Sunday, August 18, 2024
7:00 PM
In a Boston Symphony concert from Tanglewood, Yo-Yo Ma is the soloist in Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto, and BSO Assistant Conductor Earl Lee leads the orchestra in Carlos Simon’s “Fate Now Conquers” and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Earl Lee, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Carlos SIMON Fate Now Conquers
Robert SCHUMANN Cello Concerto
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
This concert is no longer available on demand.
To hear a preview of the concert and Earl Lee's reflections on his two years as a BSO Assistant Conductor, use the player above and read the transcript below.
TRANSCRIPT:
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Earl Lee, here for his last concert as Assistant Conductor with the Boston Symphony. Earl, thank you for a little bit of your time today, I appreciate it.
Earl Lee Thank you so much for having me. Always a pleasure.
Brian McCreath I want to ask first of all about this program, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and the Schumann Cello Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma and this fantastic little piece by Carlos Simon. Tell me about the origin of the program. Was the Beethoven Seven your choice, or was that one of the options given to you? How did it all come together?
Earl Lee So when I speak with our artistic team, especially Tony Fogg, who is like my mentor, and when we talk about programs, he always wants to make sure that I am offering a piece of music that's very special to me and something that I can really work with the orchestra. And I gave him a couple of pieces that I feel strongly about, and this symphony, the Seventh Symphony of Beethoven, was one of them, and he went with it. So this is kind of how we built the whole program around that.
Brian McCreath Tell me more about why Beethoven Seven is special to you. What is it about this piece, or about your history with it that made you want to bring it here to Tanglewood?
Earl Lee Well, when I was in Korea in 1993, around 1992 or 93, I was quite young. And that's when I decided to play the cello. And my dad, at the time, brought home a Laserdisc documentary called "Yo-Yo Ma in Tanglewood." And, you know, you'll see young Yo-Yo, and you see Manny Ax. You'll see Leon Fleisher there playing chamber music. And there are certain sections in this documentary, and there's a section that's dedicated to the Seventh Symphony of Beethoven, when Yo-Yo is going through the second movement with Bobby McFerrin. And they're just going through the beginning over and over, singing it and discussing it. So it was a very strong image of this piece. And I kind of thought back, and it's my last concert here, and I thought that might be a perfect piece for that.
And then actually, Tony surprised me because, you know, in passing, I always planted the seed in his mind, "Hey, you know," I told him this story, and he probably heard it for, like, the 50th time, but once in a while, I didn't do it every day, once in a while, when he's about to forget it, I just said, "Hey, Yo-Yo is very special to me." And then he would just grin and walk away. And then one day - you know, I had no idea who my soloist was for a long time, but I don't press, you know, I was just kind of letting it be because he's busy. And then one day he said, "Hey, by the way, your soloist is Yo-Yo." So I was very happy that Yo-Yo had agreed to work with me. And, when we were talking about the concertos, I said, of course I'll conduct anything Yo-Yo wants, but also in the documentary "Yo-Yo Ma in Tanglewood," there was a section on Schumann's Cello Concerto, when he's playing with the orchestra, but also he's giving classes to conductors and also TMC Fellows. I got to know Schumann's Concerto for the first time in that context. And then when our family moved to Canada, my first ever Yo-Yo experience live concert, the first concert we actually went to, the symphony concert in Vancouver, was Yo-Yo playing Schumann. So that was a special moment. And then he agreed to it, so we have Schumann's Cello Concerto.
Brian McCreath That's fantastic. And it's so great that Carlos has this piece that is so related to the Beethoven, too.
Earl Lee Yeah, it's based on one of his intimate letters. But also Carlos takes the famous motive of the second movement of the Seventh Symphony. [sings] But he doesn't put it in front of your face. It's hidden quite well in these incredible textures, in the timpani and double basses. So you'll hear that, and of course, it's called Fate Now Conquers. So the beginning is this shocking two notes that just makes you jump out of the seat like the famous Fifth Symphony of Beethoven and so on. But it's a very original piece also, at the same time, you know, he's not quoting all these melodies. He takes the idea of Fate and also this Seventh Symphony second movement theme. But it's a very original piece of Carlos Simon. And I thought it would pair very well with the symphony in the second half.
Brian McCreath Absolutely. It's a wonderful program. You've been here for a couple of years with the BSO, some terrific programs, a lot of wonderful work that you've done. How would you say that you are a different conductor now from the one who showed up here two years ago?
Earl Lee That's a very good question. And I can confidently tell you one thing that's very important that I've learned here. Not every orchestra is very responsive to what you show. And sometimes you become, I would say, it may be a bad analogy, but you might become a better driver if you really get a really good car, because then you know how it responds and everything. And with this orchestra, literally, if you show a little flick of the finger, they'll respond to it. Actually, today I almost laughed out loud during the rehearsal because sometimes, you know, when I get really into it, I make some grunting noises when the music gets intense. And while I was grunting very softly, I think it got a bit loud. And then, literally the front three stands of violas wanted to respond to what I was doing, and they heard a little grunt, and all of them just looked up with the most attentive eyes. And then I almost cracked up because they're just so sensitive to everything that you do. Then you learn. You know, there is a saying for growing conductors: you don't say much and you have to show. Of course it's important, but a lot of times that doesn't happen. You show and show, and sometimes some orchestras won't respond as well. Then you have to address it verbally. But that's very true, that statement is very true here, and you really grow. I found myself really growing that sense that I can explore more also how to show, musically, with clarity. And it really expanded my palette of, I think, gestures and musical ideas, how to show what music sounds like, so to speak.
Brian McCreath And you can take that to other orchestras, like in Ann Arbor where you conduct. And those gestures, those motions, maybe the grunts, even, mean more there because it's so much more refined from here.
Earl Lee Yeah, and, a lot of times I conduct very unclearly on purpose, so that people can pay attention a little bit more. [laughs] No, but when I was studying a while ago, when Maestro Bernard Haitink, who was a very dear figure to our orchestra here in Boston, I studied with Haitink in Lucerne a few years ago. And I remember we were doing Brahms First Symphony, and one of the participant conductors was doing Brahms's Symphony No. 1. And of course it's Brahms 1, so this guy was really just going at it, passionate, full of juice. And Haitink just slowly came up to him while he was conducting, put his hand very firmly on this guy's shoulder, stopped him, and he said, "You know, you shouldn't disturb them. Musicians are very busy playing." And that kind of stuck with us. So actually, sometimes when the things are rolling, you know, the wheels are really going, there's no need to disturb. So I always experiment with not showing so clearly all the time. And also they are more attentive. I feel like the less I show, they know that when I cough, for example, then they all look up. And it's such a fun and rewarding process.
Brian McCreath It's one of the things I'd always heard from the players about working with Haitink is that he would come in and just kind of get out of the way, really. But he showed just enough. It was just enough to give them what they needed and then let them do what they do.
Earl Lee Totally. I have also some colleagues who played under him in the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. And they said that a lot of times, in a very good way, during the concert and in rehearsals, that they forgot that they were being conducted. But all the information is there. I was very, very fortunate to have known him and studied with him.
Brian McCreath Well, one more question that kind of picks up on that, which is, you've been in this position as Samy Rachid is now as well, to observe so many conductors. You've covered for I don't know how many conductors in BSO concerts and it's given you the opportunity to see what works and what doesn't work with this orchestra. And I'm just curious, in addition to what we just said about Bernard Haitink, what works with this orchestra? What do you see this orchestra respond to that really fires them up and just gets the best out of them?
Earl Lee I think somebody who shows clearly what they're after, like I said, because they respond so well. I find this a lot of times, a lot of these verbal indications are not necessary with this orchestra. And I think they know this because, they know that they can respond if you show well. The ones that really worked well with our orchestra were the ones that show their musical conviction and clarity and sincerity, all of them through gestures and were able to work well together.
Brian McCreath Earl, it's been great to have you around for a couple of years, and I know we're going to see a lot more of you. But, congratulations on your final concert with the BSO in this position, and we'll look forward to the next time as well. Thanks very much.
Earl Lee Thank you so much.