The Claremont Concert Orchestra is preparing for our March concert in which we will play Schumann's 4th Symphony. Our visiting conductor this semester, Brian Stone, invited us to watch a video of Herbert von Karajan in rehearsal with the Vienna Philharmonic just before they recorded this particular symphony.
Here are some of my observations:
Even the Vienna Phil needs to be directed in how to interpret music (and they take direction efficiently!). This includes being reminded how to shape a phrase, giving it direction.
The seating arrangement of the orchestra was interesting. The first and seconds were next to each other in the usual place, but the violas were on the outside opposite the firsts, and the celli were between the seconds and violas.
It's in German with English subtitles, and I could understand about half of what he was saying to the orchestra. Yay!
He took a few of the tempi too fast. I say this not because I cannot play that fast, but because I don't think one needs to play as fast as you can just because you can.
You can watch this video on youtube, however, it has no subtitles at this link. Or, you can buy it at Amazon and have English or French subtitles.
It was time well spent.
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