Quotes from Conductors in CBSO rehearsals
Paavo Berglund
The English are very good at sight-reading, the problems come after that!
Rehearsal of Rimsky-Korsakov, Overture to May Night, on 22/1/1996.
Stephen Kovacevich
- We will probably have a disaster anyway.
- Let’s assume that will be together.
Rehearsing Sibelius 4th Symphony, on 1 & 2/4/1996.
Paavo Berglund
The danger point is where you start playing.
Rehearsing Haydn Symphony no. 92, on 14/1/1997.
Matthias Bamert
I am not with you.
Rehearsing Fauré’s Pelléas & Mélisande, on 20/1/1997.
Simon Rattle
I’m sick of this bit.
Mahler Symphony no. 7, off stage cow bells, after many performances in different venues, on 18/5/1998.
Paavo Jarvi
Here there’s no point in being right.
Rehearsing Stravinsky’s Petroushka, on 13/11/1998.
Sakari Oramo
Tuba, this should sound like the breath of a cow.
Rehearsing Stravinsky’s Divertimento, The Fairy’s Kiss, on 24/1/2000.
Nicholas McGegan
Like midges on the Isle of Skye in summer.
Speaking to the violins near the beginning of Mendelssohn’s Overture, Midsummer Night’s Dream, on 3/2/2002.
Simon Rattle
We just need to get the notes right.
Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé near rehearsal figure 208 – lots of notes flying!
Rediscovered on my bassoon part in my handwriting
George Hurst
An ocean of sound where we drown in our own collective ignorance.
Rediscovered in my part for Dvorak violin concerto, date unknown.
John Wilson
I want this to be the musical equivalent of taking a perfumed bath while having a cocktail.
Said to the violins while rehearsing a Gershwin programme, on 23/1/2009.
Andris Nelsons
Like an asphalting machine.
Said to the cellos and basses while rehearsing the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony, on 14/2/2011.