|
 1983
No 74
Frank
Zappa
By Frances Lynn, 2 pp
FL: Why was your concert a one off?
FZ: Well, the cost of doing that kind of event is so exhorbitant that I don't
think there is another orchestra in the world that is prepared to go through the
expense of mounting a concert like that. The rehearsal time required to play
that music is so much more than an orchestra would ordinarily spend on a
concert.
The way orchestras work is like this: Orchestras like to play stuff that is
easy for them. They play standard repertoire not because the audience really
craves for it but because it's the easiest way for them to look good when
they're on the stage. If you studied the violin for a number of years, you're
going to learn all that eighteenth, nineteenth century literature and you
already know the
parts by the time you get into the orchestra, so it's very easy for the
orchestra to sound like they know what they re doing if they're always playing
the same Mahler, the same Beethoven, the same Mozart, and on and on. And when
you have guest conductors coming in how long do you think they rehearse the
orchestra?
 FL: Er –
FZ: Usually they get one rehearsal in the afternoon before the orchestra plays
for a whole evenings worth of music.
FL: Is that what your conductor got?
FZ: Oh
no! He had studied the scores two months before he came over here and then we
rehearsed with the LSO for 30 hours before the concert.
FL: This concert cost
you $ 500,000 didn't it? (read
more)
|
