, but I really don’t think there is much wrong with the trumpet players ‘protesting’. The way they played it the first time was beautiful and to have it described as ‘WAAA WAAAA’ (unprofessional) would invoke even more bite back in professional orchestras these days believe me. All no.2 trumpet said was ‘I don’t think we did that’ – don’t understand how that could garner so much hate. Genius though he was, Bernstein was known to become increasingly poor at managing people later in his career. I’ve seen way more cringey altercations between conductor and trumpets in UK orchestras, it seems to go with the territory!
To borrow a line from “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”: There are two kinds of people in the world, those with a baton, and those who blow. No one is saying that the trumpeter isn’t good enough to disagree with the conductor, or that he can’t have his own ideas. But an orchestra isn’t a democracy. The conductor conducts, and everyone else does what they’re told. That’s what makes the world do around.
I’ve heard some great Bernstein – his version of Rhapsody in Blue for instance, he plays the piano and it is probably the sexiest version I’ve heard. But with the NY Philharmonic, much of the time it seemed like they were trying to all outblow each other. I heard a live performance of Bolero by the NY – not sure who conducted. Bolero is kind of a continuous crescendo, and halfway through they were already playing as loud as they could. It just got nasty from there and the finale sounded like a high school drum and bugle corps busting their chops and turning blue. Of course they received a rousing round off applause from their home audience of Yankees and Mets fans.
I visited some Atlanta Symphony performers after their performance of the Rite of Spring under the direction of Robert Shaw. I asked them how they were able to follow his conducting, as I could not see any visible ictus (beat). The answer was that they didn’t watch him; they instead listened to each other. Yet once again, musicianship wins out!
It seems to me that he pissed them off slightly and because of that they played the crescendo louder and more forcefully….perhaps that is what made the difference. They were kinda loping into it and intertwining where as the conductor wanted more force from underneath and a stronger build into it. I get it…..
It can be very challenging for a conductor to tell a master player how to play something. What Bernstein did was model vocally what he wanted, which is exactly the right thing to do. The trumpeter scoffed, saying that’s not how we did it, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is how it sounds up front.
I hear the difference. Bernstein wanted the tension – the ‘brassiness’ – out of the sound. Warm, rich – no edge. I play trumpet. I play a silver plated B&S Challenger II (standard leadpipe) using a Schilke Symphony Series M1* mouthpiece. The M1* is GIANT. Both are great for warm, broad, rich, full, huge sound. If I want the ‘brassy’ sound, it’s there too.
It only goes wrong if you ever tell another musician that they sounded ugly. Its ok to tell another musician they are doing it differently and you want them to change, but if you put them down in your inability to communicate verbally, then that hurts a world class player. Dont reduce someone in order for them to listen and understand your request.
Takes me back to HS band, me and the rest of the trumpets always conflicted with the director. Although I think for us it had to do with the fact that our previous director had actually been a trumpet player so he was able to communicate what he needed from us very well, often by actually playing. Our HS director didn’t seem to know what he was asking of us most of the time. Like, I remember being yelled at to keep my bell up super high in concert until he had a judge friend of his sit in on our practice and he told us our bells were much too high and we were fighting the acoustics of the auditorium. Our director from then on completely 180ed on that without an oz of humility. I felt pretty smug that day, lol. But I was a tad bitter about being chastised over it for 3 years. It was quite literally a pain in the neck.
My dad (trumpet) was rehearsing a show with Duke Ellington writing and conducting. He came to a trumpet solo, and before he finished it, people were smirking and eventually the whole orchestra was laughing, including the Duke. He said ‘yeah, that doesn’t work well, does it? Why don’t you write your own solo and pretend that never happened?’ So he did. A real gentleman, and they were friends to the end.
Context is important. This is a clip from a long rehearsal where Bernstein had turned up very late, according to other comments. What wasn’t helping was that Bernstein was reinterpreting the piece in a very different way from what the highly experienced BBC Symphony Orchestra were used to with other British, European and American conductors. Some of them probably didn’t buy into what he was trying to do. My dad and I listened to the TV performance and were unimpressed, in particular with the very slow tempo for Nimrod. Maybe if I listened to it again I would spot unusual aspects that worked or gave new insights, but I would not have wanted it as my main recording of the Enigma.
The third time the intonation was better, not so much difference in the sound. It takes a couple repetitions even to professionals to get the best out of their solo. Bernstein wasn’t perfectly specific at what he wanted from the players and did exaggerate a bit with his singing, but at the end he was probably right. Sometimes it can be hard for players to be perfectly professional all the time – they are all excellent individuals but have to give up their ego in front of the orchestra.
There was a whole temperature about this recording session. Possibly it had been engineered by the producers of the BBC documentary, but the narrative being spun was that Bernstein was coming along with a novel approach to the Enigma Variations, and he was getting the orchestra’s back up in the process. That was the headline effectively ahead of the recordings and it infected the environment. As stated earlier, it seems the orchestra had been sat in a hot studio for too long before the maestro arrived. It was obviously very warm there. Maybe that’s why Bernstein wore the safari suit!
I was in the high school band many years ago. One thing I learned was not to argue with the director. I realized how wrong I was back then, and now can see these trumpet player are wrong, too. It does sound a lot smoother with better intonation and harmony. Musicians are not even-tempered people, therefore, this behavior doesn’t surprise me.
some conductors won’t take risks with high-level orchestras, as the sections know the rep…credit to Bernstein for trying to get the shape and clarity of orchestration from the section….lest we forget he did do a little composing in his life…I think that would be the starting point for a musician like a Bernstein..or any other conductor who had composed…
Interesting comments. Ultimately you could hear the difference once LB got what he wanted. And it was cleaner. But being a pro orchestral player is such a thankless task. I always try to encourage my gang to have a go, be as musical and expressive as they can be and hope their artistry leads to a great performance that they are happy with. Within in that ensemble, balance and tuning is my contribution. Fingers crossed it works. J x
Every place I’ve ever worked I’ve had nearly daily disagreement with the boss. Much of the time he’d ask me to change something in a program and I’d say ok, but next week you’ll want it changed back. And sure enough he’d come back and say “you know that thing you changed… can you change it back to the way it was before?” I never played under a maestro just high school band directors. We had some good ones and bad ones. The clarinet player expected the brass to be able to keep playing after 8 hours on the practice field when our chops were shot. The brass player was much cooler but tended to treat the reeds like they didn’t exist. The small band I’m with now, I occasionally disagree with the leader – we’re doing classic rock and country/bluegrass kind of stuff. When we get to a song that’s my pick, usually I know it forwards and backwards so I’m the one coaching when the vocals come in, and even doing a little arranging for my keyboard part. Right now we’re up to 10 tunes – I’m playing keyboard on 2, bass on 3 or 4, and rhythm guitar on the rest. I might wind up on bass for everything, but leader man might play bass on one of them and he can really crank it out. Last time we did recording we had the drum track first, but once he laid down the bass everything fell into place. The bass part at the time was out of my league. I don’t know how I’d behave with some world famous conductor. I know how my dad did….. and he got fired 😉
I work in the chorus of an opera theater, with many guest conductors, and many times they say “Nooooo, please! Not that horrible sound that looks like roasted ducks!”. Nobody takes offense, especially when it’s real. In any case, we laugh a little, and we try the passage again. I’m not as sensitive as these trumpet players. Only they need to start crying. Adult people, please!
The number of comments from people who have never been near a professional orchestra and have no idea how they work… This is how the finished product gets achieved, through discussion, disagreement, trial and error. Not because the conductor is some kind of god and the musicians are simple machines he switches on and off.
played trumpet in a city band for years, you just do what the maestro says and only talk if you have a honest difficulty or dont understand exactly what he wants, he’s the conductor and you’re in his band/orchestra and it’s his right to play a piece just the way he wants to. Btw this Bernstein dude is chill af.
The comments are hysterical. I’ve seen people abuse better musicians than this literally into tears. This is nothing. Len’s the conductor. STFU and follow direction. Anybody offended by his imitation of the sound needs get over themselves. I was listening to his tone of voice, which was fine. Never roll your eyes. It’s the most unprofessional thing you can do in any job. Imagine a construction guy doing that to his foreman. I was shocked this exchange went this smoothly.
When Bernstein conducted Falstaff at the Met/mid-1960s (Zeffirelli production) the orchestra parts had an error: a timpani passage was missing. Maestro Nello Santi attended the fourth performance and noticed the mistake. He pointed it out to timpanist Richard Horowitz, who then corrected the printed part. Bernstein had no idea it wasn’t even being played. Conductors are human beings sort of we tend to put them on pedestals. Those of us in the business know such true stories about all of the conductors, including the likes of Karajan. Kleiber etc._____
Well, yes, for the proper sound, all three must crescendo uniformly. Shouldn’t have been a mystery to those players. He wanted a warmer sound too, just point the instruments more into the stand or the floor. This is the kind of precision in tone and balance that the great swing bands did better than anyone else. Check out Harry James or Buddy Rich. Most precise there ever were.
Dear old Norman Burgess sat in the middle. Sadly left us in 2018. The brass were told to appear for rehearsal an hour before everyone else to sort out the chairs as a couple of jazzers were coming in to augment the section at certain moments. The jazz players didn’t appear because they hadn’t been booked. Bernstein then did not appear on time and was two and a half hours late. This clip is an hour-or-so into the rehearsal, when it started, with the section, virtually playing their first notes. Yes, poor attitude by Norman, but the Bernstein arriving late as he didn’t like the transport to the venue was provocative. This scene is after sitting around for four and a half hours and being told that they were to be there until around midnight. There were several more ensuing moments at this rehearsal, but I can’t recall them all. Need my mind to be jogged – the entire footage is in the BBC archives I believe – perhaps it will be released, “somewhere”………..
The sound at the podium is different again from the sound in the house. Personally, I was frustrated with my colleagues who, disinterested in changing their equipment, or ‘modifying’ their sound and play to service the end result as experienced by the paying audience member in the hall, preferred instead to blame recording engineers for ‘capturing’ a sound that didn’t confirm their expectations of themselves. I wanted to use an instrument and mouthpiece that ‘serviced’ the hall, but they wanted to use the equipment that serviced their brand allegiance and ego at the stand. Professionals have obligations that supersede personal preference. These days, everything is sacrificed to ever greater volume, which is why so many modern orchestral sections sound ‘other’ (dull and loud, without projection) than they used to in the 50’s and 60’s.
Bernstein was well within his rights. Trumpets have a reputation. We’ll leave it at that. That said, these sessions were going on during my time studying in London. In fact the great man in blue is trumpet professor Norman Burgess. A beloved, kind man. All the trumpets students revered him. So, I find it interesting that this exchange took place at all. With the exception, according to my many friends and colleagues in the BBC Symphony at the time, that he hated them and they hated him. He was contractually obliged to do the DG recording and didn’t want to do it. So, maybe a 50/50 blame. The BBC, on the evidence from other YouTube articles from the Enigma sessions, are no Vienna, his preferred orchestra. But, by the end they produced a very fine recording/performance, save for the most ridiculous, ruinous Nimrod on record.
He was unique, no question… I never worked with him, really wanted to… He and Menotti loathed each other, and despite the subject coming up several times during my period working for GCM as his PA, I never fully understood the source of their mutual dislike. I will say this, however: West Side Story was written in 1954, the same year as Gian-Carlo’s “The Saint of Bleecker Street.” I was his PA between 2003 and 2005. In 2010, 3 yrs after GCM’s death, aged 95, I was in Marseille for the premiere of Stephen Medcalfe’s production, a director I managed at the time. And THIS Interlude just blew me – and every note of West Side Story away… It is an astonishing musical moment. youtube.com/watch?v=42QOlFp6NNA And – God Bless him – Gian-Carlo was a Hell of a lot less ‘drama queen high-maintenance’ than Bernstein! Menotti is one of THE most unfairly under-rated geniuses, who helped shape 20th Century Music. Bernstein didn’t do that – he didn’t ‘evolve’ music – he derived from it. GCM influenced Sam Barber during their 30 year partnership, and Sam was one of the “creators” of what we think of today as modern “American Classical Music.”
Musicians’ egos are so funny. Bernstein didn’t get where he was—at the pinnacle of conducting—by not knowing what he was talking about and not knowing how to get instrumentalists to give him the sound that he wanted. If you watch his Omnibus series, or documentaries of him talking about composers and their works, you’ll get your mind blown, he is that tremendous in his breadth of knowledge.
Bernstein (not the trumpets) initiated the problem here, when he answered the question by replying “Not wghhhaaahhh”. How much more professional it would have been to say that he wanted a purer tone. It’s not surprising that the musicians were put off by that kind of description of their performance, causing the 2nd trumpet to say some words back.
I am rather amused at the whole “he was being super aggressive” and “I can’t believe how rude the musician was” comments. I don’t know where you guys have worked, but I’ve worked on construction sites, in kitchens, department stores, you name it. In about half of them you’d occasionally have a good old fashioned cursing out, a challenge to a fist fight, a heavy object thrown, people storming off, and then everybody got back to work. In construction that kind of stuff happened every two or three days, sometimes daily. Kitchens when a rush is on—you’d have the boss just cursing at the cook and the cook cursing back and celery thrown all the while everybody is working as fast as they can. When I was a newbie and learning it all at the end of the night after a big blow up I asked the manager if he was going to fire the cook. The guy stopped, looked at me all confused, and said, “Fire him?!? He’s a great cook.”
All trumpet players feel that they are supreme and in charge. I am a trumpet player and I totally agree with the statement above that I just made. LOL That being said AND accepted as fact, I do have to agree that the sound that Bernstein elicited from the trumpet section was much improved from what they did originally. I am not familiar with what it was they were playing. I am a commercial and jazz player. Thus, trumpeters in my field rule even over the wimpy classical trumpeters who embarrassingly gave in to Bernstein. Okay, okay, before you all blow a spit valve cork, this whole response is just a big joke. LOL
Reminded me of my days as piccolo player. Oh my did the conductors like to carry on with the piccolo player. Pitch is hard and entries often difficult with challenging passages abd because it is so high and stands out, it is like playing solo most of the time. Somehow if you make one tiny mistake you have ruined the whole performance for everybody else or so they made you feel. 😂
I remember hearing an interview with Christa Ludwig, who said that Karajan was a great opera conductor and Bernstein a genius. The problem was that Bernstein didn’t always understand what a singer could and could not do. Perhaps that is part of the trouble here: Bernstein had an ideal in his head that contradicted what the trumpeter’s musical culture told him was appropriate. That said, when you have a chance to work with a genius, why not go with the flow? And, compared to Toscanini and many others, Bernstein hardly seems to be browbeating anybody here. The result: well perhaps that is subjective: Bernstein’s Elgar, while exciting, is still considered highly controversial! (And that’s what makes it so compelling).
sometimes a trumpet player can’t hear the exact timbre and concentration of their sound hitting the back wall. this was not one of those times lol. Pretty much the only thing a trumpet player doesn’t have a perfect sense of is how concentrated the area is where their sound is going. you can either have a wider cone that hits a bigger area more softly, or a narrower cone that hits a smaller area with more force. unless you have a really reflective surface to play against, you won’t get a good sense of it. i’ve never seen a director call for that anyway because in some cases its your mouthpiece or trumpet that dictate that timbre. this director’s call for “less brassy” really reminds me of crappy directors asking brass to play more or less “like louie armstrong”
The difference is a more robust, grandeur texture (similar to french horns or trombones). I think the musicians disagreed with that interpretation and wanted a sharper, piercing texture. That’s why they appeared to be resistant. It’s probably not an appropriate practice to disagree with the conductors treatment of an interpretation (In my opinion).
The 2nd line G is often flat on the C trumpet, especially as the fifth of the chord. The responses of “we don’t hear it like that,” “we taught him,” and “we don’t hear the difference” were thin-skinned and pouting. Do what he asks, and if he’s happy move on. I had a very famous composer/conductor demand that I play pianissimo the entire time on a work that I was one of the soloists on. Members of the orchestra said after rehearsal that they could barely hear me. The dress rehearsal was the same thing. I wanted to say, “What in the heck are you looking for? I have to have some kind of tone and presence in the piece, it’s a solo part!” I just sucked it up and played really soft, because he wanted me to use a mute every time I tried to make a little sound. At the performance, I played what I thought was a reasonable volume to balance the other soloists and ignored the conductors hand for the entire piece. Everybody except the conductor thought it was fine. Thank God he was a one-time guest conductor! Don’t take rehearsal time to air your grievance.
I recall Bernstein once saying that he was the first to record the Mahler symphonies, when in fact the great German conductor Hermann Scherchen who knew more about conducting than Bernstein, and had also worked with the great modern Austrian composers like Schoenberg and Berg, had recorded the Mahler Fifth with the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1950’s when Europe, and especially Austria were only just recovering from the terrible devastation of WW2. The recording is a ‘must hear’ for those who appreciate the genius and depth of the human expression of Mahler. While Bernstein had his moments, he had the opportunity to become a truly marvelous conductor had he studied with Furtwangler, as Daniel Barenboim did later, but he blamed Furtwangler for remaining in Germany and performing for the National Socialists when, in fact, at personal risk, Furtwangler had protected all of the Jewish musicians in the Berlin Philharmonic, and, as one who himself always rejected the Nazi ideology in spite of its takeover of Germany, was still trying to salvage German culture for the German people. The NY Philharmonic players generally loved him- he brought the orchestra more contracts and public relations and held himself out as ‘one of the boys’, and he was a hugely talented pianist and composer- he was never at the conducting level of Toscanini, or Rodzinski or Szell or Scherchen – and certainly not Furtwangler. I do applaud however his antiwar activism during the Vietnam War, though I wonder if he would have had the same sentiments re: our wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc.
Proficient trumpet players are trained a certain way to play what is written a certain way. And most likely they also teach that way. So the communication must verbally happen if these schooled players don’t quite “get” what the conductor is asking for. Couple that with what might be some hearing loss on the part of the conductor and communication could become a bit strained. But the conductor is hearing the ensemble “sound” and that must be respected. I did not perceive disrespect here just a desire to understand. I’ve seen LB being very short with singers to the point where the singers are a bit confused or embarrassed. There is a fine line of being direct and being intimidating. But at the end of the day LB is the master and that needs to be respected.