Archive of monthly comments from Leonard Slatkin

2012

JANUARY, 2012
How does that song go? “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
     December proved the ditty correct, at least for me. Two weeks were spent in Lyon performing American music. A festival had been devised around my arrival this season and I thought it would be a good idea for musicians and audience to get to know me through some of the music created in the States. [ more ]

FEBRUARY, 2012
More than 6,000 miles separated conducting engagements in January. At least it was only one flight between Detroit and Tokyo, so the 14-hour trip was not unbearable. When you are dealing with a 14-hour time change, no amount of preparation can offset jet lag. [ more ]

MARCH, 2012
It has been my habit to more or less inform readers of my comings and goings during a given month. This time I am going to start in the middle, dealing with a musical issue. [ more ]

APRIL, 2012
Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich, Friedrichshafen, Heidelberg, and Vienna. Almost enough for a German baseball team. This was a tour schedule that took me to all these places over the course of 9 days.
     Everything went well but you would never have known it from the way this European jaunt started. [ more ]

MAY, 2012
“You’re baddass!”
     These two words were spoken to me following a concert in one of Detroit’s suburbs. A young woman came up to me, looked me in the eyes and that is what she said.
     After figuring out that this was a compliment, I realized that perhaps there are ways to reach the younger generation that I had not yet contemplated. [ more ]

MID-MAY, 2012
Kid Rock and Roll over Beethoven
     The question on everyone’s lips was, “What is this going to be like?”
     The answer was, “Fabulous.”
     Over the years I have done my share of concerts with acts from the popular music culture. ...
     But that was in the past. Now a new collaboration emerged, involving the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and one Kid Rock, a kind of bad boy of rap and Southern Rock. He has been a part of the Detroit cultural scene for most of his 41 years and has a huge fan base here. [ more ]

2011

JANUARY, 2011
When we last left off, the Detroit Symphony strike had entered its third month. Now the winter solstice was approaching. This year, it coincides with a lunar eclipse. ... the solstice could be a harbinger of good news. There certainly were indications that movement was taking place. [ more ]

MID-JANUARY, 2011
Bonjour et bonne année!
     The better part of three weeks has been spent in France, two of them getting to know my new orchestra and city.
     But first, it was a little holiday. I must have been coming to this country for 40 years now, but there is very little that I have had time to enjoy simply as a tourist. Sure, I had been on the Bateaux Mouche and went up the Eiffel Tower, but rarely when I had some free time. [ more ]

FEBRUARY, 2011
Last time, I wrote a little about the orchestra in Lyon and its ability to retain its individual sound and style. This hit home even harder with my next stop on the tour.
     Some people think that the Vienna Philharmonic or New York Philharmonic is the oldest orchestra in the world. In reality, it is the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Its history can be traced back to 1781. The first well-known music director was the composer Felix Mendelssohn. [ more ]

MARCH, 2011
If March is supposed to come in like a lion, I wonder what animal people will make of this past February?
     Most of you will undoubtedly know that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has suspended the remainder of its strike-ridden season. More than half of the concerts had already been taken down and it really was only a matter of time before we were either back to work or down for the year. [ more ]

APRIL, 2011
Although several conductors cancelled, and one tragically passed away in March, I was not needed as a fill in and simply stayed on my planned schedule. Of course that still meant no concerts with the Detroit Symphony, as the strike went into the half-year mark. [ more ]

MID-APRIL, 2011
The Nightmare Ends: It took six months, interminable meetings and ultimate patience, but the strike that beset the Detroit Symphony Orchestra finally ended. After maintaining a self-imposed silence, I was able to greet my orchestra with the simple words, “Welcome home.” [ more ]

MAY, 2011
Although I had a hefty tax bill to pay, nothing could diminish my pleasure in having my own orchestra back.
     After the free concerts we gave in Detroit, things began to return to normal in our second week. Putting an abbreviated season together was not easy. Several decisions were made quickly. [ more ]

JUNE, 2011
About halfway through May, I started thinking about some of the composers I would be conducting just in a four-week span. The list is something like this: Prokofiev, Del Tredici, Milhaud, Gershwin, Dvořák, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky.
     This reminded me of how fortunate I am to be in the music profession. Rehearsing and performing compositions of this caliber week in and out is something that none of us must ever take for granted. It remains a privilege as well as a responsibility to take care of these masters and all the others that we musicians present. [ more ]

JULY, 2011
What a strange month June turned out to be. It looked pretty simple on paper. One week of concerts in Detroit and a trip to Rotterdam, preparing for a tour of South America.
     But normal does not seem to apply these days. [ more ]

AUGUST, 2011
July was not a month for music, at least as far as I was concerned.
     Upon returning from South America, it was my job to take care of Cindy ... There were numerous decisions to be made, all of them difficult. [ more ]

SEPTEMBER, 2011
After almost six weeks of tending to Cindy, it was time to get back on the podium. She was doing extraordinarily well and all the signs pointed to a complete remission. ...
     I headed out to Santa Barbara alone for a couple days. Two years ago I had conducted at the Music Academy of the West and completely enjoyed the experience. This school and festival is a bit different than most of the others. [ more ]

OCTOBER, 2011
A café by the river Rhône. Sunny September skies. The sounds of many languages floating in the air. It is Lyon and the start of a beautiful relationship.
     Although it should really be called “The City Where Cholesterol Is King,” Lyon is my second home now and this was the first time I would see my new orchestra as its music director. [ more ]

NOVEMBER, 2011
October might be the best month of the year for me. I had my two orchestras up and running, Cindy and I moved into a new house, and both Detroit and St. Louis were in the baseball playoffs. The Lions had won their first four games of the young football season. [ more ]

DECEMBER, 2011
Just when I think things are beginning to slow down, a month such as the last one occurs. Granted, much of the news was not related to travel or even conducting outright. Nevertheless it was a wonderfully busy time. [ more ]

2010

JANUARY, 2010
It is very rare for me to have an entire month free of conducting, much less two. Clearly the first one, this past November, gave me no choice, what with having the heart attack and recovering. But the surprise was how willing I was to let go and take the second month off for purposes of recuperating. [ more ]

FEBRUARY, 2010
In some respects, it was difficult to return to the podium in a city other than Detroit. After such a fine start to this season, I really felt that walking on stage at the Max would have been the best medicine. But I guess that it was not a bad idea to “come back” in my former hometown. And the program contained enough to tax me physically, but not so much as to overtire my new frame. [ more ]

MARCH, 2010
February may be the shortest month of the year, but perhaps because of the missing few days, it also feels like the busiest. I barely had time to think, much less take it easy. [ more ]

APRIL, 2010
Days and Nights at the Opera, Part I
     Winter has not wrought its harsh attack on Michigan, at least not yet. The closest it came was during the first week in March, when I had nothing to do. Safely nestled in my apartment, fake fireplace ablaze, I continued to cook a healthy lifestyle for myself, trying to cheat as little as possible. [ more ]
Days and Nights at the Opera, Part II
     March 22: It was a dark and dreary day in Manhattan. The beautiful spring weather of the last week is a thing of the past. Rain and wind took its place. This did not forbode well for the second week of La Traviata rehearsals. [ more ]

MAY, 2010
To say that April was an interesting month would be an understatement of immense proportions. Many of you probably wondered why I did not continue the reportage of my Met assignment. I know this because the very site you are visiting crashed a couple of times due to the number of hits I was taking, literally.
     At this moment, I have chosen to stay out of the fray. [ more ]

JUNE, 2010
May was an uneventful month, if you count getting a new job, conducting seven different orchestras, and dealing with volcanoes as uneventful.
     Perhaps it is best to start at the top. For the past couple of years, I have been thinking about simplifying my professional life. [ more ]

JULY, 2010
After last month’s blog version of “War and Peace,” I thought it would be a nice respite for all of us to have a shorter and less scattered web posting. And since I will be on the road, literally, it will be a bit tougher to write towards the end of the June.
     As it turns out, getting home was just what I needed. [ more ]

AUGUST, 2010
This is the summer way-out west tour. For the next couple of months I will be flightless and mostly humidity-less. Colorado, New Mexico and California will the performing destinations. A mix of student and professional ensembles will make up the musical landscape. The major project is the world premiere of Lewis Spratlan’s 1978 opera, “Life is a Dream.” [ more ]

SEPTEMBER, 2010
One big plus of doing an opera is that there is a lot of free time once you start performances. In fact, with the new/old Spratlan opus, we had one stretch of eight days off. This gave me a chance to do things I normally do not have time for during the concert season. [ more ]

OCTOBER, 2010
Fall is upon us, and another concert season awaits. Here in Detroit, the orchestra is in negotiations regarding a new contract. It is not the place of a music director to get involved with either side, so I will not comment on the situation other than to say that I hope by the time you are reading this, a resolution has occurred. There is nothing better for us than to be making music. [ more ]

NOVEMBER, 2010
Last month I wrote that I did not feel it was the place of a music director to comment on any labor dispute taking place with his or her orchestra. The musicians of the Detroit Symphony went on strike at the beginning of the month, causing the cancellation of the season opening as well as the concerts for the remainder of the month. There remains uncertainty as to when we will get back to work. Until that time, I will maintain silence on the matter. [ more ]

DECEMBER, 2010
Weather forecast. Stormy with little chance of sun. Temperatures remain chilly throughout the month. Expect a break in the clouds if the pressure lets up.
     The strike dragged into its second month and I continued to keep quiet. But this did not mean that I did nothing. Very few days went by while I was in Detroit, when I did not speak with board members, urging them to help find a way out of this. Most said they missed the orchestra but needed to hold firm. The indication was that when a settlement was reached, purse strings might open once again. [ more ]

Deborah Fleitz
     The majority of you reading this will not know the name, but you have been a part of her world. Deb was my assistant in Detroit. She was responsible for almost every aspect of my professional life.
     She kept track of where I was supposed to be and worked with managers, artists and musicians from around the world. Every time I wrote something for this site, it was her hand that dotted the i's and crossed the t's. [ more ]

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