Program Notes You'll Never Read at Severance Hall

From this weekend's concert of the Eureka Symphony, a subscription series concert entitled "A Guy You Love, A Guy You Don't Love & A Guy You Never Heard Of":

My program notes for this concert -- found on page 18 in the playbill -- describe Alexander Taneyev, whose second symphony we were intending to play. I wrote, "Alexander Sergeievich Taneyev is not to be confused with Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev, a distant cousin." In fact, they were confused. Our music supplier was asked for A. Taneyev's second symphony, but sent that of S. Taneyev. So now you need to know a bit about Sergei Taneyev.

The notes, by Dick LaForge, go on to describe how S. Taneyev's second symphony was both unfinished and unpublished in his lifetime, and how Sergei himself was considered "hopelessly conservative" by his more accomplished colleagues. It is somewhat surprising that the supplier had this music at his fingertips.

And yet, it was something of a happy surprise. Despite the members of the symphony, and its music director, being utterly unfamiliar with the work, it actually played to the strengths of the ensemble, showcasing the richness of the strings and lyrical beauty of the reeds without overexposing the brasses. The composition itself was fairly dull, but not inordinately so; certainly no duller than your average orchestral work by Tchaikovsky, Taneyev's teacher (and, presumably, the "guy you love," as the program also contained works by Tchaikovsky and Bartok). Although I can't begin to guess whether it worked out better than the intended performance of A. Taneyev's second symphony, I'd say the only disappointment was that they didn't change the title to "A Guy You Love, A Guy You Don't Love & A Guy WE Never Heard Of."