Two perspectives on opening night
A top-ranked orchestra’s season is comparable in length (and perhaps in sustained intensity) to a Major League baseball team’s. And just as Opening Day constitutes a rite of spring, a moment of renewal with great expectations, Opening Night is a rite of fall. It’s a time to get reacquainted with one’s home team — meet the rookies, welcome back the fan favorites, and revel in the delights ahead.
For the Boston Symphony,
first pitch happens sometime around 6:30 Thursday night, when James Levine lifts his baton to open the orchestra’s 127th season, leading an all-Ravel program. In anticipation, the Globe asked two members of the BSO — one veteran, one newcomer — to talk about what playing in the orchestra means to them, their relationship to their instruments and colleagues, and opening-night jitters.
Lawrence Wolfe
Lawrence Wolfe, 59, joined the BSO’s bass section in 1970, becoming the orchestra’s then-youngest member. He was named assistant principal bass during the 1981-82 season. A graduate of New England Conservatory, he is on the faculty there and at Boston University and the Boston Conservatory.
Q: So this is your 38th opening night?
A: Right.
Q: Do you remember your first?
A: Yes - Beethoven Seventh and [Holst’s] “The Planets.” We recorded “The Planets” that night. It was my first concert with the orchestra.
Q: What was the experience like?
A: One word: Wow. A whole lot of things came later that I’m utterly thankful for, and it’s been a blessing that I continue to try to earn every working day. But at the time I just went, “Wow.”
Q: Do you look forward to opening night the way the audience does?
A: I look forward to it. We’ve been playing in the Tanglewood Shed, but as good as the Shed is, it isn’t Symphony Hall, because nowhere is Symphony Hall. There are very few places like it in the world. So I look forward to the first sounds we make there.
Q: How do you keep the experience fresh over so many years?
A: My young colleagues. One of the newer members of the orchestra is Ben Levy, in the bass section. His enthusiasm is boundless. He works incredibly hard, he asks me mentor questions. . . . It’s that kind of enthusiasm that makes me say, “Oh my goodness, I can never allow myself to take such a job for granted.”
Q: What are you most looking forward to this season?
A: I’m looking forward to the Berg Violin Concerto, with Christian Tetzlaff [Nov. 8-10]. That should be a very good match. But I’m really looking forward to [Smetana’s] “Ma Vlast” [Nov. 23, 24, 27] - music that’s so resonant, so reverent, so honest I can’t help but love it. And it’s another piece we recorded very early in my career, with Rafael Kubelik.
Q: What’s Maestro Levine like to play for?
A: His programming is very intelligent. . . . He puts together seasons intelligently. And he’s very demanding of us. He has a particular sound in mind, and he is persistent in pursuing that sound and reminding us of what he wants. . . . On the tour this summer he seemed very pleased with what we were doing, consistently complimentary. Of course, he would like what we were doing and still have a few points to make.
Q: What made you fall in love with playing the bass?
A: It was partly my physical makeup - I’m 6-foot-4, I was always the tallest kid in the class. And whether I was socialized into it or born into it, I seem to listen to music from the bottom up. I always have. And the fit just worked.
Q: What’s the camaraderie like in your section?
A: It’s quite good. I have a priceless rapport with [principal bass] Ed Barker, because we’re both just a couple of bass nerds. . . . We can get each other going and when we’re both in a good mood, it just takes one little visual or musical cue, and when we get to that place, we play together so well that the sum of our musical parts, I really believe, exceeds the whole. I just have such respect for him. He’s always a shining light in my professional career.
W. Lee Vinson
Percussionist W. Lee Vinson, 28, is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.He spent four years playing with the US Navy Band and did graduate work at Boston University, where he was a student of BSO timpanist Timothy Genis. He was named section percussionist in March. This is his first season with the orchestra.
Q: How will it feel when you take the stage with the BSO on opening night?
A: It’s going to be very exciting. I’ve actually played a few weeks with the orchestra already this year, but it will be my first season as a full-time member, so it’s definitely exciting.
Q: Are you nervous?
A: Not so much. As a musician we find ways to deal with nerves over the years. It won’t be the first time I’ve had butterflies, so I’ll know how to deal with it. It’ll be a little anxious. I’ve got family coming to town, and it’ll be the first time they’ve heard me play with the orchestra.
Q: Is the fact that it’s the BSO imposing?
A: Absolutely. It’s one of the finest orchestras in the country, so you’ve got to be prepared every day and get along with everyone.
Q: What are you most looking forward to this season?
A: Just performing every week in Symphony Hall on that stage. That’s going to be a real treat.
Q: What’s the camaraderie like in a percussion section?
A: Percussionists seem to get along really well everywhere, and I’m sure this is no exception. Something about the kind of people we are . . . whether we’re in school or at work or just hanging out, we just seem to get along.
Q: So what’s the percussionist’s character?
A: I don’t know what it is, exactly. I think in a lot of ways we’re more laid-back than other instrumentalists. Not that we’re not competitive, because you have to be, to a certain degree.
Q: What’s the best moment a percussionist can have in the orchestra?
A: Oddly enough, it’s kind of the concerts where you don’t get noticed, because that means that you’ve done such a great job that you just contributed to the bigger picture in a way that was so right that you didn’t actually stand out as a part. That’s what’s rewarding to me.
Q: What made you interested in percussion in the first place?
A: Both of my parents were musicians. My father was a college band director. So I grew up with music in the house, whether it was my mom giving flute lessons or my father studying scores. . . . It was always a hands-on thing. I tried playing trumpet once and the mouthpiece tickled my nose, so I couldn’t deal with that.
Q: You were in graduate school at Boston University?
A: Right. When I won the audition last year I was working on a master’s degree there.
Q: Think you might not finish that?
A: I withdrew from classes last semester.
Q: A little bit beside the point.
A: I’m actually on the faculty now. [laughs]
Q: That’s a quick turnaround.
A: Yeah, it’s a little ironic.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
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