Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing from iHeart Radio. My guest today is the first
Speaker 1: person I ever thought I could possibly lose my job
Speaker 1: to thanks to his magnificent speaking voice. Anthony Parthur is
Speaker 1: a multifaceted conductor, bassoonist, and music director. Parthur is the
Speaker 1: music director and conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra.
Speaker 1: He's also the music director of the Southeast Symphony in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Known for his work on major film scores,
Speaker 1: Parth has led the scoring sessions of critically acclaimed movies
Speaker 1: and television series such as Avatar, The Way of Water,
Speaker 1: Black Panther, Waconda, Forever, The Mandalorian, and the Grammy Award
Speaker 1: winning film and Canto. Parthr also led the scoring session
Speaker 1: for Oppenheimer, which won an Oscar for Best Picture and
Speaker 1: Original Score. Of all the instruments Anthony Parthur could have
Speaker 1: select to play, I wondered why he chose the bassoon.
Speaker 2: There is quite a story behind that. You know. Where
Speaker 2: I grew up in Central Virginia, I think banned and
Speaker 2: orchestra starts in the fourth or fifth grade. I started
Speaker 2: around the eighth or ninth grade, and I'll tell you
Speaker 2: why I desperately wanted to go to the theme park.
Speaker 2: The local theme park in Richmond, Virginia is called King's Dominion,
Speaker 2: and growing up, all you would see on television is
Speaker 2: these happy families enjoying roller coasters. And I wanted to
Speaker 2: be a happy family going to King's Dominion. And my parents,
Speaker 2: who are both immigrants born in the twenties and thirties,
Speaker 2: did not even understand the concept of a theme park.
Speaker 2: And I'm sitting in math class one day and over
Speaker 2: the intercom, the lady says, with all the students in
Speaker 2: the Linkhorn Middle School band report to the buses for
Speaker 2: their trip to King's Dominion, and lo and behold, you know,
Speaker 2: most of the class stands up, grabs all of these
Speaker 2: strange looking instrument cases, and bounds out the door, leaving
Speaker 2: me behind. And that was pretty traumatizing. So my joining
Speaker 2: ban and getting involved in music was a scam because
Speaker 2: I knew my parents would let me go to King's
Speaker 2: Dominion if it was a school trip, because they were
Speaker 2: very you know, into the academics and things along those lines.
Speaker 2: So I picked up a dictionary I saw in the
Speaker 2: a section the accordion, and it reminded me of watching
Speaker 2: The Lawrence Walk Show with my parents, which I hated
Speaker 2: that show growing up, but they loved what hoping that.
Speaker 2: I think it was like Arthur Duncan. Was that his
Speaker 2: name the tap dancer. They waited every single episode to
Speaker 2: see Arthur Duncan tap dance on The Lawrence walk Show,
Speaker 2: which he only appeared, you know, every once in a while.
Speaker 2: But I thought that the accordion seemed nerdy, so I
Speaker 2: wanted an instrument that would accord me the respect of
Speaker 2: my peers. So I turned to the B section of
Speaker 2: the dictionary and there was the bassoon, and I was like,
Speaker 2: you know what, this is my ticket to King's Dominion.
Speaker 2: So I literally took my little Webster's Dictionary to the
Speaker 2: middle school band director and I announced my name. I said,
Speaker 2: my name is Anthony Parther, and I want to play
Speaker 2: the bassoon, and he looked at me like I had
Speaker 2: seven heads, thank God, and someone a dusted one off
Speaker 2: in the corner that I don't think had been played
Speaker 2: since Lyndon B. Johnson was president. And I took the
Speaker 2: thing home and learned to play it. And they did
Speaker 2: not go to King's Dominion. The next year, then here
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 1: Now in an orchestra. How many bassoons were on stage
Speaker 1: with a full orchestra? Two or four?
Speaker 2: It depends on the piece, usually two oft in three
Speaker 2: and then in some cases four or five. You know,
Speaker 2: you get into like a Moler symphony or the Right
Speaker 2: of Spring Stravinsky, and you'll have four or five bassoons
Speaker 2: quite commonly, but usually it's two or three.
Speaker 1: So you start by playing the bassoon, and you obviously
Speaker 1: go to schools. But do you go to these schools?
Speaker 1: Do you any of the schools you attend, especially as
Speaker 1: you go up the ladder? I know this sounds weird.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming any professional performer, any artist in the classical repertoire,
Speaker 1: you know, you deep in your relationship with that instrument
Speaker 1: and you learn more and more about how to play
Speaker 1: it and varieties to play it. Is that true with
Speaker 1: any instrument? Or are there instruments where you're sitting there
Speaker 1: going God, you know, I'd like to switch over to
Speaker 1: the piano or the violin or something else. You marry
Speaker 1: that instrument, correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty much a marriage, deeply fraught marriage,
Speaker 2: but a marriage nonetheless. Oftentimes to assume you know, battered
Speaker 2: me into submission. But yeah, I spent most of my
Speaker 2: undergraduate years really trying to learn to wrestle with and
Speaker 2: master this instrument and hopes that I could get a job,
Speaker 2: you know, playing the thing right.
Speaker 1: Well, one thing I read about you and your work
Speaker 1: that I found interesting was the LA Times hailed you
Speaker 1: as the quintessential LA musician of our day. What does
Speaker 1: an LA musician mean? Do you believe there is such
Speaker 1: thing as an LA musician? What is that?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I think in Los Angeles, the big thing here that
Speaker 2: we have that maybe other American cities don't have so
Speaker 2: much of, is the recording studios. So I've spent almost
Speaker 2: the last nearly twenty years working as a session musician
Speaker 2: and session conductor on a variety of TV shows and
Speaker 2: movies and video game scores. But you know, when I'm
Speaker 2: not doing that, I'm also music director of a regional orchestra.
Speaker 2: I'm also a freelance basooners, so you'll often see me,
Speaker 2: you know, playing on various series, you know, usually new
Speaker 2: music series throughout the city. So like every single day
Speaker 2: is a different adventure. Sometimes I'm a bassooner, sometimes I'm
Speaker 2: an orchestrator. Sometimes, you know, I'm conducting, So I'm doing
Speaker 2: something different usually every single day of the week here
Speaker 2: in town.
Speaker 1: You're at Sam bernard Do you know, No.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the San Bernardino Symphony. This is my sixth year
Speaker 2: as music director there.
Speaker 1: Now I'm assuming that everybody who ascends to the biggest
Speaker 1: ensembles in the country of the world, they got to
Speaker 1: start somewhere. How does your appointment in sam Bernardino happen?
Speaker 1: Are they like all symphony orchestras, they're constantly gauging and
Speaker 1: monitoring who's out there and where they are and the
Speaker 1: length of their contract and so forth. Do you know
Speaker 1: they're coming after you? Where were you conducting before Sam Bernardino?
Speaker 2: Before the San Bernardino Symphony, I was leading two other
Speaker 2: smaller orchestras, the Southeast Symphony, which has been in LA
Speaker 2: for almost eighty years now. It's the oldest predominantly black
Speaker 2: orchestra in the country. It was founded in the nineteen
Speaker 2: forties by school teacher by the name of Mabel massingill Gun.
Speaker 2: So I was doing that, and I was also doing
Speaker 2: this really small orchestra out into Mecula, which is, you know,
Speaker 2: sort of south of Orange County but north of San
Speaker 2: Diego and doing quite a bit of guest conducting, and
Speaker 2: I was also teaching this program at the University of California, Berkeley,
Speaker 2: so I was doing a bunch of little things. But
Speaker 2: I guess they had seen some of the things that
Speaker 2: we'd done with the Southeast Symphony. They'd seen, you know,
Speaker 2: footage of our Karmena Burana Moller Second Symphony and some
Speaker 2: of these large scale concerts that we were putting on
Speaker 2: that were gaining some notoriety. But I was invited to
Speaker 2: be one of the candidates. I believe they had ten
Speaker 2: finalist candidates from all over the world actually, and the
Speaker 2: five conductors a year led a program. I was the
Speaker 2: first of the ten to go over this two year
Speaker 2: you know, music director search that they were having, and
Speaker 2: I was like, surely they would have forgotten about me
Speaker 2: by now, but apparently they had not, and they appointed
Speaker 2: me music director and as soon as I started my
Speaker 2: first season, we get in a few months in COVID began.
Speaker 2: It was really challenging first year. I think are so
Speaker 2: port system out in San Bernardino is good and getting
Speaker 2: better by by the month. San Bernardino is a city
Speaker 2: that is seventy five percent Latino and black. It's not
Speaker 2: your typical city. It's very diverse. Now, I will tell
Speaker 2: you that when I first saw the San Bernardino Symphony perform,
Speaker 2: actually subbed in the San Bernardino Symphony, I think ten
Speaker 2: years before I became the music director, or five years
Speaker 2: or however many years before. The audience. The first time
Speaker 2: that I went, the average age of the audience, I
Speaker 2: want to say, was eighty and white. Now I went back,
Speaker 2: you know, the first year as music director, maybe five
Speaker 2: years after that, the average age of the audience was
Speaker 2: eighty five and white. But it's diversified. I mean, you'll
Speaker 2: go and you'll see people of all ages, all skin colors,
Speaker 2: all backgrounds there. It's become very diverse and not very
Speaker 2: many empty seeds anymore. You had a good board, We've
Speaker 2: got a great we have a savvy and devoted board.
Speaker 2: They're very serious about they're all proud of San Bernardino
Speaker 2: and they really want the best for that region. And
Speaker 2: the San Bernardino Symphony is really seen as one of
Speaker 2: the few unifying sort of elements of that region, you know,
Speaker 2: and it's the one place where you see so many
Speaker 2: diverse corners of the community come together especially our big
Speaker 2: summer concert. We have many thousands of people at this
Speaker 2: concert that we've developed a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 2: you see everybody there, and so it's growing, it's growing rapidly.
Speaker 1: I would say, what's the name of the hall there
Speaker 1: in San Bernis.
Speaker 2: It's the California Theater, which is it's a ninety five
Speaker 2: year old movie palace that they've converted into you know,
Speaker 2: a multipurpose stage of sorts. It's about eighteen hundred Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not small, not huge either, but it's the perfect
Speaker 2: size for us.
Speaker 1: I find that people are so attached. You know, the
Speaker 1: people that I've spoken to in Cleveland, they love Sefernce Hall.
Speaker 1: Oh it's the best, so exactly. They're so proud of
Speaker 1: Seffernce Hall. And the debate over what to do with
Speaker 1: the Philharmonica with Avery Fisher here and going into the
Speaker 1: David Geffen face it with something people just agonized over.
Speaker 1: They really wanted a great hall. You've guests conducted. I've
Speaker 1: seen here and I can't even believe all the places
Speaker 1: I've seen you've gets conducted. I had no idea New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Philly, Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: La Atlanta, San Francisco, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, Rochester, Calgary, La Opera,
Speaker 1: Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Indianapolis, San Diego, Vancouver, Buffalo.
Speaker 2: I mean, my god, it's still surreal to me to
Speaker 2: step on some of these podiums. You know. It was
Speaker 2: like here I am conducting the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom.
Speaker 2: It's like George Zell once stood on this podium, and
Speaker 2: you know, here I am like, how dare I wave
Speaker 2: a batonat this you know, group of story musicians anywhere
Speaker 2: in this room? Yeah, exactly exactly. It was like I
Speaker 2: should be the case. It's like, man, would you like
Speaker 2: your rot or oils? I can take care of that
Speaker 2: for you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: What's the place you performed? Is there a hole you
Speaker 1: went to that suited you? You said, I could hang
Speaker 1: out here for a while. I could become the maestro
Speaker 1: of this facility. You just really really was fun. It
Speaker 1: sounded the way you wanted it to sound.
Speaker 2: You know, there's been several of those. It was, you know,
Speaker 2: and of course I think as a conductor, you always fantasize, Man,
Speaker 2: what would it be like if I was the music
Speaker 2: director here? You know, I must say a recent experience
Speaker 2: that I had. I had conducted the orchestra a number
Speaker 2: of times outdoors, but they finally let me indoors a
Speaker 2: few months ago. But it was the Philadelphia Orchestra. And
Speaker 2: you want to talk about ideal, you know, I think
Speaker 2: the first time or the last time I remember being
Speaker 2: intimidated by stepping in front of a group was the
Speaker 2: first time, probably I stepped up to conduct the Hollywood
Speaker 2: Studio Symphony or or what we call the Hollywood Studio Symphony,
Speaker 2: the body of musicians that record all of these you know,
Speaker 2: soundtracks that we've enjoyed for the last, you know, almost
Speaker 2: one hundred years. I think the first time I had
Speaker 2: a major session for that, I was like, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: I've been listening to many of these musicians since I
Speaker 2: was a child. But I think if you can survive
Speaker 2: in that room, and I think that's a tough room,
Speaker 2: I think that working with even our great American orchestras
Speaker 2: and orchestras abroad is a bit of a cinch in comparison.
Speaker 1: But when you talk about you bring up the Hollywood
Speaker 1: community there and recording scores and things in that community
Speaker 1: of people, you know, beyond Bernard Herman, beyond all the
Speaker 1: classic stuff. Where do they come from? Do they live
Speaker 1: there and there's a steady stream of work doing that
Speaker 1: and perhaps other things they can supplement their income. But
Speaker 1: does the Hollywood orchestral community live in LA and come
Speaker 1: from La? Is that their home or they come from everywhere?
Speaker 2: For most recording sessions, the community of players are local.
Speaker 2: So you know, when you're looking down the violin section,
Speaker 2: you'll see quite a number of concertmasters of various California
Speaker 2: orchestras and opera companies. You'll see well known and well
Speaker 2: respected chamber musicians and soloists, so you'll see people from
Speaker 2: the La Philharmonic, the Pacific Symphony, the La Opera, the
Speaker 2: La Chamber Orchestra, as far away as the San Diego Symphony.
Speaker 2: So it's an amalgamation of all of these extraordinary musicians
Speaker 2: in the same room. You look into the cello section
Speaker 2: and you'll see, you know, a bunch of really highly
Speaker 2: regarded cellists or soloists or principal musicians in the various
Speaker 2: Southern California orchestras all in one place. It's a remarkable
Speaker 2: collection of talent.
Speaker 1: Does that collection of talent do those individuals who come
Speaker 1: into recording studios, at movie studios and so forth, do
Speaker 1: they how are they different different any way from the
Speaker 1: normal core of people who play in the repertoire.
Speaker 2: I think in the studios perhaps in a way that
Speaker 2: a tenured orchestra may not. There's no tenure or audition
Speaker 2: to get into the Hollywood studios, so to speak. You're
Speaker 2: usually invited into this core. There's quite a lot of
Speaker 2: mystery about well, how does one become a player on
Speaker 2: these soundtracks and scores and so forth. But there's also
Speaker 2: this joke that you're a whole note from being kicked out,
Speaker 2: you know, so you know, one bad session and people
Speaker 2: start whispering, and that's the last thing that you want.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that is?
Speaker 2: It's because you know, a lot of money is being
Speaker 2: spent to make sure that and as condensed the time
Speaker 2: as possible, that this product is out and perfect, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be out there forever. It's you know,
Speaker 2: what you're playing is going to be in that movie forever.
Speaker 2: Another little that I used to make is that you know, well,
Speaker 2: the vorjak is just tonight, it rings in the hall
Speaker 2: and it's over. But you know, you're working on a
Speaker 2: Disney film and people will be hearing you play for
Speaker 2: the next fifty sixty, seventy or more years, So it
Speaker 2: has to be right, and it needs to be right
Speaker 2: the first time, you know, because one thing that a
Speaker 2: lot of people might not realize about what we do
Speaker 2: as studio musicians is that we are site reading just
Speaker 2: about everything that we play, and most of the things
Speaker 2: that you hear, like in a Star Wars or Indiana
Speaker 2: Jones movie or any of these television shows, is the
Speaker 2: second or third time through or read through it the
Speaker 2: first time, make some adjustments, and it very well, maybe
Speaker 2: you know, the second or third read through. On some
Speaker 2: shows that I work on, like you know American Dad,
Speaker 2: for instance, a animated series, a lot of times what
Speaker 2: you hear is us the first time, and that's it.
Speaker 2: We move on to the next queue. So it moves
Speaker 2: very quickly, so there's really no time for dawdling around
Speaker 2: or fixing intonation or rhythmic errors. That just isn't put
Speaker 2: up with in that room at all.
Speaker 1: I used to go early on when I was in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, I'd see John Mocherry at the Hollywood Brob.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was basically considered the father of the
Speaker 1: live to picture clip pieces. Godfather, what have you on?
Speaker 1: John Williams. When I was on the board and working
Speaker 1: with the programming department there at the Philharmonic, we proposed
Speaker 1: to the meistro them was Alan Gilbert, and we proposed
Speaker 1: to him doing live to picture and just to get
Speaker 1: your feet wet, we'd pick like a real, you know,
Speaker 1: the real basic one, which is of course two thousand
Speaker 1: and one a Space Odyssey. And he wasn't very excited.
Speaker 1: Quite frankly, he was like, ah, well, you know, but
Speaker 1: we get him to do it. We do two thousand
Speaker 1: and one Live to picture and he comes off the
Speaker 1: stage He's like, that was fun. He really liked it,
Speaker 1: and thus birthed this thing art of the score that
Speaker 1: we do with the Philharmonic, which is also then turned
Speaker 1: into kind of a cash cow for them by showing
Speaker 1: new films. Are you doing much live to picture or no?
Speaker 2: I am doing some live to picture. Last time I
Speaker 2: conducted the New York Philharmonic, I was actually conducting John
Speaker 2: Williams's score. It's a job. Yeah, that was a I
Speaker 2: think in September of twenty twenty four, and do.
Speaker 1: You know all that gang there, I do, yes, are
Speaker 1: you doing more of that in the coming months years?
Speaker 2: I am. I just returned from the Seattle Symphony where
Speaker 2: I was doing Black Panther, which was composed by my
Speaker 2: dear friend Ludvig Gorens, and he won an Oscar for that.
Speaker 2: I do have some more of that coming up, and
Speaker 2: it's always a blast.
Speaker 1: What about composers, Who's someone do you favor? Who named
Speaker 1: three or four of that? You sit there and go, oh.
Speaker 2: Yes, I really composers. For me as a conductor, coming
Speaker 2: back to the music of Schumann and Beethoven has not
Speaker 2: been matched by any other composer really, end of story.
Speaker 2: You know. I went through a period where I want
Speaker 2: to conduct all the large scale you know, the things
Speaker 2: that call for one hundred and twenty people, you know.
Speaker 2: But I think my motivation there was not necessarily musical.
Speaker 2: I think I just want to see a bunch of
Speaker 2: people on stage. But coming back to a Beethoven symphony,
Speaker 2: even if it's for a tenth time, it has not
Speaker 2: gotten more exhilarating than that. For me. I got to
Speaker 2: conduct Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, which is I think my favorite
Speaker 2: of all of the nine. At the proms two years ago,
Speaker 2: which was terrifying, but it's one of the few times
Speaker 2: where I'm actually smiling because I'm enjoying the process of it. Also,
Speaker 2: I've conducted I think last year I conducted the Rhinish Symphony,
Speaker 2: the Third Symphony of Schumann three times, and I think
Speaker 2: some of that music is better than our ability to
Speaker 2: perform it. Like I think there, you know, I think
Speaker 2: with certain composers, I think if you achieve all of
Speaker 2: the directions that have been given to you, you get
Speaker 2: pretty close. But that's not the case with certain composers
Speaker 2: like Beethoven and Schumann. I think it is a constant
Speaker 2: search to dig in. There's an absoluteness about the music,
Speaker 2: but there's also a flexibility where you can do so
Speaker 2: much or say so much, or express so much with
Speaker 2: Beethoven and Schumann that you maybe you can't with other artists.
Speaker 1: Conductor and bassoonist Anthony part If you enjoy conversations with
Speaker 1: the giants of the classical repertoire, check out my interview
Speaker 1: with pianist Long Long.
Speaker 3: One thing good about competition is that it kind of
Speaker 3: pushes you to play better than you normally does because
Speaker 3: you try to play without wrong notes. You try to
Speaker 3: be one hundred percent concentrate on what you do. But
Speaker 3: also in the same time, if you are too serious
Speaker 3: about competition, you lose your soul. You know me that
Speaker 3: you are afraid to do something wrong. And as you
Speaker 3: know in art, sometimes when you really do something unique,
Speaker 3: you are actually not really on the page. You are
Speaker 3: actually doing something. But that is a really great moment.
Speaker 1: To hear. My conversation with Long Long go to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing dot org. After the break, Anthony Parther shares
Speaker 1: the most unprofessional but hilarious incident he's ever experienced on
Speaker 1: the podium. I'm ALC. Baldwin and this is Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: As a musician and conductor, Anthony Parther has worked on
Speaker 1: iconic film franchises such as Star Wars, Rogue One, and
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones in The Dial of Destiny. Growing up, he
Speaker 1: honed his craft by practicing John Williams' scores on his bassoon.
Speaker 1: He credits Williams for inciting his early interest in music.
Speaker 1: I was curious how classical music came to inspire him
Speaker 1: as a child.
Speaker 2: I remember my Christmas present that year was a tape player,
Speaker 2: and of all places we were at a grocery store
Speaker 2: chain called food Lion. I had just enough money to
Speaker 2: buy this tape of Betsos's fifth Symphony. And I must
Speaker 2: have listened to that tape and I and I'm really
Speaker 2: not exaggerating, probably a thousand times in such a way
Speaker 2: it was. It was kind of bad for me at first,
Speaker 2: because I don't I can't think of Beethoven five any
Speaker 2: other way. But the way that it goes and that tape,
Speaker 2: it's that the interpretation is cemented, you know, in my court, No,
Speaker 2: it has to be young Tantanta, you know, at this
Speaker 2: particular moment. And then for some reason, the Food Lion
Speaker 2: had a new tape like every month. So I went
Speaker 2: back and I bought Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, and then I
Speaker 2: bought Mozart's Basoon. Concerned. I don't know who was stalking
Speaker 2: the classical music tape section, but it was just like,
Speaker 2: you know, right when you go to the check out,
Speaker 2: was this little I have the Food Lion tape collection
Speaker 2: of classical music. I have to have everything. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: looked at.
Speaker 1: My ex wife's family was from Athens, Georgia, and we
Speaker 1: go on vacation and they called it food line, food line,
Speaker 1: now no line, and I go she goes no line
Speaker 1: like roar line.
Speaker 2: I am a Southerner, so you know, I have a
Speaker 2: little bit of a Southern accent myself. But this reminds
Speaker 2: me of a very funny and entertaining story. The first
Speaker 2: time I ever conducted an opera, the first time ever
Speaker 2: conducted an opera, I was somehow enlisted to lead. I
Speaker 2: had done a little bit of opera singing way back
Speaker 2: in the day. I came to soprano, lyric soprano. But
Speaker 2: I was enlisted to conduct Jean Carlo Monatti's A Mall
Speaker 2: in the Night Visit.
Speaker 1: That when I was in eighth grade. Yeah, the telephone, the.
Speaker 2: Medium exactly a Mall and the Night Visitors. And something
Speaker 2: had happened where Balthazar, the Nubian king, had to be
Speaker 2: replaced at the last moment, and the powers that be decided.
Speaker 2: The woman who sort of had the most influenced decided, well,
Speaker 2: my husband will be singing in the row of Balthazard,
Speaker 2: and that's just the way it's going to be. So
Speaker 2: we're here at the sitzprobe and this person has done
Speaker 2: no blocking and so forth, and there's this one scene
Speaker 2: where Bathosar says, thank you good friends for your dances
Speaker 2: and your gifts. But now I must bid you good night.
Speaker 2: And it's a dramatic little moment, and so forth, and
Speaker 2: we get to the little bring. And now there were
Speaker 2: two problems with this particular individual. Bathazar is the Nubian king,
Speaker 2: and you know, typically opera is sung by opera singers.
Speaker 2: This person was not Nubian. Minor problem, but the more
Speaker 2: major problem is that they were not an opera singer.
Speaker 2: They were a country singer. So we get but bring,
Speaker 2: and it goes, thank you good friends for your dances,
Speaker 2: your dances, for your dances and your gifts. But nya
Speaker 2: two syllables on now but Nia, I must bid you
Speaker 2: good night. Now that was not what anybody was expecting
Speaker 2: to hear. But some viola player snorted very loudly, and
Speaker 2: the orchestra descended into utter chaos. It was one of
Speaker 2: the most unprofessional moments in my career. But I am
Speaker 2: conducting and laughing in this man's face, and I will
Speaker 2: never forget the next night. Are you ready for this?
Speaker 2: This story gets worse. The concert master, who's bouffont I
Speaker 2: will never forget it. This very act of Bouffont when
Speaker 2: she played the violin. She comes to my dressing room
Speaker 2: she says, I cannot believe that they have this guy
Speaker 2: playing the role of Balthazar. But what she didn't realize
Speaker 2: that in full costume and black face.
Speaker 1: But I'm sorry I.
Speaker 2: Missed this was at mastro. Do you have a problem
Speaker 2: with my execution of the role? And so, I mean,
Speaker 2: so this person got caught gossiping about the you know,
Speaker 2: person playing the role of Balthazar. But anyways, what an adventure.
Speaker 2: So that was my foray to preducting opera. I will
Speaker 2: never forget that.
Speaker 1: That's very funny. Pat Riley was the coach of the
Speaker 1: New York Next for years Lakers Miami. Pat Riley's in
Speaker 1: New York and I became a little bit friendly with
Speaker 1: him and his wife Chris. To go to his home
Speaker 1: and we have lunch, and I say to him, what's
Speaker 1: the job? What do you do? What do you do
Speaker 1: for a living? He said, these guys have been playing
Speaker 1: at a championship role. They've been the greatest players in
Speaker 1: their league since they were eight years old. Then they
Speaker 1: go to high school, then they go to college, then
Speaker 1: they get into the pros. They get paid millions of dollars,
Speaker 1: and my job is to make them care one more time,
Speaker 1: because when they care, they're unstoppable. Oh yeah, but by
Speaker 1: the way, he said, but I gotta get into care.
Speaker 1: Is that the same for you? What is your job
Speaker 1: when you're up there on that podium?
Speaker 2: That is a tough question. I have always felt as
Speaker 2: a player, all of the conductors that I've really admired
Speaker 2: working for created an environment that made you want to
Speaker 2: play at your utmost. And I'm not sure that that
Speaker 2: is explainable. I'm not sure if there's a formula for that.
Speaker 2: Sometimes your job when you step into an orchestra is
Speaker 2: to not get in the way of the music making,
Speaker 2: and that could be the atmosphere as well. But then
Speaker 2: sometimes you also have to drag the orchestra along a
Speaker 2: little bit, if you know, because the room is different
Speaker 2: every time you go into it. Sometimes the musicians are
Speaker 2: just not in the mood, and sometimes the musicians are
Speaker 2: very passionate about what you're doing. You just want to
Speaker 2: step back and let the bus move forward in a
Speaker 2: particular way. But what you have to do is figure
Speaker 2: out what it is that they need at any given
Speaker 2: moment and give it to them. One thing you should
Speaker 2: always be as a conductor is clear. That is the
Speaker 2: main thing that musicians that the highest echelon want from
Speaker 2: a conductor is clarity. They can take care of most
Speaker 2: of the rest of it, but you should be very clear.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of musicians have worked with conductors
Speaker 2: who have the hand gestures of an eel. I mean,
Speaker 2: you have no idea but escaping octopus. Yeah, but it's interesting.
Speaker 2: I watched people.
Speaker 1: Well, one thing I got hooked on was my own
Speaker 1: sense of what I liked in the music I was downloading.
Speaker 1: I started becoming kind of nutty about timings. So I
Speaker 1: have nine mallar ninths in my phone. I have seven
Speaker 1: mallar fourths, an eight mallar six and you know, and
Speaker 1: and a high tink pastes it up and a mozelle
Speaker 1: with the neuor film adds five or six minutes to
Speaker 1: the final movement of the mallar nine. The guy adds
Speaker 1: five minutes. How the hell do you add five minutes
Speaker 1: to the symp But you slow, you squeeze every drop
Speaker 1: out of that lemon rind, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And I love that. I love slow down as slow
Speaker 1: as you can go you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: love it in that sense. Do you tend to put
Speaker 1: yourself in a category, or you like a paste or
Speaker 1: you like to squeeze it.
Speaker 2: It depends, It really depends. I think it just depends
Speaker 2: on where you are in your life, because the music
Speaker 2: may just have different meaning to you. I just conducted Eroika,
Speaker 2: and I had not conducted aroika before that. I did
Speaker 2: it with the Eastman Philharmonia, the top orchestra at the
Speaker 2: Eastman School of Music. They had me in as a
Speaker 2: guest conductor, and we did a bunch of moler on
Speaker 2: the first half, and on the second half was the eroika,
Speaker 2: and it just felt right for the march to be
Speaker 2: a bit more pronouncedly slower than I had done it previously,
Speaker 2: and I felt for some of the other stuff to
Speaker 2: be a little bit more exaggerated. So it really changes.
Speaker 2: I can't speak for other conductors, but I remark my
Speaker 2: score every single time. There are some people who have
Speaker 2: their markings, you know, from nineteen seventy three, and that
Speaker 2: is the score that they use for the rest of
Speaker 2: their career. But I actually go back and remark it
Speaker 2: every single time, and I find that I find something
Speaker 2: completely different every time I go back to it.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm told that you don't like to take vacations.
Speaker 1: You're like a workaholic and you don't take vacations. Is
Speaker 1: that true.
Speaker 2: I tried to take five days off in Big Bear,
Speaker 2: and I came back the second day.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 2: I just I you know, it was like so quiet
Speaker 2: and peaceful and relaxing, and I couldn't stand it, right,
Speaker 2: I just strength to be. I think for those who
Speaker 2: are not accustomed to relaxation, it has to be practiced.
Speaker 2: I just feel that. I you know, I was on
Speaker 2: the road forty one weeks last year with I think
Speaker 2: fifty orchestras, and then when I'm not doing that, I'm
Speaker 2: here in the studios in La and you know, five
Speaker 2: six weeks with my orchestra in San Bernardino and playing
Speaker 2: my bassoon on very you know, so I every hour
Speaker 2: of the day I'm consumed with doing something. Maybe I
Speaker 2: also have some guilt about like not working. Both of
Speaker 2: my parents were super hard workers. You know, they really
Speaker 2: instilled my father. You know, he was born in nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty nine and he came to America nineteen forty nine
Speaker 2: and fought in Korea. You know, you'd always I swam
Speaker 2: through shark infested waters for you to have a good life.
Speaker 2: So you've got to get out there and work. And
Speaker 2: just imagine the tears when I came down his face.
Speaker 2: And now, what is it, my son, that I am
Speaker 2: so proud of? What will you contribute to this country
Speaker 2: that I had fought for? Well, I want to play
Speaker 2: the bassoons that didn't go over so well. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: you know, I think I've done. Okay.
Speaker 1: Conductor and bassoonist Anthony Parther, If you're enjoying this conversation,
Speaker 1: tell a friend and be sure to follow Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. When we come back, Anthony Parther shares why
Speaker 1: without hesitation, he considers et to be one of the
Speaker 1: greatest film scores of all time. I'm Alec Baldwin and
Speaker 1: this is Here's the thing. In addition to his robust
Speaker 1: career as a conductor and bassoonist, Anthony Parnther also plays
Speaker 1: the contra bassoon, baritone saxophone, and contra bass clarinet. He
Speaker 1: also refers to himself as a semi retired opera singer.
Speaker 1: I was curious about his aforementioned opera career and whether
Speaker 1: or not he still performs as a singer.
Speaker 2: I am not singing opera any more, but I have
Speaker 2: been called upon to sing on a few scores, you know,
Speaker 2: but as part of a choir and as a party trick.
Speaker 2: I sang you know, the Grinch song last year with
Speaker 2: my orchestra as the soloist. So you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: touch you with a thirty nine and a half foot pole,
Speaker 2: you know. So I pulled that out of the bag
Speaker 2: and the lights turned grain and that was a real
Speaker 2: gas for the audience and the orchestra. I was actually
Speaker 2: very nervous to do that.
Speaker 1: Now, pronounce it me, Ludvig Gorenson. Yes, won the Oscar
Speaker 1: last year for the Oppenheimer's score that you conducted, and
Speaker 1: he thanked you from the stage. What does it feel
Speaker 1: like to be so deeply involved in a score like
Speaker 1: that and see it recognized with the highest of honors?
Speaker 1: I mean, the Oppenheimer juggernaut was kind of thrilling, actually,
Speaker 1: and then you're a part of it.
Speaker 2: I had just finished conducting the Saint Louis Symphony and
Speaker 2: Stefan de Nev actually came to the concert and I
Speaker 2: didn't know that I felt there was a rabbit knock
Speaker 2: at the door, and I'm like, who is knocking? You know,
Speaker 2: Stephan de nev is standing there. And after the concert
Speaker 2: I had gone out for ice cream. I always asked
Speaker 2: where's the best ice cream? I never asked where the
Speaker 2: best salad is in any of these cities that I conducted.
Speaker 2: I was like, where's the best ice cream in Saint Louis?
Speaker 2: And everybody said that you have to go to whatever
Speaker 2: this place was. And I'm literally sitting there staring at
Speaker 2: the wall, and my phone explodes with texts and calls
Speaker 2: and this that and the other and so forth. And
Speaker 2: it wasn't a surprise to me that Oppenheimer had won
Speaker 2: the Oscar. I mean, Ludwig wrote an incredible score, but
Speaker 2: I was shocked that he actually mentioned my name in
Speaker 2: his Oscar speech and so forth. So, you know, for
Speaker 2: the next week, I had like an iPad around my
Speaker 2: neck on a necklace that showed the speech, told repeat it, Yes,
Speaker 2: that is me that he was talking about. That was
Speaker 2: a challenging score to put together. We were really it was.
Speaker 2: It was pretty stressful. There's this one particular queue where
Speaker 2: the tempo continues to ratchet higher and higher and higher,
Speaker 2: and we approached it. I remember we recorded for five
Speaker 2: days at Warner Brothers at the Eastwood scoring stage. Over
Speaker 2: at Warner Brothers, thank god, because Warner Brothers is like
Speaker 2: five minutes for my house. And I think that's the
Speaker 2: reason that Ludwig records there, like he could go to
Speaker 2: find this money, but it's around the corner from his house.
Speaker 2: So we're recording that for five and we had to.
Speaker 2: It took five days of recording it from different angles
Speaker 2: because there are parts of the score that are almost
Speaker 2: unplayable except for with virtuosa players. But it was it
Speaker 2: was really gratifying to see it be as successful as
Speaker 2: it was now. I we'll say, my agent as soon
Speaker 2: as that movie came out started getting calls, you know,
Speaker 2: do you think Anthony and Ludwig will will bring this
Speaker 2: as a live to picture event? And I was like,
Speaker 2: absolutely not. That score is ridiculously hard, and it's you know,
Speaker 2: the movie's like seven hours long, and Ludvig calls me
Speaker 2: up three hours later and literally it's like, Anthony, let's
Speaker 2: do this thing live. And so we actually did do
Speaker 2: it live.
Speaker 1: Name one, and I know it's impossible to name one.
Speaker 1: But among your favorites, what's a score you think is
Speaker 1: among the greatest in terms of how it fits into
Speaker 1: the film? Et Et.
Speaker 2: I have seen Et without the music, like that opening
Speaker 2: sort of like forest scene is as dry as one
Speaker 2: could imagine, But there's something about when you insert John
Speaker 2: Williams's score into that, it just becomes a religious experience.
Speaker 2: I heard a story about Et now, of course, like
Speaker 2: one of the most iconic moments in all of cinema
Speaker 2: is when Et lips off off in that bicycle. But
Speaker 2: I heard a story that that scene almost didn't have
Speaker 2: hardly any score in it. You know, when you get
Speaker 2: to the dubbed stage, you know, everybody's you know, balancing,
Speaker 2: you know, the sound effects, the dialogue and the score.
Speaker 2: And John Williams normal music editor, was not working on this.
Speaker 2: I think that the the music editor working on this
Speaker 2: was Jerry Goldsmith's music editor. Kenny Hall was the music
Speaker 2: editor on that. And they get to that scene when
Speaker 2: you know, when elliottlefts off of the bike and John
Speaker 2: Williams has written this very Straussian dom, bad bomb and
Speaker 2: so forth. But when they get there, all you can
Speaker 2: hear is the bike spokes and the crunch of a
Speaker 2: leaf under the bike, and the hoot of an owl
Speaker 2: and the subtle wind going through you know, his his
Speaker 2: hoodie or whatever. And what I heard is that Kenny
Speaker 2: was said this to the dub score mixer. He said,
Speaker 2: what the hell is this and he said, that's the
Speaker 2: mix of the score. Here the music is getting in
Speaker 2: the way of the sound effects. And from the accounts
Speaker 2: that I've heard, he actually pushes, physically pushes the mixer
Speaker 2: out of the way. Jack's the score up to ten.
Speaker 2: Spielberg walks into the room and it is so loud
Speaker 2: in that moment that like everybody's hair is moving back.
Speaker 2: And that's the mix that you now have the movie,
Speaker 2: and he said, this is perfect, and I mean it
Speaker 2: was like to the point of distortion and so forth.
Speaker 2: But if you watch the movie during that very moment,
Speaker 2: you will notice that the music rushes in at that
Speaker 2: very moment. And again, yeah, you'll have to have to
Speaker 2: watch that. But I think EAT is one of the
Speaker 2: greatest examples of how a score elevates a film way
Speaker 2: beyond what it would have been without.
Speaker 1: Well done. So thank you very much. I hope I
Speaker 1: get to see you out there. When I do see you,
Speaker 1: you are going to record my outgoing voicemail. Okay done perfect,
Speaker 1: My very best to you and thank you sir, thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, take care.
Speaker 1: My thanks to conductor and bassoonist Anthony part We're produced
Speaker 1: by Kathleen Russo, Zach MacNeice and Victoria de Martin. Our
Speaker 1: engineer is Frank Imperial. Our social media manager is Danielle Gingrich.
Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing. Is brought to you
Speaker 1: by iHeart Radio