Substitutes

Sometimes truth actually bests fiction.

I’m an ordinary fan of classical music.   “Ordinary” to me means attending maybe 5 or so concerts at Orchestra Hall each year, more or less potluck.  When we go, I don’t know what the program is till we’re there; sometimes, there is a conflict and we need to reschedule.

Thursday June 20, was one of those reschedules.  The program book identified the program “CELEBRATING PRIDE WITH THOMAS SONDERGARD“, featuring pieces by Dame Ethel Smyth, Karol Szymonowski, and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  The first two composers I’d never heard of.  In fact Karol S’s piece had to be cancelled because pianist Francesco Piermonesi had broke his collar bone in a bicycle mishap in Germany, and was being replaced with identical twins Christina and Michelle Naughton doing a piece by Francis Poulenc.   There was an insert in the program book telling us about them. (Program and supplement here: Orchestra June 20 2024).

The program had a Pride month focus – all the composers were LGBTQ+.  Thomas Sondergard, conductor and music director of Minnesota Orchestra, led an absolutely marvelous program, which was to be repeated Friday and Saturday night.  The Friday night program was to be broadcast live on public television, and I wanted to watch it again, and I did, last night.  Both performances were memorable.

At the beginning of Friday nights program, an announcement was made that Sondergard had fallen ill, and had to be replaced by a fill-in conductor, Chad Goodman of the Elgin, Illinois, Symphony.  I don’t know Sondergard’s ailment.  I hope he’s up and about by now.

I’ve sat in those seats for years.  This was a first time I’d seen this: a last minute substitute conductor.

Goodman had a daunting task, and performed it admirably, and presumably conducts again tonight.  I suppose the purists might have seen some differences between the two performances of the same pieces by the same musicians.  All I know is the standing ovation at the end of both performances.  We had witnessed an absolutely class act from everyone in the Orchestra organization – classic crisis management, which had to be incredible.  To say I was impressed would be a massive understatement.

As noted, the performance high-lighted Pride month.  Early in the program Pride in the Twin Cities was high-lighted.  It was noted that the first Pride event was 51 years ago, spearheaded by 25 who did an apparently unpermitted parade and faced arrest as a consequence, for which 25 others would come up with the bail money.  The Pride event now happening attracts a half-million participants, and is the largest free Pride event in the world.  There is much to be proud about.

POSTNOTE: As it happens, earlier in the week I’d come across a Buddy Holly single printed in 2000 to recognize the singer who died in a plane crash, heading to a gig in Fargo-Moorhead “the day the music died” in February 1959.  I sent it to my friend, Larry, a contemporary in North Dakota in the late 50s, early 60s, who at one point in his career was a DJ.  He appreciated the gift, and sent me a note including a ten minute fascinating audio interview with Bobby Vee, then Bill Velline, the young high school age musician whose group filled in for the deceased Buddy Holly and group that difficult night in 1959.

Larry: “Really appreciate your sending me the Buddy Holly collector’s 45. And the envelope made for the record is good to have too. Although I do have a CD of the Holly masters, I love having this artifact. Thanks for thinking of me.  

BTW…I did an interview with Bobby Vee about three or four years before he died, when he was headed to VC [Valley City] for a class reunion concert.  I talked to him in a phone interview from his recording studio in St. Cloud..he tells vividly about what he did the day the music died…if you haven’t heard it…here’s the link: 2010 Interview with Bobby Vee.mp3 – Google Drive“.