Mark Kashper joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in May of 1978, just months after emigrating as a refugee from Russia to the United States. Acting as the orchestra’s Associate Principal Second Violin since 1986, Kashper has won high praise for his performances and dedication to his craft. Earlier this month, Kaspher widened his horizons when he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a performance with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio. The esteemed violinist was kind enough to share his thoughts on the performance with Relix.

On Peforming with Trey Anastasio

Our orchestra—Los Angeles Philharmonic—has performed with many non-classical musicians over the years. We do that every summer in our outdoor home at the Hollywood Bowl and sometimes (but very rarely) during indoor season as well. So, we are familiar with typical audience response at such concerts which is certainly quite different from the behavior of our usual “classical” crowds. We know that clapping during a piece is normal in jazz after extended solos and therefore it is also sometimes inevitable in rock music as well. In classical music, it is of course absolutely inappropriate but, believe it or not, it does happen occasionally when some novices in the audience think that a piece is over when in fact it is not. A good example is Carl Maria von Weber’s “Invitation to the Dance” where a number of people always applaud BEFORE the concluding part of the piece.

Electric guitar is not a novelty for us either. In addition to encountering it in our non-classical programs, we also occasionally see it in new pieces written by “serious” composers, such as, for example, John Adams whose music we play often and who sometimes uses synthesizers and other amplified instruments in his works.

Audience Reactions

What struck me the most on this particular concert was the contrast between calm, quiet, restrained, meditative nature of the music (and the musician) and the boisterous reception and reaction of his audience. The roar of the crowd when he just appeared on stage and at the beginning of familiar tunes was almost deafening. However, for 99% of the time during the music itself, all those nearly 2400 people filling every single seat in the Walt Disney Concert Hall were perfectly quiet and attentive—so, that was very nice for us to experience. The notable exception was “Stash,” during which there was rhythmic clapping by about 4800 happy hands—but only in those appropriate spots where it filled the music’s rests with admirable precision—and sing-along episodes, in perfect sync with the “second theme” of the main tune. One could hear all that in the video and see how Trey enjoyed it.

Discovering Phish

My son Daniel introduced me to Phish’s music in late 1990s, so I have heard several of their recordings and liked quite a few of the tracks. Their harmonic language is much richer than that of typical rock groups and the structure of the pieces—especially longer ones with extended instrumental sections—is very similar to “classical” ways of building a piece. Melodic inventiveness is impressive and musical themes are actually being DEVELOPED which is an extremely rare feature in “popular” music. The rhythms are also more varied than those in average rock compositions.

Comparing Trey to Classical Composers

One question I can’t answer specifically is about which classical composer this music reminds me of. No single name comes to my mind, but that may be a good thing actually because the reason for it is—at least partly—that this music is not derivative but in fact original and it speaks in its own distinctive voice.Expanding Horizons

In my opinion, it may be useful for us to perform such music occasionally, if only to widen our own musical horizons and also to introduce us to people who would otherwise never show up at symphonic concerts. The orchestrations were all done very professionally and we had no problems reading our parts. Everything was clearly notated and was indeed comfortably playable. There were a few somewhat challenging rhythmical passages but nothing close to those in extremely complicated modern “classical” music we sometimes perform.

Working with Trey

On purely human level, it was a pleasure to meet Trey and work with him. He was at all times a considerate and thoughtful soloist who valued the chance to make music together with us and made sure that we were comfortable with him sharing “our” stage with us. For example, at the beginning of our rehearsal with him, he made an effort and took the time to talk to those of us (including me) who were seated in close proximity to him on stage. He introduced himself, learned the names of each one of us personally, and then asked us to tell him immediately if the volume level of his amplification was uncomfortable for us, which was a much nicer approach than that of most other rock musicians with whom we performed in the past. Needless to say, his amplification was well balanced and he used it in moderation at all times.

The Compositions

It is hard to evaluate the success of any performance from the inside of it (so to speak). My impression of it was that the arrangements made the pieces sound larger and more symphonic (if I remember correctly, Trey even chose to have no drum set in the scores which contributed to a particularly symphonic feeling of the music). Unfortunately, this is not always a good thing when it comes to music that was conceived and originally written for a specific small group of performers. Some of the tempos were too slow for my taste—for example “Stash,” which I think would have benefited greatly from a speedier interpretation, but I don’t know whose fault that was. We could certainly play it faster and I am sure Trey could too but it seemed that for some reason he was satisfied with the tempo as it was. Overall though, the capacity audience were clearly “enjoying themselves” (pardon the expression) in which case who am I to complain?

The reservations I have expressed about making these pieces into quasi-symphonic ones would also apply to playing them with a full group like Phish, but I would not mind at all giving it a try some day in the near future.