My organization presented Royal Phil.  w/ Gatti last night at the Kennedy
Center.  We heard about Gatti's outburst on Friday and were rightfully
a bit cautious.  Tim Page from the Washington Post picked up the story
and wrote about it on Saturday, which only helped ticket sales.

Well, luckily the conductor behaved himself last night and the audience
didn't get a lecture.  His management company had requested to be in the
audience, so they had come down from New York earlier in the day.  Maybe,
I was reading too much into it, but he almost seemed a little sheepish
in his behaviour towards the audience.

As for the concert itself, I wasn't that thrilled with it.  Technically,
the Royal Phil.  left a lot to be desired.  Gatti kept trying to get the
strings to play with more verve.  Maybe, they are tired from their U.S.
tour.  He also seemed to put over-emphasis on the brass in the Tchaikovsky
5th.  On a more positive note, the audience at KC seemed more well-behaved
than they normally are, and they didn't let any late-comers in in-between
movements of the Brahms piano concerto #2.  Garrick Ohlsson was quite
accomplished, as usual.  Gatti is quite the active conductor, with arms
flailing about all over the place.

Usama Amin
WPAS