SOUNDPOST

LETTER of the MONTH

TAKING A BACK STEP

I wholeheartedly agree with Alexandra Gorski’s piece about the value of back-desk orchestral players (Opinion, March 2024). I’ve led a charmed life as a musician, been very lucky and worked tremendously hard. There have been national music festivals where I’ve sat in the middle or rear of the section, and always found it a rewarding and revelatory experience.

Recently, a colleague asked me to play substitute viola for the first time with the Seattle Symphony, which was essentially my hometown orchestra – the first one I’d listened to as a serious student and had heard many times. To be in the back of the section for that series of concerts really led me to think about what we front-stand players can learn from being in the rear of the section. Some observations follow.

First, it’s more difficult to figure out the intentions of the conductor from further back. I hadn’t realised just how much I relied on hearing intakes of breath and subvocalisations for indications of the tempo that the conductor wanted (rather than the one they’re supposedly showing with the stick).

Second, it’s really loud back there! Being just a few metres from the trombone section when playing a Shostakovich symphony is a visceral (and potentially hearing-damaging) experience. In the front, you’ve essentially got an entire section of sound shields behind you. Not so in the back.

Third, positioning is so important. If one cannot see where in the bow the front stand is playing, it becomes a game of ‘telephone’ where you’re filtering the placement of the bow through your colleagues in the front – some of whom might have a different idea of where to play – and it leads to delays in decision-making that are not ideal.

Fourth, you realise just how important the secondchair player is. If you cannot see the principal, you must rely on their stand partner, who presumably is doing what the principal is doing. An assistant who is doing a good job of co-leading makes playing in the back much easier.

Finally, it’s really difficult to hear spoken instructions from the front when you’re in the back. If there’s something important that needs to be passed back to the section, it should either be said loudly or, if that’s not appropriate in the rehearsal situation, told to the next stand back with instructions to relay the word back to the section.

The back desks of the string section are just as valuable as the front

MICHAEL BLANN/GETTY

I learnt so much by being in the back of a first-rate orchestra for a week, and it informed how I would approach my job as an assistant in another first-rate orchestra. I’d recommend that any front-desk player take the opportunity to sit in the rear of their section no matter how experienced they are. There is much to be learnt back there!

CHARLES NOBLE

Portland, OR, US

YOUNG ENTHUSIASTS

Perhaps some readers of The Strad remember Frank Passa, the San Francisco violin and bow maker. My nine-yearold granddaughter came to visit me the other day and gave me a bow to examine. She said, ‘Here is a goldmounted Possum for you to look at.’ Expertise can’t begin too early, but kids certainly say some funny things.

JOSEPH GOLD

Piedmont, CA, US

IDENTITY CRISIS

It was interesting, but also disappointing, to read the March issue’s piece about the growing difficulties for UK ensembles to tour to Europe (Analysis, March 2024). I don’t know the exact ins and outs of policy but having lived and worked as a musician in London for nearly ten years, I know how disillusioned my British colleagues have become with the systems that used to support them. Many have left the industry entirely because of it. I am very lucky to be a dual national and therefore always have the possibility of returning to my home country if the effects of Brexit or lack of arts funding make my life too difficult, but my British friends do not have this option.

Part of the problem is that because this isn’t negatively affecting European ensembles or musicians nearly as much as it is British musicians (at least not yet), the Europeans have no reason – other than sympathy – to go out of their way to help British musicians. But for the Brits this is unfortunately their new and inescapable reality. It is a complex and difficult problem, and I can only hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel for these very talented British musicians and ensembles.

ELIAS SUMMERS

London, UK

REACHING FOR THE STARS

I enjoyed Rachael Ridge’s reflections on teaching ‘late starters’ to the violin (bit.ly/3VeMWdB). They reminded me of a lady who walked into my studio a few years ago with the firm intention of becoming a world-class cellist ‘because I just saw Audrey Hepburn playing one in Love in the Afternoon’. Sad to say, she didn’t last more than a few lessons, but at least it inspired me to watch this 1957 classic. Audrey (right) does indeed do a credible job as a cello student, although she exhibits a very pronated violinistic bow hold (a locked pinky is never a good thing).

More worryingly, throughout the picture she has an awkward habit of resting the cello on various items of furniture, possibly doing terrible damage to the varnish – and there’s a notorious scene where she transports the instrument in the passenger seat of her friend’s car, with the neck sticking out of the sunroof. I wonder how many repairers in the 50s encountered smashed cello necks as a result!

PRISCILLA ROGERS

Bemidji, MN, US

ORSEN PHOTO DARREN PELLEGRINO

ONLINE COMMENT

In honour of what would have been Jascha Heifetz’s 103rd birthday on 2 February, musicians and Heifetz enthusiasts from around the world shared their appreciation for his unique playing and astonishing legacy bitly.ws/3eshM

GEORGE SARANT He had a unique gift that always put him a step ahead of everyone else. He could max out a performance to the highest level, yet you always felt he had enough left to take it even higher.

JOHN HUXLEY-TRAVIS Elgar said that he didn’t recognise his Violin Concerto when Heifetz played it.

AL SMITH I heard him play the Brahms Concerto with the St Louis Symphony. It was magnificent. Such power, both in the music and in Heifetz’s unmatched playing.