I went to his Princeton Choral workshops for eight years & you’re exactly right. My first one was in 1981 and we learned & performed the Berlioz Requiem and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis in 2 weeks rehearsing like this. WOW !
Mr. Hardy, I am glad to have your insights on choral music and 3rd grade piano. My snarkiness aside, I do know what you are referring to. Actually I don’t fundamentally disagree, except for Shaw’s demeanor and approach, which strikes me more the work of a long soured personality and little about the joy of music making at the highest levels. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but no less, so am I. If we must disagree, perhaps it speaks to the reason interpreters are always looking for ways to improve.
What a depressing pain in the neck. A humorless drill sergeant major, continually looking for things to pick on-out of context-easy to do. It has little bearing on what the chorus would do IN context.
@@antonycooke6402 The only way to get perfection from an ensemble is to insist upon it. Mr. Shaw knew the musical score perfectly, had an artistic vision of that music, and trained his singers until they gave him that artistic vision. Mr. Shaw’s methods are nowhere near as stern as those of Arturo Toscanini, George Szell (whom Mr. Shaw mentions), George Solti (the “screaming skull”), Fritz Reiner, Leonard Bernstein, and Leopold Stokowski. All these men demanded and got perfection. They all remain legends whose work is still extremely highly regarded today despite most of them being dead for thirty years or longer. I can’t think of a single living conductor whose work will likely live on as long as that of those gentleman.
@@antonycooke6402 Then, I guess, we’ll have to take back the 14 Grammy awards, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Peabody award that he won over his long career.
Your last 2 sentences call for a rebuttal, although you didn't open well either. The "...out of context-" & "...IN context." remarks are so thoroughly ridiculous such that I can't imagine what you are doing here at all in terms of listening to this! Every single beat & the accompanying note sung are the very heart of a work of choral music and without the detail being learned by practice over and over via repetition, it cannot be properly learned! I first came to understand that in the 3rd grade via the start of my piano lessons and then it was again drilled home by way of my school and university choral work!
Robert Shaw was a master. There has never lived a better choral conductor.
He was a choral genius!
Amazing rehearsal to get such a perfect end result
I had the good fortune to sing for him. true genius in action
I went to his Princeton Choral workshops for eight years & you’re exactly right. My first one was in 1981 and we learned & performed the Berlioz Requiem and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis in 2 weeks rehearsing like this. WOW !
Mr. Hardy, I am glad to have your insights on choral music and 3rd grade piano. My snarkiness aside, I do know what you are referring to. Actually I don’t fundamentally disagree, except for Shaw’s demeanor and approach, which strikes me more the work of a long soured personality and little about the joy of music making at the highest levels. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but no less, so am I. If we must disagree, perhaps it speaks to the reason interpreters are always looking for ways to improve.
Is this the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus??
No. It's a group of conductors studying with Shaw.
What a depressing pain in the neck. A humorless drill sergeant major, continually looking for things to pick on-out of context-easy to do. It has little bearing on what the chorus would do IN context.
except everything he says improves it.
@@patricksummers5126 Granted. But what a way to go about it. . . .
@@antonycooke6402
The only way to get perfection from an ensemble is to insist upon it. Mr. Shaw knew the musical score perfectly, had an artistic vision of that music, and trained his singers until they gave him that artistic vision.
Mr. Shaw’s methods are nowhere near as stern as those of Arturo Toscanini, George Szell (whom Mr. Shaw mentions), George Solti (the “screaming skull”), Fritz Reiner, Leonard Bernstein, and Leopold Stokowski. All these men demanded and got perfection. They all remain legends whose work is still extremely highly regarded today despite most of them being dead for thirty years or longer. I can’t think of a single living conductor whose work will likely live on as long as that of those gentleman.
@@antonycooke6402
Then, I guess, we’ll have to take back the 14 Grammy awards, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Peabody award that he won over his long career.
Your last 2 sentences call for a rebuttal, although you didn't open well either.
The "...out of context-" & "...IN context." remarks are so thoroughly ridiculous such that I can't imagine what you are doing here at all in terms of listening to this!
Every single beat & the accompanying note sung are the very heart of a work of choral music and without the detail being learned by practice over and over via repetition, it cannot be properly learned!
I first came to understand that in the 3rd grade via the start of my piano lessons and then it was again drilled home by way of my school and university choral work!