RUSSIAN NATIONAL ORCHESTRA

Andrey Boreyko, Associate Conductor

Thursday, January 20, 2000, 8:00PM

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

Presented by Troy Chromatic Concerts

(photos by Mike Pittinaro and Don Drewecki)

Program


Commentary

Perhaps our most eagerly awaited concert recording in recent years took place on Thursday, January 20th, 2000. This was a Chromatic concert by the Russian National Orchestra.

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The RNO is well-known to critics and record collectors from its many recent DG recordings, including a complete cycle of Tchaikovsky symphonies conducted by the orchestra's founder, Mikhail Pletnev. For this tour, Pletnev conducted his orchestra in the larger cities, and the orchestra's associate conductor, Andrey Boreyko, conducted it on the other dates, including the Music Hall.

What made this concert so important was that, for the very first time in our experience during and after WRPI, we recorded an orchestra with divided violins. For generations, violins were divided across the stage (firsts on the left, seconds on the right) -- a practice ended by Leopold Stokowski in the 1930s. What his ``innovation'' meant was that, for most of the standard orchestral repertory, melody was confined to the left side, accompaniment confined to the right. This arrangement may have worked in the days of monaural recordings with several microphones; but for modern stereo, this creates a lopsided effect, because most of your attention is drawn to the left, where the top melody lines are conspicuous. There have been holdouts over the years -- Toscanini, Koussevitzky, Klemperer, Kubelik, Boult -- but by and large, orchestras and their maestri have seated themselves as ``Stoky'' wanted. But now apparently there is another holdout, Andrey Boreyko himself.

Orchestra Seating Plan

Here are 13 shots of Boreyko's portion of the rehearsal for this concert. Note the divided violins, with cellos inside left, violas inside right, exactly as Toscanini did it.

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As you also see, a stage extension was also brought out of storage for this concert. This was because the RNO performed with its full compliment of players -- well over 100, perhaps the largest orchestra to play in the Music Hall since the 1920s, certainly the largest in DD's lifetime. And, hence, the largest orchestra we've ever taped, as far as we know. What a sound they made!

In these shots, you see the Calrec Soundfield microphone located in the sweet spot, the center axis, about ten feet behind, and about five feet above, the conductor's head -- using, again, the famous Mercury Living Presence-type pickup for the orchestra, which yielded an extremely satisfying result, as some of you have heard from NPR's Performance Today in recent weeks.

Here are a few more random shots, mostly of orchestra players, some of them showing the stage extension.

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Below is a photo taken during the audience applause at the end of the concert.

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The performances were excellent, despite some slips in the final movement of the Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony. The Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy, particularly, is a great work which is seldom performed in the United States, and they gave it their very best, practically blowing the roof off of the building. All in all, a great night, one in which we put all of our experience to the test and were rewarded handsomely.


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Don Drewecki <drewed@rpi.edu>