AUTOGRAPHS: Music Directors of the New York Philharmonic

Fact: The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is the American orchestra that has performed the most times in Singapore, led by its four most recent Music Directors. Here are what their autographs look like:

ALAN GILBERT (Music Director 2009 onwards)

conducted the NYPO at Esplanade Concert Hall

in his first season and Asian tour.

LORIN MAAZEL (Music Director 2002-2009)

visited Singapore twice, conducting the NYPO

at the Esplanade Opening Festival (2002)

and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (2006).

KURT MASUR (Music Director 1991-2002)
had a single visit with the NYPO in 1998

with a concert in the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

ZUBIN MEHTA (Music Director 1979-1991)
led the NYPO to Singapore in 1984 and 1990,
with concerts at Victoria Concert Hall,
National Stadium and on the Padang.

CONDUCTOR'S AUTOGRAPHS: In Memoriam LUKAS FOSS, SIR EDWARD DOWNES & ERICH KUNZEL

LUKAS FOSS (1922-2009) was the German-American pianist, conductor and composer who is best associated with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Brooklyn Philharmonic orchestras. He was a one-time student of Paul Hindemith and Fritz Reiner. He conducted the Asian Youth Orchestra in Mahler's Symphony No.4 (with Elly Ameling) in August 1992 at the Singapore Conference Hall.

Here is an anecdote he related as I drove him back to his hotel: As the ensemble pianist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in his youth, he was present at the World Premiere in December 1944 of Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. Sitting next to the composer, he brashly stated that finale had ended too abruptly for his liking. Heeding the young man's comments, Bartok rewrote the ending of the work, which is the version we are now familiar with. (The original version may be heard in the RCA Victor recording by the Saint Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin).

Gossip: His wife was for several years in the 1960s the mistress and live-in partner of Glenn Gould. "You'll be back," the Maestro said, and he was right.

SIR EDWARD DOWNES (1924-2009) was the Director of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he made some wonderful recordings of orchestral music of Ottorino Respighi and Reinhold Gliere on the Chandos label. I attended a concert at Royal Festival Hall in October 1989, where he conducted the BBC Philharmonic in Brahms' Symphony No.3, Schoenberg's Violin Concerto (with a very young Christian Tetzlaff) and the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

ERICH KUNZEL (1935-2009) was the long-time conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, which has made tons of recordings on the Telarc label. He conducted the orchestra at the Esplanade in October 2005 as part of its Asian tour celebrating 40 years at its helm.

Musicians' Autographs: Yuri Bashmet & Vladimir Minin

Great Russian musicians Yuri Bashmet & Vladimir Minin

show much artistry and pride in their autographs.

Vladimir Minin & Yuri Bashmet (seated) with

National Arts Council bigwigs Mr & Mrs Lee Suan Hiang (CEO)

& Arts Festival director Ms Goh Ching Lee.

Yuri Bashmet looking relaxed after an

Arts Festival concert with the Moscow Soloists.

Legendary choral conductor Vladimir Minim

gives his "smoky" dessert a sniff.

THE ART OF AUTOGRAPHS (Part 1)

This article was first published in the 

July 2008 issue of BraviSSimO!,

the newsletter of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Autograph sessions with visiting soloists and artists are now a norm at SSO concerts. Why do concertgoers take the trouble of waiting in line? What exactly are the musicians’ scribbles on paper worth? Which artists give the best autographs?

Mischa Maisky's autograph 

is as big as his cello sound.

“Touched” by greatness

Ever yearned for an autograph from David Beckham, Robert de Niro, Tiger Woods or Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew? Yes, the thought can be quite a tantalising one, especially when the subject concerned is a celebrity. Owning a “part” of someone famous – even something infinitesimally insignificant – can be seen as one way we ordinary mortals aspire to “rub shoulders” with greatness.

Now that sounds preposterous, but that’s how the world works. Why else did we get Lisztomania, Beatlemania or Wrestlemania? 19th century ladies swooning before divine artistry, screaming groupies falling for the Fab Four, and rabid fans baying for Vince McMahon’s blood represent one end on the spectrum of idol worship. Autograph collecting is merely a more dignified way of expressing admiration and sometimes adulation.

Leila does everything in one stroke

SSO’s collaborations with international artists bring many of classical music’s luminaries to Singapore, within reach of fans. Prior to these well-organised queues, minded by Esplanade’s people-in-black and sometimes the police, autograph collecting meant waiting outside musty stage doors, dressing chambers and green rooms. The assembly-line efficiency of today has also replaced the more friendly banter that takes place between artist and audience member. “Thank you for the music” or “we loved your Beethoven” is always music to the ears of performers, and the autograph - an imprint of an icon – is a just reward for the appreciation shown.

Evelyn Glennie has visited 

Singapore many times,

hence many opportunities 

for autographs.

Of sentimental value

How much is an autograph worth? Some years ago, I noticed at the New York Philharmonic’s gift shop a CD autographed by Kurt Masur selling at USD 20. The un-autographed copy went for USD 16. So is the great German maestro’s signing worth only four dollars? In actual fact, such autographs are probably worth much less than that. However, the memories that come with getting the autograph are priceless; the setting, the circumstances and the short words exchanged – all these have some personal sentimental value, even if it means nothing to everybody else. This is why one should always try to get an autograph personally, rather than by proxy.

In 1994, the great Russian pianist Shura Cherkassky (above) autographed for me a book about pianists, on the page which bore a photograph of himself and fellow students with their teacher Josef Hofmann. He took a pause while scrutinising that pic and then sighed, “They’re all dead now. I’m the only one left.” One year later, he was to be united with the class. The Hungarian György Sandor – with his larger-than-life autograph that got smaller as the years went by – shared with me how as a young pianist, he was approached to give the world premiere of Bartok’s Third Piano Concerto. Another Hungarian, Bela Siki – who prints his name very simply and modestly – recounted how electric fans installed on the stage of a 1960s Victoria Memorial Hall kept flying insects from interfering with his performance of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor!

Carlo's Curls

Mutter knows best

Barry Tuckwell's lovely cursive

THE ART OF AUTOGRAPHS (Part 2)

Mikhail Pletnev's near-illegible scrawl

Windows to the soul?

So what do artists’ autographs look like? They range from grandiloquent sweeps (Evelyn Glennie, Carlo Curley), beautiful cursives (Barry Tuckwell, Angela Hewitt, Anne Sophie Mutter), illegible claw-like scratches (Ivo Pogorelich, Mikhail Pletnev), to the very basic writing of one’s name (Seow Yit Kin, Marc-André Hamelin, Ronald Stevenson).

Krystian Zimerman (above) signs only with green ink, while Yo-Yo Ma uses two different styles, including one in Chinese characters. The French-American pianist Joel-François Thiollier always includes an aphorism or wisecrack, crafted on the spur of the moment.

A collage of autographs (from L):

Pinchas Zukerman, Marc Neikrug's 

hieroglyphics, David Finckel's reverse check 

and Oscar Shumsky's yin-yang

One of the most unusual specimens comes from the late American violinist Oscar Shumsky, which looks like the yin yang symbol – an S inscribed within the confines of an O (OS for his name, get it?). Other intriguing ones belong to pianist Marc Neikrug - which looks like some ancient script - and cellist David Finckel (of the Emerson Quartet), which comprises merely the Nike check and a dot. “Just done it!” it seems to proclaim.

Do these autographs reflect their owners’ personalities or characters? I am not a graphologist but I would like to think that something in an artist’s psyche comes through in their handwriting besides their music. SSO Music Director Lan Shui’s autograph is slick and stylised, just like his conducting. Russian maestros Mstislav Rostropovich (above), Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Vladimir Ashkenazy (below) all sign their multi-syllabic surnames in full – displaying a certain pride in their heritage.

Local composer Tan Chan Boon’s resembles an alpine peak, mirroring the loftiness of his Bruckner-like symphonies. Arch virtuosos like Arcadi Volodos and Peter Donohoe, who simply refuse to do autographs (a gesture of contempt for the very people who support their careers), probably suffer from some hidden inferiority complexes.