To paraphrase John Oliver, “It has been a busy month.”

After the relatively quiet February, March came in like a lion and never let up. When I looked at my calendar, it appeared somewhat normal, but that might have been more in line with a time when I was a younger man. It was a lot to pack in, and I shall try and summarize as succinctly as possible.

Almost twenty years ago, I was the artistic consultant to the Nashville Symphony. Their music director, Kenneth Schermerhorn, had died, and the orchestra needed someone to help them not only get through the season but also assist with opening their brand-new hall. Over three years, we accomplished a lot, settling into the new digs and winning the first of several Grammys for the ensemble.

This return visit was most welcome, and the orchestra as well as the audience let me know of their appreciation. The staples on the program were Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra Overture. The musicians delivered both pieces with the appropriate style and sonic properties as well as a high degree of adrenaline. We all had a great time.

For the concerto, we turned to a recent piece by Mark Adamo, Last Year, written for cello, strings, harp, piano, and percussion. Using Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as the musical basis, Mark reflects on how the seasons in nature have changed in our time. This is powerful stuff, with the cello and orchestra trading phrases, outbursts, and emotions in as many ways as possible.

The soloist, Inbal Segev, imbued the work with intensity and lyricism, bringing it to life in a most uplifting way. I enjoyed working with her and look forward to future collaborations. Wait a minute! We are doing the piece again soon, as you will read in a few paragraphs.

Music City is an amazing place. Walking past the honky-tonks on Broadway gives you the feeling that you are in the middle of a country version of a Charles Ives piece. How Nashville has grown over these past few years! It is no wonder that people and businesses are flocking to the area.

I also had the opportunity to work with the orchestra at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. These young musicians are being trained and prepared at the highest level. They were impressive in three sections of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.

In the back of my mind, I could not help but wonder what kind of arts world they will be entering when they leave the confines of academia. I suspect that this will be a recurring theme in almost any place I visit over the next several seasons.

Next up was a return to North Carolina after about twenty years. Many orchestras in the country go about their business quietly, and this is one of them. With outstanding musicians in every section, the orchestra demonstrated a high level of musicianship and an ability to learn quickly.

The somewhat odd choice of repertoire was selected mostly by the marketing department, as I would normally not plan two Russian Romantic pieces on the same program. But they are masterpieces, after all, and can stand alone or together. Doing Cindy’s Timepiece to open seemed unusual, but we needed something a bit more biting to help balance all the sugar that was to come. The group dispatched this romp with gusto and brilliance. Audience response was, as usual for this piece, enthusiastic.

Olga Kern joined us for Second Piano Concerto by Rachmaninov. We had not played this one for quite some time, but since we work together so often, it was very easy to get our communication skills right back in place. Her mastery of the nuances of this piece continues to amaze me.

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony is a piece I dearly love but do not perform quite as often as the Fifth or Fourth. I have no explanation for this, but I was very happy to get back to the work. Is there a better slow movement in the repertoire (including the Ninth Mahler)? Even though the orchestra’s string compliment is not what I would consider full-size for a piece such as this, they brought a warm, expressive sound to the work. The silence at the conclusion of each performance was such that I knew we had made a difference to all those in attendance.

There were a couple of lovely surprises. Soprano Susan Dunn came backstage after the Friday evening performance. We had performed together a few times, and I vividly remember her Turandot in Grant Park. I also reconnected with Nina Robyn, the daughter of the original violist in the Hollywood String Quartet, who resides in N.C. and attended the concert in Chapel Hill. She is ninety-two and as spry as can be. She used to babysit me when I was a kid.

Next, I headed west for my second week of conducting in Las Vegas. The program was a much richer test for the orchestra than my initial outing. Cast in the usual overture, concerto, symphony format, the program placed musical and technical demands on the ensemble that helped define who they are at this point.

La Forza del Destino has always been a great opening work. The three notes given by the brass—twice—set the tone for the rehearsals and performance. It was easy to discern the results of the mysterious and anxious tune that appears throughout the piece by watching the faces of the musicians. They were enjoying themselves while working at the highest level. I commend the brilliant work by the solo clarinetist and the harpists as well.

Mark Adamo’s Last Year might just as well have been titled “Two Weeks Ago.” With Inbal once again the protagonist, I had the advantage of knowing how to properly rehearse the piece. It always takes that first time to get used to what is difficult and what is clear at a reading. I spent about a half hour with the orchestra alone, going over the spots that I knew needed to be prepared in advance.

By the time Inbal arrived, we were able to go through the entire half-hour concerto without pause. Of course, there were still adjustments to make, but we felt comfortable with the piece. The performance was moving and very tightly structured. Inbal played a Bach sarabande as an encore.

This was also Shostakovich month for me. Each of three consecutive programs contained one of his symphonies, starting and ending with the Fifth. For the Las Vegas Philharmonic, this was somewhat new territory, as they do not play so many classical subscription programs. Everyone seemed prepared well in advance, and we worked diligently to achieve the right moods and atmospheres.

This piece has more relevance now than at any other time besides the era of its creation. With the Soviet government censuring and banning Shostakovich’s previous two efforts, the composer had to come up with some sort of musical compromise. By hiding his true feelings within the content of the work, he conveyed the message that all was not as triumphal as it appeared.

I have changed my approach to this piece several times during the more than fifty years that I have conducted it. Now it is filled with anger, as I see my own country falling victim to interference by those who have little idea of artistic expression. Perhaps my own not-so-hidden message was apparent to at least a few audience members in attendance. The orchestra rose to the occasion and delivered a stunning rendition, knowing that they had achieved a great deal in a short amount of time.

More Shostakovich rang out a few days later at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. I turned to the Eleventh Symphony, another work with a dual meaning, finding parallels between the 1905 Russian Revolution and the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Although there is really no evidence to support the connection, one can at least understand what the composer was thinking as he wrote this composition.

About an hour long, it is demanding and taxing. The students at the school, like their counterparts at the Manhattan School a few months earlier, were truly invested in every aspect of the piece. One of the greatest feelings you can have is knowing that you have touched the lives of young people as they move ahead with their musical aspirations.

Ives’s Variations on “America” made an ironic contrast to the Shostakovich, and in the middle, we had Jeff Beal’s Body in Motion, the violin concerto he wrote for former Eastman student Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Jeff not only teaches at the school but also heads the film-scoring division. This has become an important part of several schools’ programs, broadening the composition field to many possibilities. Since Kelly and I have now done the piece together several times, we bring a degree of security to the work. Again, the orchestra was outstanding.

I also had the opportunity to work with four young conductors. This might seem strange to some of you, but when I lead a master class, we often do not have an orchestra, and it becomes more of a score-study session. This time, however, we had four hours with instrumentalists and could put into practice techniques that are usually only talked about. I truly believe that when the session was over, I had learned more than the students.

To round out a very busy month, I returned to the New York Philharmonic for my first visit to Geffen Hall. I knew that the current issue of Playbill magazine featured a lovely story about my appearance, penned by Tim Page. So, several thousand people already knew that Leonard was coming to town.

What to play with an orchestra that I have been making music with regularly for more than fifty years? And what would be a proper Slatkin program during my 80^th year? In this case, the first half came together quickly.

We would give Cindy’s music a first performance by this orchestra, choosing Double Play for the occasion. And my dear friend John Corigliano, whose music I have performed often with the Philharmonic, was represented by his recent concerto for saxophone, Triathlon.

I purposely did not visit the hall in advance, wanting to have the actual rehearsal as my first encounter. This gave me the chance to ascertain the acoustics without any prejudgment. The hall is certainly lovely, warm, and inviting for the listener. Smaller than its predecessors, Geffen is now a more intimate space for music-making. It remains a bit cavernous and quite resonant without an audience present.

It took a little while for me to make some adjustments. The brass seemed a bit far away, so I had to make sure they were always on top of the beat to keep them in line with the strings and other winds. Because our program had a lot of full orchestra playing, dynamic contrasts had to be strictly observed so that the big moments were just that: moments.

Although there was a lot to do in rehearsal, I found myself having a very good time, even telling a few stories about my early days with the orchestra. The old-timers seemed to appreciate this, as I was never thought of as a conductor who talked all that much.

Double Play was enjoyed by all, with several members of the orchestra coming up to Cindy and me to say how much they liked playing the piece. With crack brass and percussion, it made a wonderful impact, and I was so proud to share this special moment onstage with Cindy.

John’s concerto is a true throwback to the days of the virtuoso piece for soloist and orchestra. Timothy McAllister played on three different instruments—not at the same time, but one for each movement. Gliding from soprano to alto and then baritone sax, he was truly remarkable.

The concerto is a real technical challenge for the conductor, with multiple meter changes in fast tempi. I almost needed a calculator to figure out how to accomplish them in some spots. We worked intensely on the piece, and in the end, gave it everything it needed for a successful NY premiere.

The second-half work was the Fifth Symphony by Shostakovich. More relevant now than ever, given that the composer had to satisfy government restrictions to get it played, the piece takes on a certain poignancy if not irony. How my feelings about it translated to the performance will only be known by those who were there.

I had thought about saying a few words to the audience but eventually realized that I was simply a guest in the house. It was not my place to speak for the orchestra, Geffen Hall, or Lincoln Center. Perhaps if we had done the symphony in D.C., I would have ventured into the arena, but it just did not feel like the right thing to do in New York.

Of course, the orchestra was brilliant in a piece they have played often. I had some different ideas for them to consider, and the seasoned veterans appreciated the new twists, each given with an explanation of why I do certain passages in specific ways. This was an exhausting but fully satisfying program.

The hall was much easier to conduct in with an audience. The reverberation time decreased, making it more comfortable because the musicians could hear each other clearly. It has been a long journey for the Philharmonic, but the orchestra now has the home it deserves.

This busy month came to an end, leaving only a few days to recover before a five-week trip to Europe. We shall see what the April showers bring.

See you next month,

Leonard