Symphonies & Scorpions: Latte Reflections
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Latte Reflections
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Monday, April 28 AND Tuesday, April 29 (1 day!)
The musicians, scattered around the Starbucks near our departure gate at the eerily subdued Logan Airport international terminal, contemplate their lattes, listlessly poking at their smart phones to connect to airport’s wireless network. What a change from the electrically charged scene in 1979, when the orchestra grabbed national headlines, the swill we called coffee cost fifteen cents, and you communicated with loved ones at home via postcards.
Only a handful of the musicians currently in the BSO were on the 1979 tour. Some of our youngest members had not even been born. Yet given the sea change in the orchestra’s personnel, the Boston Symphony is still miraculously at the top of its game, perhaps playing better than ever. I wouldn’t be the first person to make the observation that in general the technical skills of young musicians continue to be more and more impeccable. Some of the older generation argue that in the bargain a degree of individuality and artistry has been lost. I think there’s some justification to that, in part due to a homogenization of taste as a result of technological advances in communication and transportation. Another part is due to the very system we’ve set up for auditions and competitions, which tends to reward mistake-free technical acumen more than slightly flawed artistry. That mixture of technical perfection with uninteresting musicality would certainly be more perceptible in a soloist or chamber musician than in an orchestral player. (I’ve heard more than enough mindless renditions of the Tchaikovsky concerto.) But there’s a golden opportunity for an enlightened music director to mold these exceptionally skilled, if less experienced, young musicians into an ensemble with a lofty, unified musical vision. And when an orchestra like the BSO has the means to attract the cream of the crop, it’s no surprise that the quality of music-making has remained on the highest level.
Nuts and Bolts
The level of hoopla of our ’79 tour was the result of the momentous, historic rapprochement between the US and China. Fast forward thirty-five years. Going to China is now run-of-the mill and getting there has become just another long day. The first leg of our journey, a thirteen-hour nonstop marathon from Logan to Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, is followed by a two-hour layover and four more hours of airborne suspended animation before landing in Beijing. And then an hour-long bus ride to our downtown hotel. Overall, a fun-filled twenty-hour schlep. (Twenty-three, if you start from the taxi ride to Logan.) Unlike ‘79, when we flew on a chartered Pan Am 747—more about that later—this time we’re on a regular commercial flight, so the majority of passengers are not part of the orchestra party. This factor not only restricts our ability to roam, it means no orchestra party.
In concept, a tour is a simple thing. Shepherd the musicians along, make sure they’re on stage when they’re supposed to be, and let someone else worry about selling tickets. But in practice, it’s not that easy. The nuts and bolts of an orchestra tour are endless: everything from transporting musicians, instruments, wardrobe trunks, and music safely, securely, and on time, to making sure the baton is placed at the proper angle on Maestro’s podium.
For starters, imagine being responsible for shipping a million-dollar, three-hundred-year-old Stradivarius violin from the US to China, then to Japan, and back. How do you ensure its safety from theft or damage, when even an innocent jostle against its case could throw it out of whack and require major readjustment? Imagine being the fall guy if someone screws up.
Now, multiply that responsibility by a hundred, and then add to that the musicians who are joined at the hip to those priceless instruments. And the musicians’ significant others. And the two dozen managers and staff and their spouses. And an entourage of thirty patrons. And let’s not forget a truckload of music. And the librarian.
Two dozen managers and staff, you ask? What do you need two dozen for? Here’s the listing from the official tour book: Managing Director, Associate Conductor (in case Maestro falls ill), Artistic Administrator, Assistant to Mr. Dutoit, Orchestra Manager, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Orchestra Personnel Manager, Director of Public Relations, Director of Corporate Partnerships, Director of Concert Operations, Stage Manager, three Stage Personnel, Tour Physician, Security Consultant, Press Agent (China), and Patron Tour Staff.
Additionally, we are accompanied by a support team of assorted representatives of Travtours, Inc. for travel management; Harrison/Parrot, Ltd, for tour management; Agility Logistics as our instrument transport/cargo broker; and The Regency Express Co., Ltd. for instrument transport/China.
Who am I leaving out? Peppino Natale, the BSO’s chauffeur? No, he’s not on this trip.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the whole menagerie in a nutshell. Whew! Put it all together and you have a magical mystery orchestra tour. And of course, orchestras don’t perform in just one city. They may go to three or four. Per week. And to make international tours worthwhile, they’re usually at least two weeks and can stretch to three or four.
Like armies, orchestras travel on their stomachs, and fussy ones at that. So, in addition to delivering the intrepid band to the correct continent you need to find lodging, food, and transportation for upwards of two hundred very picky people in up to a dozen cities. Stages need to be set and struck, and music and instruments need to be unpacked and repacked after every rehearsal and concert onto massive trucks and driven or flown to the next concert hall.
[image error]An orchestra travels on its stomach. The author in 1979 at a Beijing banquet.
Why did I say picky? For the reason that, unlike a leisurely travel vacation, orchestra musicians need to be at certain places—concert halls—at very specific times and in good mental and physical condition. Keeping an audience of two thousand waiting is something an orchestra tries to avoid at all costs. You can’t walk on stage after the downbeat of Beethoven Fifth with a lukewarm cup of coffee in one hand and say, “Maestro, sorry I’m late. There was a lot of traffic.” If the bassoon player isn’t there, you can’t start Rite of Spring. But, you may ask, what if he got sick from day-old sushi and couldn’t play at all? Touring orchestras usually try to reorganize within the ranks, but are known to have deputized local musicians in dire circumstances.
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics
In terms of length, the 2014 Asia tour is relatively modest. Nevertheless, the 18,005 air miles traveled in two weeks makes me tired just thinking about it:
Boston-Tokyo-Beijing: 8,020 miles
Beijing-Shanghai: 700
Shanghai-Guangzhou: 765
Guangzhou-Tokyo: 1,800
Tokyo-Boston: 6,720
And though sports teams may travel far more frequently than an orchestra, musicians tend to look more like Sparky Anderson than Mike Trout, with some well into their 70s or even 80s. And with a twelve-hour time difference between the US and China, when your internal clock is telling you that you should be fast asleep it can be a Herculean task to garner enough energy to put your bowtie on, let alone play a Mahler symphony.
Because of the vagaries of orchestra travel, conditions for specific tours are sometimes part of the collective bargaining negotiations between the musicians and management. Basic things need to be ironed out: If a proposed tour overlaps from one concert season to the next, which year’s salary will the musicians be paid? What will the per diem be? (The IRS calculates average costs of room and board for most cities around the world and determines per diem rates varying from city to city. These are the rates typically but not necessarily agreed upon by the musicians and management when negotiating tour conditions.) What will the quality of the hotels be? Very importantly, how much rest time will the musicians get? How many days will be free of both travel and services? (A service is a rehearsal or concert.) What will the tour route be? I recall one domestic tour that had a reasonable number of concerts, but we zigzagged across the map so much we could have eluded the FBI. Sometimes this can’t be helped because the presenters have their own series scheduling constraints. But that tour was sufficiently onerous that the even the management was dizzy by the end of it and agreed to language in the contract to the effect that they would make its best efforts to schedule tour concerts in as direct a line as possible.
Typically, the BSO lodges its musicians in very fine hotels. It’s hard to complain when you’re sitting on a balcony overlooking Lake Lucerne. However, from time to time there have been some doozies. Before the Berlin Wall came down we once stayed at a grimy hovel overlooking the barren, muddy acreage of No Man’s Land that paralleled the Wall. The name of the hotel was The Bellevue. Someone had a sense of humor. My recollection was that The Bellevue had a single operating elevator that could squeeze in four people, perhaps five if you were from East Germany, and you had to change elevators to get to certain floors. Imagine a hundred musicians checking in and having to get ready for a concert!
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NEWS FLASH: MY FIRST POLITICAL THRILLER, THE BEETHOVEN SEQUENCE, IS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE ON SEPTEMBER 8! A MENTALLY UNBALANCED MUSIC TEACHER BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! PREPOSTEROUS? STAY TUNED.
