Emil de Cou is the Associate Conductor of the NSO, and the NSO @ Wolf Trap Festival Conductor.
After our 'dark and stormy' Carmina I thought that our final week of the NSO @ Wolf Trap would be a cloudless breeze. The few remaining storms during the week had cleared - and our last three shows of July were fairly uncomplicated - or so I thought. As we approached the Sarah Chang/Beethoven concert we began to get an increasing internet avalanche of press about the Pastoral / Twitter program. [The NSO performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral” at Wolf Trap on July 30, and offered audience members in a designated section of the lawn the opportunity to receive live “program notes” via Twitter.]
It seems that a live and in time Twitter feed providing pop-up program notes directed at an audience of intrepid iPhone concertgoers (lawn seating only) caught the attention of not just the Washington Post but also the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Baltimore Sun, News Hour with Jim Lehrer (online edition), USA Today, not to mention papers in Australia, South America, and Canada, and countless blogs. I was thrilled at the prospect of having a sizable number of young audience members hearing the NSO and this great music for the first time - all the more so since we had had such a success with our Fantastic Planet concert (and our first ever in time podcast) in 2007. So I arrive at the Filene Center early to meet some friends at Ovations (them dinner, me too many Diet Cokes) and then to say hello to our soloist Sarah Chang who was dressed to the 9's down in the air conditioned comfort of the dressing room level.
Terre Jones (President and CEO,Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts) Sarah Chang, me:
Our opening work, Copland's Four Dances Episodes from Rodeo, went wonderfully. For me there is nothing better that listening to and watching the musicians play Hoe Down - something that they have done with the composer many times and over the years has become a sort of a signature piece for the NSO.
On comes Sarah Chang dressed in a slinky pink evening gown (the only soloist I know who gets flowers before the performance - well earned). The humidity was really starting to get intense on stage, made that much worse with the bright light. Sarah begins the Mendelssohn beautifully and plays for around four minutes before the heat and dampness begin to dislodge her chin rest (which keeps the violin comfortably at face level as opposed to elbow level - like in, well, Hoe Down). She has one bar of rest to get it back in working position before - pop! - off it comes sent flying onto the ground . At first I thought that I could pick it up for her but it was a little out of reach - and besides, I was sort of busy at the time. Another bar of rest and Assistant Concertmaster Ricardo Cyncynates comes to the rescue with his chin rest - leaving Sarah to comfortably finish the concerto and Ricardo to be the dashing knight (left to country fiddle his way through the accompaniment - brilliantly of course). As we all walked off stage laughing, Sarah only asked Ricardo backstage "where did you get your chin rest? - It's really comfortable."
The Beethoven Pastoral came off without a hitch - Kim Witman, Director of Wolf Trap Opera and Classical Programming, sent out the Twitter messages on time to the delight of hundreds on the lawn (Twitter designated section). It turned out to be a very good experiment - and hats off to both the NSO and Wolf Trap staff for being so adventuresome. We got a lot of press for this - much good - some confused (like 'what in the heck is Twitter?') and some less good ('why do we need this at all' - 'to get the attention of young people who will be the audience of the future' I respond). But more importantly we opened up a world of music to young first time future music lovers.
Moon over Wolf Trap (photo by me) "Broadway Rocks":
The following night was our second movie night at Wolf Trap. The Wizard of Oz being one of the most complicated concerts I have ever done, I thought that Blue Planet Live, with its fluid music (George Fenton) and equally fluid images (courtesy the BBC), would be a walk in the park (pants rolled up). The rehearsal went well - then off to a party at NASA on E Street as a thank you for our "Salute to Apollo" which, I am told was the hit of the 40th anniversary weekend.
Back to Wolf Trap and my final show of the summer. On stage I go with our narrator Bob Heck. I look at my television monitor to start the music with the image of a gigantic fish tail - and my personal little screen is dark. I wait for a while hearing the unsettling sound of the splash of huge waves - then above my head I sense something.... a whale swimming in silence. I get off of the podium to take a look and indeed it is the beginning of Blue Planet Live but with no click track (in my right ear to coordinate the music with the picture) and no TV monitor. So feeling a little like a cross between a vaudeville musician and Captain Ahab I jokingly tell the audience that we are experiencing technical difficulties and exit 'stage right'. Our brave technical crew fix the problem and off we go into the deep music and images now in sync. But while the TV monitor is working fine the metronome-like clip track is silent. I get through the whale overture, and while Bob sets up the next segment I sneak off stage left this time - to ask for the click to be restored. Confident that our last problem has been solved I put on the ear piece only to hear 10 seconds of country and western music and then eerie silence.
Argh me says to meself! We get through the next piece after a slight mishap involving microscopic deep sea fish and all is well. Our audience never knew that anything was wrong (minus the opening whale summer rerun) - which is the great part of working with top notch pros on and off stage. I have found myself with a temporary aversion to Miss Paul's fish sticks these past few days, but I suspect that it (along with seeing my baton as a 14 inch harpoon) will pass.
Me with narrator Bob Heck and his family:
I should mention briefly that following our "Salute to Apollo" concert I was asked to speak at the International Mars Society convention at the University of Maryland as part of an arts and science panel. I found it all great fun - and maybe some other time I can go into that experience in more detail. Let’s just say for now - conducting with a 53 foot whale above my head paled in comparison on the unusual factor. And I didn't even get to my Ray Walston joke.
Thank you NSO for yet another amazing, fun, moving, and all together unforgettable summer at Wolf Trap - where the arts (and more than a few fish, monkeys, witches, Twitter, and chin rests) come out to play.
Emil de Cou
NSO @ Wolf Trap Festival Conductor