User talk:2A00:23C8:8082:C900:ECF1:D155:6802:D107

Valery Gergiev
This page needs updating - it is now well out of date. As someone who sang with VG on several occasions, I think some attributable comments are needed about (i) his tremendous advocacy of less-familiar Russian music and (ii) his reputation for under-rehearsing. I can only give eye-witness comment on the latter; he generally let the LSO play as it wants, once he had spent some minutes rehearsing one or two specific details to give the orchestra an idea of his aims. He once rehearsed the three trombones in the "Dies Irae" chorale in the finale of Mahler 2 for about 15 minutes, to get the balance spot-on; I've never heard it done better, even by the Berlin Phil. But then he said almost nothing in the rest of the rehearsal. (In one performance of The Rite of Spring I've never seen the LSO look so much like rabbits caught in the headlights.) And I never, ever, heard him say anything directly to the choir; his few comments were delivered to the chorus master. Comments welcome! Richard Morrison's excellent book "Orchestra" gives some specific insights from players, as does "The Show Must Go On" by Gareth Davies, Chairman and principal flute of the LSO.Fred Porlock (talk) 19:20, 13 October 2021 (UTC)