The following was posted earlier to Orchestralist, pls excuse the
crosspost, but I vainly thought perhaps some on this list that might
remember something called Trio Notes might be vaguely interested in a
little of my recent exploits.

***********

I've always liked that acronym. WAM! THWACK!

So, the first time in my life I ever got to conduct Mozart was last
night.  Thanks to an O-lister suggestion I've ditched Purcell for this
program [the upcoming debut of my new youth orchestra] and inserted in
his spot in the lineup the Serenata Notturna K.239 for strings and timp
by Wolfie.

Now I'm aware that there are Mozart-bashers out there, but it's
always been my opinion that Mozart is the greatest composer that ever
was.  Mozart *is* Classical music, to me.  And this piece is so completely
and totally Mozart, what a joy to live this music.  When it was first
mentioned to me I didn't know the piece specifically, but then got the
score and you begin reading these melodies and you realize of course you
know the piece, you've known it actually since the day you were born.

The melodies that the man could create just in the space of two bars.
The little two-bar extensions, piano, that go to a harmonic place that
shivers your spine then jump back to the rondo.  The oxygen in the minuet.
Music that shines, glimmers; it's full of stars.

And it's so easy to conduct, you just stand there and enjoy it!  Of
course that's not really true, especially with a young, inexperienced
group.  But if you've been playing Mozart chamber music since you were
still playing with G.I.  Joe then the musical ideas come fairly naturally,
and my band was responding well, though the eyes of the poor principals
who were sightreading this mini-concerto (for them) were kind of bugging
out!  It was fun, too, sharing my feelings and experiences with Mozart
and it really seemed to resonate.  There are two main global influences
on the way I approach Mozart: his opera, and the film Amadeus.  If I
think of instrumental music like the Serenata as opera, vocal music, if
I give it words or at least syllables, then the understanding of phrasing
comes effortlessly.  And I get my tempi from the movie.  Not the recordings,
of course, but from his character, his surroundings, his threads and
wigs, from the pool table in his house and the drinks, from the horses
on the street outside.  Perhaps you'll call me superficial but just being
able to look at Tom Hulce being Mozart completely transformed and defined
my entire approach to WAM's music.

I just got the score last week, and ordered the parts but from here in
faraway Mallorca these things take a while, and none of my sources on
the island had the parts.  So yesterday afternoon there I was with a
cutter and some Elmer's, cutting and pasting and cutting and pasting and
cutting and pasting.  The problem was if I didn't have parts for the
Mozart I had no idea what we'd rehearse, so I *really* needed to finish
these parts!  Cut, paste, cut, paste.  Then off to the photocopy place,
which of course was closed, so I ended up getting them copied at an
internet cafe that was open Sundays, and I think it was the first time
the chap there had ever had an orchestra conductor come in on a Sunday
afternoon with these bizarre things to copy, the pages stiff from all
that Elmer's, little tails of viola part hanging over the edge of the
paper.  He seemed to be enjoying himself separating the VN2's from the
VLA's as I chatted him up with witty Wolfie anecdotes.

But then they were all done and in two blinks they were on the stands
and we were making Mozart.  And I felt again, as so many times since
I've begun this journey, how Right it feels, and with our big hall filled
with this music, this Mozart; somehow that it was Mozart it made all
this very real and I felt very much a conductor, very much a musician.
Holst is fine, Barber is rich, but they're not Mozart.  I Mozart, therefore
I am.

************

This Friday night, I'm pleased to report, is our maiden performance, and
if any O-listers happen to live in Mallorca I hope you can come.  We
won't be playing Mozart, not at all.  The event is the inauguration of
a brand-new music center built in a huge industrial warehouse in Son
Castello.  Directed mostly to rock/jazz/house bands, they've set up 75
rehearsal studios of varying sizes, all air-conditioned, soundproofed
and with internet hookup, there's a big stage and a small stage, the two
kind of attached with a total capacity of more than 1,000 for concerts,
there's a state-of-the-art recording studio, classrooms for giving private
lessons, and a big bar.

And it turns out they want a "classical" presence there, they have given
thought to "crossover" projects, and my under-30 group turns out to be
just what they were looking for.  So there we are at the Big Opening,
along with several rock bands and a couple of well-known DJ's, should
be a really big shew.  We're playing an arrangement of a folk-song setting
of text by an Ibizan poet, accompanying a singer, and then a piece called
Sequencia by Miguel Angel Aguilo, accompanied by a recorded rhythm track
with lots of vocal effects and noises, plus a DJ will do some stuff,
then 2 dancers come in and will jump about for a while and it should be
Big Fun and I think a kind-of in-your-face way for an orchestra to debut.

David Runnion
Nova Orquestra Jove
Mallorca, Spain