PDF file - Nathan Brock, Conductor

turn on a dime. Ballet is an extremely complex art form. An idealballet orchestra balances the needs of the dancers, choreographers andcomposers to the satisfaction of them all. For example, the orchestrawill play differently for each different cast. The audience may not beaware of the subtleties but the orchestra knows.”In other words, themusicians must observethe conductorso closely that Briskincan signal the mostminute changes intempo which the orchestrawill immediatelyexecute. “Theconductor connectsmusic to movement,”explains Briskin. “Ipass on to the musiciansa picture ofwhat is happeningon stage.”Magdalena Popais the principal artistic coach who worksspecifically with the principal dancers. When the dancers havelearned the role in terms of technique and choreography, and arealmost ready for the stage, Popa calls Briskin into the studio. Briskinthen conducts the rehearsal pianist according to tempi set by Popa andthe dancer in consultation with himself. He is there to represent thecomposer. Any conflict over tempi is worked out in the rehearsal studio.It’s the dry run before he brings the tempi to his orchestra. Says Popa:“I trust David completely. He looks at me and instantly picks up thefine nuance needed in the music. Only a good conductor can do this.”Whether for an established or a new ballet, Briskin must know thechoreography intimately. He also must learn the physical idiosyncrasiesof the individual dancers, even anticipating how they will move onstage. Which brings us to the thorny problem of tempi. Briskin saysthat every ballet conductor is the butt of the old joke where a dancersays, “I don’t want it too fast or too slow. I want it just right.” Theproblem is, what is just right? In fact, talking to the National dancers,one finds out the major topic of discussion before, during and after aperformance is tempi.Take for example the male variation in the Blue Bird pas de deuxfrom The Sleeping Beauty. The dancer is literally in the air more thanhe is on the ground. As first soloist Etienne Lavigne explains, theconductor has to know each dancer’s specific jump. If the dancer cando a very high jump, the music slows down to give the dancer moretime in the air. If another dancer’s skill is a consistent jump with alightness in the landing, or ballon, the tempo has to speed up so thathe lands exactly on the music. Says Lavigne: “There are stories outthere about conductors sabotaging a dancer by making the tempo toofast or too slow.”Briskin sees his role as manipulating time, rather than manipulatingmusic. “We don’t make radical changes, but modifications,” he says.“The music is rephrased to suit the dancers. It’s different for the corpsde ballet, where the music must be consistent because that’s whatkeeps them together.”Principal dancer Heather Ogden gives examples of time modification.“In act one of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora is a teenager, and I likethe music to be fast, nippy and springy to capture her youthful energy.In the last pas de deux in Onegin, Tatiana at first resists Onegin’s pleasof love, but her will finally begins to break down. If the tempo is toofast, the dancer can’t show the unfolding of this inner struggle properly.”The dancers, in fact, genuinely appreciate the orchestra. They understandhow terrible the loss of live music would be. Principal characterartist Tomas Schramek likes sitting in the pit during a performance sohe can be cocooned in the music. “The orchestra is always an inspiration,”he says. “The music makes me want to dance more.”And from Lavigne: “If the dancers are the body, the orchestra isthe soul.”continued on page 78March 1 – April 7, 2012thewholenote.com 9