Posted by Richard on May 21, 2001 at 19:38:15:
In Reply to: San Francisco Youth Orchestra Concert posted by Brent Herhold on May 21, 2001 at 12:07:08:
A further illustration of the depth of quality in orchestral playing today. It's "trickled down" to the adolescent level. Kids can play what what used to take the pros extra rehearsals and sectionals in earlier generations. To be fair, the kids probably rehearsed their tails off, but if we had recordings of the earliest performances of Mahler 2 from nearly 100 years ago by the greatest orchestras of the time, chances are we'd hear some poetry and drama to be sure, but also a lot security problems, inadequate execution, and maybe even a train wreck or two. So it's great we have so many kids who play well. Let's just hope there'll continue to be a profession for them to enter.