Frühbeck de Burgos reading session

One of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's most popular guest conductors, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos spent two weeks with the BSO in March 2010. His programs included Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade and Mendelssohn's Overture and Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, along with Rossini's Stabat Mater and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Hilary Hahn).

During a reading session at NEC on the rainy, sleepy Monday morning after clocks sprung forward for Daylight Savings Time, Frühbeck brought blossom to the opening measures of the Rimsky-Korsakov with instructions that were light on prose and heavy on onomatopoeia. He reminded the players that they were performing a work that is "so well written that every instrument can sound its best"—a transparency of orchestration that demands the players hear each other at a chamber music level of attentiveness.

Rather than attempt to read through the entire score, Frühbeck settled in to perfect key phrases, noting that the rhythmic gestures and approach to imagery introduced in the opening movement are the toolkit for presenting the work in its entirety.

Since the conductor's main base of operations is the Dresden Philharmonic, this was an exceptional opportunity for NEC's students to work within world-class rehearsal conditions.

Photo by Andrew Hurlbut