Here at Stand Partners for Life, we get a lot of questions about the future: what happens if I'm not playing concerto X by age Y? What will happen if I study with teacher Z, or go to school-- I ran out of letters!

So even though we can't give definitive answers to these questions, they're still great questions! And one listener email in particular sparked a discussion about success at an early age, the importance (or non-importance) of conservatory for winning an orchestra audition, and lots more.

Along the way, we also answer listener questions about sight reading in high positions, as well as "contextual intonation": changing your pitch based on what's going on around you, especially in the orchestra!

And we start out by talking Twelve-Tone: Nathan's upcoming performance of Arnold Schoenberg's fourth String Quartet, and whether or not it's "real music". Daniel Barenboim considered him one of the most important composers in history. Does "most important" equal best?

If it seems like we've been silent the last couple of months, that's because Akiko's life has been pretty different since early March! One moment she was working out at the gym like she did five times a week, and the next she was flat on her back with paramedics on the way.

Suffice it to say that she hasn't been playing with the LA Phil since then, but we can see the way back at least! Midway through her recovery, we talk about her time in the hospital and back at home.

We also take the opportunity to answer some fantastic questions that you emailed during our time away, including what audition recordings are all about, whether we'd fake Prokofiev's Cinderella suite, and how we deal with audience distractions!

Transcript

Nathan Cole: Hi, and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life.

Nathan Cole: And this time, after a bit of a long break… we took a long break last summer. This one was a little different. Akiko, do you want to tell us why?

Akiko Tarumoto: I have been recuperating from an unfortunate incident at the gym. I took a bad step, fell on my bottom, and spent the next eight weeks recovering.

Nathan Cole: Eight weeks and counting.

Akiko Tarumoto: Seven weeks and counting.

Nathan Cole: Oh, okay. And not working, not playing in the Philharmonic.

Akiko Tarumoto: Not playing. I'm playing but not playing at work.

Nathan Cole: Take us back to the incident a little bit.

Akiko Tarumoto: People keep kind of guessing what it was, and they'll be like, "Oh, were you…?" I don't know why it bothered me at the hospital. The doctors kept talking about how I was doing step aerobics, and I was like-

Nathan Cole: That makes you sound like a-

Akiko Tarumoto: I didn't take a time machine back to the '80s and don skintight, shiny spandex…

Nathan Cole: "And one, and two…"

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah, no. So I was not doing step aerobics. It did involve a box, one of those foam boxes. They come in various heights, and this one was the lowest one. It was a 12-inch box, and I was just trying to do something to keep my heart rate up between weight lifting rounds. And yeah, just, it was one of those weird things that just, I guess I was kind of tired, and my foot didn't come cleanly down from the box. My other foot was already on the way up. So the box slid toward me, and I landed. I had nowhere to go but on my bottom.

Nathan Cole: And I've had other people ask me, people who don't know you very well -- But just to make it clear, I mean, you were probably at the gym or were, at that time, five times a week, doing these kinds of classes.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah, yeah. In fact, I was joking that I should probably spend as much time playing the violin as I did at the gym. Because at that point, just working out, and running… if you added up all the time I spent exercise-wise, it, yeah, dwarfed my actual time practicing on my instrument. So yeah, it was a little bit sobering. So now, finally, my practicing found a way to reverse that proportion.

Nathan Cole: Against your will. And yeah, I think just the day before you had run 10 miles.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah, that was disappointing, because it's been a while since I ran that far, as you know. And so it felt like a milestone to get back there, and it was. Won't be seen again for a while.

Nathan Cole: Well, I'm looking forward to you getting back to it, because you will. I know they didn't like the look of the fall and all that. So they called some paramedics who…

Akiko Tarumoto: They talked to me as if I were probably about 60 years old or older.

Nathan Cole: Wait. Did they ask you who was president and expect you to say it was Ronald Reagan?

Akiko Tarumoto: No. (I do remember that, by the way.) No, they asked me if I was on any medications, and when I said no, they looked really encouraging, and they said, "Ooh, very healthy." I'm not sure if they thought I was kind of out of it because of the fall, because they were trying to speak slowly to me, in any event. They seemed like they wanted to really cheer for me when I said I wasn't on any medications regularly.

Akiko Tarumoto: And then they asked me, I think more than once, if I really was used to exercising. It was a little bit insulting.

Nathan Cole: Covering their bases.

Akiko Tarumoto: Other than having just fallen on my rear, I thought I looked like I was in acceptable shape, like maybe this is something I do more than once a year. They didn't seem so sure about that. So yeah, a little humbling.

Nathan Cole: We got you to the ER with a little difficulty because you were in pain, and then ER did a cursory check plus an x-ray and said nothing was broken, take this Advil and all that. Which you did for a couple days, and it was not getting better. It was getting much worse.

Akiko Tarumoto: As you recall, I got home and was almost instantly sure something was not right. And I tried to sit down on the bed or something, and there was a terrible stabbing, burning sort of… It was strange because it was a pain that wasn't present until I triggered some movement or a nerve or something. And so everything would be fine, and then I'd sit down or try to stand up and then… it was horrible. I don't think there's any way I can actually describe how terrible it was.

Akiko Tarumoto: So I try not to be dramatic about it, but that pain stayed with me for the next week. I guess it was a solid week of going through that. So that wasn't so fun.

Nathan Cole: Right. I mean, anytime you tried to basically get down or get up.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah. Still, the doctors are pretty stumped by what that was. I mean, it was obviously some kind of nerve that I tweaked with this fall, but the doctors were stumped, in the hospital, anyway. The pain doctors had no answers, and so that's not so encouraging when-

Nathan Cole: Well, we're skipping the fact that we went back to the ER and then they did a scan and found there was a fracture-

Akiko Tarumoto: Right, which is why I ended up hospitalized, but yeah.

Nathan Cole: Yeah, yeah. Fracture of the sacrum, which… I pronounced "sack-rum" for the first couple days until I-

Akiko Tarumoto: I think we made a number of Rite of Spring jokes.

Nathan Cole: Right. That's true. So, yeah, seven nights in the hospital, and, yeah, go Percocet! That was the…

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah. For anyone who's wondering what my painkiller of choice is for some horrible, horrible, otherwise uncurable pain, it's Percocet.

Nathan Cole: But it did have some side effects, and they did warn you to get off it within two weeks if you could. And you did.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah. So thank goodness for that. I was on so many medications in the hospital, it's kind of staggering. They'd come in every 90 minutes or so and shoot me up with something else that didn't work. Other than that, it was strange.

Akiko Tarumoto: I was actually, after a few days, thinking, "I actually have not been bored." Everyone was like, "You must be going crazy in this hospital room." Yeah, I literally could not get up out of bed. I think that it's possible that I'm exactly the kind of person who takes to bed rest very naturally. Yeah, for sure.

Nathan Cole: Yeah. And you discovered the Great British Baking Show-

Akiko Tarumoto: I did. I started-

Nathan Cole: -during your convalescence.

Akiko Tarumoto: It's an unfortunate timing, getting into that show and being unable to move very much because I rediscovered my obsession with sugar at the exact moment where I was unable to physically do anything about that other than bake and eat.

Nathan Cole: And we watched some good movies and had a few good take-out meals in the hospital.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah, but you didn't get into the things that I actually made, thanks to my-

Nathan Cole: Oh, well, since you got home, yeah.

Akiko Tarumoto: Well, because of my newfound courage, I… after watching the show, I thought, "Well, these people can throw together a tray of cream puffs. And on top of it, they can make a showstopper cake with the cream puffs involving an entire chocolate sculpture." And I was like, "These people can do this in three hours. I'm sure I can put together a halfway decent birthday cake for you."

Nathan Cole: "Halfway"? That was an amazing… First of all, it wasn't even a cake.

Akiko Tarumoto: It depends on what you call a success. I didn't burn down the house, and I didn't burn my hand off, so…

Nathan Cole: I mean, this was a sculpture of cream puffs. I have a picture. I should post that picture. That was amazing.

Akiko Tarumoto: My little half-tower of cream puffs. So yeah. But it was, I think, a nice surprise for you.

Nathan Cole: It was amazing. I was shocked.

Akiko Tarumoto: So one of my projects during my convalescence here has been-

Nathan Cole: Was this sort of, does it relate to performance anxiety on the violin, performance anxiety in front of the mixer?

Akiko Tarumoto: I mean, my personality is just… I really become sort of paralyzed by my inability to predict how something's going to turn out sometimes. And there's just definite, I wouldn't even call them parallels. I think it just translates so directly to playing for me.

Akiko Tarumoto: So maybe I need to watch hours and hours of a show about playing the violin. Maybe that would inspire me to just get out there and do it. But fortunately, since no one's expecting me to turn out world-class or even high-level baked goods on a regular basis, I think that when it happens, everyone's astonishment is reward enough for me. But I think that that's not quite the case on the violin.

Nathan Cole: Well,...

OK, you guessed it: it's going to be impossible for us to narrow things down to one "best"! But Akiko and I give it our best shot, outlining the pluses and minuses for all the popular choices.

In this episode we refer to an article I wrote a few years ago, "Which violin concerto has the toughest opening?"

Virtuoso Ray Chen hardly needs an introduction, but let's start with his Gold Medal at the Queen Elisabeth competition in 2009, at the age of 20! His career since then, by all appearances, has been an effortless climb. But as you're about to hear, that isn't the whole story.

As I've gotten to know Ray (during his solo appearances with the LA Phil, including that one time he stole my bow for a Paganini encore!) I've been impressed with how open he is in person and on social media.

Let's start here: if you don't follow Ray on Instagram and YouTube, you're missing out big time! Here are those links:

Ray's Instagram

Ray on YouTube

For example, one of Ray's videos deals with the topic of insecurity. It's so rare for a world-class soloist to open up about this topic, and you certainly won't hear any insecurity in his playing! But as we discuss in this episode, it's a feeling every violinist deals with at some point, and it's a necessary step along the way to mature artistry.

Ray Chen's biography

Ray Chen is a violinist who redefines what it is to be a classical musician in the 21st Century. With a media presence that enhances and inspires the classical audience, reaching out to millions through his unprecedented online following, Ray Chen's remarkable musicianship transmits to a global audience that is reflected in his engagements with the foremost orchestras and concert halls around the world.Initially coming to attention via the Yehudi Menuhin (2008) and Queen Elizabeth (2009) Competitions, of which he was First Prize winner, he has built a profile in Europe, Asia, and the USA as well as his native Australia both live and on disc. Signed in 2017 to Decca Classics, the summer of 2017 has seen the recording of the first album of this partnership with the London Philharmonic as a succession to his previous three critically acclaimed albums on SONY, the first of which (“Virtuoso”) received an ECHO Klassik Award. Profiled as “one to watch” by the Strad and Gramophone magazines, his profile has grown to encompass his featuring in the Forbes list of 30 most influential Asians under 30, appearing in major online TV series “Mozart in the Jungle”, a multi-year partnership with Giorgio Armani (who designed the cover of his Mozart album with Christoph Eschenbach) and performing at major media events such as France’s Bastille Day (live to 800,000 people), the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm (telecast across Europe), and the BBC Proms.

“It’s hard to say something new with these celebrated works; however, Ray Chen performs them with the kind of authority that puts him in the same category as Maxim Vengerov.”

— CORRIERE DELLA SERA

He has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra Nazionale della Santa Cecilia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and upcoming debuts include the SWR Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, and Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. He works with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Vladimir Jurowski, Sakari Oramo, Manfred Honeck, Daniele Gatti, Kirill Petrenko, Krystof Urbanski, Juraj Valcuha and many others. From 2012-2015 he was resident at the Dortmund Konzerthaus and in 17/18 will be an “Artist Focus” with the Berlin Radio Symphony. His presence on social media makes Ray Chen a pioneer in an artist’s interaction with their audience, utilising the new opportunities of modern technology. His appearances and interactions with music and musicians are instantly disseminated to a new public in a contemporary and relatable way. He is the first musician to be invited to write a lifestyle blog for the largest Italian publishing house, RCS Rizzoli (Corriere della Sera, Gazzetta dello Sport, Max). He has been featured in Vogue magazine and is currently releasing his own design of violin case for the industry manufacturer GEWA. His commitment to music education is paramount, and inspires the younger generation of music students with his series of self-produced videos combining comedy and music. Through his online promotions his appearances regularly sell out and draw an entirely new demographic to the concert hall. Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Ray was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15, where he studied with Aaron Rosand and was supported by Young Concert Artists. He plays the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius violin on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. This instrument was once owned by the famed Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim (1831-1907).

I met Joseph Bein almost as soon as I moved to Chicago to join the CSO in 2002. We've talked great instruments and bows ever since, over dinners, glasses of wine, and even Cubs games! Come to think of it, at Wrigley Field the talk is all baseball...

Joe has been immersed in the world of fine string instruments his entire life, and when he visited LA I couldn't pass up the chance to talk with him about how his father, Robert Bein, and Robert's friend Geoffrey Fushi started Bein & Fushi in Chicago.

We also delve into how (and why) fantastic instruments make their way into the hands of world-class players. And we eventually get to all those phone calls the shop receives about old violin cases in the attic!

Here's more on Joseph from the Bein & Fushi site.

When it comes to getting all those notes, rhythms, dynamics, and articulations under your fingers, you've got to use every trick in the book. In this episode, we talk about how we get through our stacks of orchestra music.

Of course, we need different strategies depending on whether we're trying to revive an old friend, or tame a world premiere. Fakery may just find its way in there somewhere...

A recent change of plans at the LA Phil leads us to reminisce on other times we've had conductors cancel. What happens when the audience is waiting and the show must go on?

Transcript

Nathan Cole: Hello, and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life with "The show must go on." That's the name of this episode, not just saying that about our show… But thanks, as always, for being here with me for, I think this will be, a great episode. It's about, well, the show must go on. We were kind of thinking that this past week. We played the entire Romeo and Juliet ballet with dancers, and video, and everything, and the concert stretched to three hours. Right before some of those performances, I was almost wondering, "Must I go on?" I love the music, and I know you do too. That's one of your favorite pieces.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah.

Nathan Cole: It's a big-

Akiko Tarumoto: The music is so good that I've almost already forgotten how long it felt. It's like childbirth.

Nathan Cole: Obviously, I wouldn't know, but I've heard. Yeah, today, this being the first day that we didn't play the Prokofiev. I've just had all the tunes running through my head all day, so I guess that's proof of how great the music is, although I do … I mean, I guess I get bad music stuck in my head, too, but this is undoubtedly great.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah. Well, right now, I have Wheels on the Bus stuck in my head, so not a good person to ask.

Nathan Cole: Okay. Well, I mean, that's an effective tune, also. Looking at this week coming up, we've got a bit of a conundrum. I mean, not that we have to solve it, but-

Akiko Tarumoto: Oh, it's been-

Nathan Cole: … our-

Akiko Tarumoto: … solved.

Nathan Cole: That's right. It just was solved today, but rehearsals start the day after tomorrow, and up until today, we had no conductor and no real program for the coming week. That's because the conductor canceled. Daniel Harding, who we've spoken about on this podcast before, actually, I hope you're doing well. I heard there was some sickness or … Sickness or injury?

Akiko Tarumoto: Injury.

Nathan Cole: Okay. Well, we definitely wish him the best, but yeah, it was a pretty short-notice change of plans for the orchestra. Usually, these things get solved instantaneously. It's like as soon as someone canceled, they've got 20 people lined up who can just drop everything and come, for an orchestra like LA anyway, but in this case, it took some doing. It seemed like everybody was engaged. I guess it's not like it's the summer, where plans are loosey-goosey. I think all the conductors had stuff going on in October, so …

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah. In fact, I think a few times, it's worked out great. I can't remember who it was who canceled, but Jaap van Zweden was able to come in … Was that in Chicago?

Nathan Cole: That was in Chicago. He interrupted his honeymoon, as I recall. He came back from Hawaii early, and he was all bronzed and-

Akiko Tarumoto: Right, and that was the first time we'd seen him, and we thought he was great. It was, it was really fun having him conduct.

Nathan Cole: Yeah. You never know what you're going to get, and just for the curious, for this coming week, it's turned out that one of the so-called Dudamel Fellows, we have several that rotate throughout the season, Paolo …

Akiko Tarumoto: I can't say it…

Nathan Cole: I'm laughing at myself stumbling over his name, because when I ask him to say his own name, he says it so fast that I can't make enough sense of it, so I'll have to get him to record it, but it's spelled Bortolameolli, but it does not sound like five syllables when I hear him pronounce his own name-

Akiko Tarumoto: Right.

Nathan Cole: … so-

Akiko Tarumoto: Got to practice.

Nathan Cole: I know. I need some practice, but Paolo is going to take over next week, so we're grateful for that. The program has changed. It was going to be Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, now Beethoven's Fifth. Then we've added a soloist. Jean-Yves Thibaudet has a home here in the LA area.

Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah. It's kind of amazing he was available.

Nathan Cole: Yeah. Well, I think it's because he does live here part-time, and he's a player. He's always got something up his sleeve, so we're doing a Saint-Saëns.

Akiko Tarumoto: Have you ever heard this piece?

Nathan Cole: No. This particular Saint-Saëns concerto, never, as far as I know-

Akiko Tarumoto: It's-

Nathan Cole: We'll see.

Akiko Tarumoto: I didn't know he wrote five of them, or maybe he wrote like 10, but-

Nathan Cole: Well, I mean, we're surprised he wrote three violin concertos, because everybody plays number three, and we're always like, "What do the first two sound like?"

Akiko Tarumoto: Well, I mean, some people know what the first one sounds like.

Nathan Cole: That's right, because it was performed this summer at the Hollywood Bowl.

Akiko Tarumoto: By your stand partner.

Nathan Cole: Yeah, my stand partner, my actual stand partner for-

Akiko Tarumoto: Most of your life.

Nathan Cole: We're keeping a newish piece that's a vehicle for our principal flute. He's the soloist for the Knussen.

Akiko Tarumoto: Oh, yeah, and there's also a soprano.

Nathan Cole: Okay. We'll talk about why programs change, why certain things stay the same, and we're also going to tell one of the best examples of this kind of thing from our experience when a music director cancels, and very unexpectedly. That's from our time in Chicago. Let's start that story, because I was actually not around for all of this. This happened in late 2010 in Chicago, right, or early two-

Akiko Tarumoto: It happened in-

Nathan Cole: … thousand eleven?

Akiko Tarumoto: … early 2011 when you were on tour with the LA Phil.

Nathan Cole: Right, so I had just won the job in LA, and in order to sort of jumpstart the process, I joined the LA Phil for a tour before I officially started, so I came out to LA, I think, for two weeks' preparation, or one week preparation, and then did a European tour. While I was on that tour, I remember I called you from Budapest. It was late at night in Budapest, but I knew it wouldn't be past your bedtime in Chicago, and I was just telling you how things were going, and you said, "Wow. You will never believe what just-"

Akiko Tarumoto: Well, no.

Nathan Cole: " … happened here."

Akiko Tarumoto: I think what happened was, I called you, knowing you probably weren't going to pick up the phone, and I left you a hysterical message.

Nathan Cole: Oh, is that it?

Akiko Tarumoto: Right after it happened, because I was like, I had, but I was in a real tizzy about it, and-

Nathan Cole: All right.

Akiko Tarumoto: … so what had just happened was, we had been rehearsing Shostakovich Fifth Symphony, and it was the end of the slow movement.

Nathan Cole: Who was conducting?

Akiko Tarumoto: It was, Riccardo Muti was conducting, and I still remember, I think it was rehearsal number 95 in that movement, and I don't think I'll ever forget what it was like to look at the music and then look up and see that he just looked really strange, and his arms were sort of half up, but he wasn't really moving anymore. Then, yeah, he just pitched forward on, off the … Well, off the podium, I guess, and face-forward into the floor. Then people started screaming, and some people were shouting about calling 911, and other people shouting about keeping calm, and it was sort of …

Nathan Cole: That's always good, shouting about keeping calm.

Akiko Tarumoto: It was … I've, fortunately, have not been in a lot of semi-crisis situations in my life, but it was interesting to see how everyone reacted in this particular scenario. There was that feeling that he may have just died. I mean … I think maybe, I think we figured out pretty quickly he was still breathing, so that was good, but there were a few moments of doubt, obviously. It was scary, and we … My instinct was to just … I knew we just had to get off the stage, because there would be plenty of emergency people, medical people there, and there was, I being neither of those, and I was just going to be in the way, so that's when I ran off-stage and I was just kind of like, "What do I do? I don't really have anything to do with this, but I still feel really, really upset about it, kind of," and so I-

Nathan Cole: Right, and then you were--

Akiko Tarumoto: I called you and I left you that message where I was like, "Riccardo Muti just faceplanted on the stage, and we don't know if he's alive or not, and … "

Nathan Cole: Yeah, and it really takes you out of your place, because we go to work, and we're thinking about the music. We're thinking about our colleagues. We're thinking about day-to-day stuff or whatever, but we're pretty much programmed, if we go in for a 10:00, we're done at 12:30 or whatever it is. It's not like we ever just sometimes leave at 11:00 or sometimes leave at 11:30 or something like that. We're there, and that's part of the day, and then something like that happens that's real, that's real life, and that's what takes up all your mental energy.

Nathan Cole: Then at a certain point, you just, like you said, you're like, "Well, what's my purpose here? What am I really doing? Nobody's making music. Should we just … Do we pack up and go home?" Then you start thinking, "Well, are we going to play this program? What's going to happen?" Because that was actually a big week, wasn't it? Was it the …

Akiko Tarumoto: It was the gala week, so yeah.

Nathan Cole: Then what was the rest of the program?

...