'The Right Place' a loving look inside the symphony
The book arrived on my doorstep a week ago, and that night I began reading it and couldn't put it down.
"The Right Place, The right Time!" is a loving reminiscence of life with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by principal flutist Donald Peck, who retired from the orchestra in 1999 after 42 years.
"Insider" books about the classical music business are always fun to read; conductor Erich Leinsdorf's 1976 "Cadenza: A Musical Career," and Johanna Fiedler's juicy backstage exposé, "Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera," published in 2001, are two fine examples.
Peck's new book doesn't endeavor to dig up scandal, as does Ms. Fiedler's book about the Met, but it is a respectful, anecdotal tale of a professional musician.
Peck marvels how a kid from Yakima, Wash., found a way to eventually play the flute for four decades in one of the world's greatest orchestras. However, he does not regale us with personal details of his music education and how he worked his way up the professional ladder.
He jumps right in, discussing the four CSO music directors he played under: Fritz Reiner (who appointed him in 1957), Jean Martinon, Sir Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim.
He also evaluates the orchestra's three titled principal guest conductors -- Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado and Pierre Boulez -- as well as Ravinia Festival music directors Seiji Ozawa, James Levine and Christoph Eschenbach. There is also mention of guest conductors whom he felt were the most important Chicago visitors.
Peck walks a political tightrope, not wanting to offend any conductors or their surviving families; but you can really get a sense of those he admired the most: Reiner and Solti, each a musical genius in his unique way.
"Reiner's concerts were the absolute best presentations: musical, exciting and expertly performed," Peck says. "There was no one equal to him at that time, nor is there now."
Solti, like Reiner a native of Hungary, is praised for his ability to make the orchestra play as a team; to make quick musical adjustments to accommodate varying acoustics of strange concert halls while on tour; and his sly sense of humor, able to ease tension-filled moments in rehearsals. "Solti was constantly searching out new ways of doing things," Peck says. "He was never satisfied with what had been."
A huge test for Solti was Arnold Schoenberg's extremely difficult "Moses und Aron," which the CSO played to great acclaim in 1971 and then revisited in 1984, coupled with a Grammy Award-winning complete recording.
"There is nothing 'usual' in the sound of it," Peck recalls about the Schoenberg opera, written in the 12-tone style. "At one concert a singer lost her place. Solti looked up from the score, motioned the piccolo not to enter yet, gave the trumpets and trombones separate cues as to when to make their entrances, and finally gave a beat for the piccolo to come in. Suddenly, all was back in order. How could he have learned that score so well? And how could he have defined the problem, and the solution. in that split second? We all spoke of this moment with awe."
Peck also discusses several of the 123 CSO concerts (under 28 different conductors!) in which he was the major soloist. Other chapters include a look at the orchestra's American and overseas tours, which went to all the major cities here and in Europe, Australia and Asia. This is the most enjoyable and witty chapter in the book.
This is a most enjoyable book. I only wish it were longer than its 160-plus pages. If kids can run through 800 pages of "Harry Potter" nonstop, I could manage 300 pages of Donald Peck's fascinating memoir.