Guest Conductors Benefit Concert
Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (Phil Lesh cond.)
5/11/94
Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, Ca

Source: FM(GDH) > DAT > CDR via David Minor
Encoding: EAC > Cool Edit > CDWAV > mkwact > SHN(seekable) by Matt Vernon

01. Igor Stravinsky, Infernal Dance (from "The Firebird")
02. [Missing?] Elliott Carter's "A Celebration (of 100 x 150 notes)"  [Notes: This was mentioned here http://www.dead.net/almanac/vol1_3/Roundup_3P1.html]

    length     expanded size   cdr  WAVE  probs   filename
     6:05.44      64489532     ---   --    ---    phil94-05-11d1t01.wav
     6:05.44      64489532 B                      (total for 1 file)

Here's an interview that David Gans did on the GDH about this piece
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Gans: The name of this program is Dead to the World, my name is David Gans, and with me here in the studio is Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead -- actually, I remember a meeting not long ago when you introduced yourself as an unemployed musician. <laugh>

Lesh: <laugh> Well, that's essentially what I am.

Gans: But you are working on some stuff.

Lesh: Yeah, yeah. I can't stay away from music for long, but, you know, I really enjoy sitting in with friends when they come into town, and hopefully we'll be able to play a little something later on tonight where, for instance, Bruce Hornsby came to town and Bob and I sat in with him, and that was really, really a wonderful experience.

Gans: Yes, it was.

Lesh: But the Grateful Dead was my band, and I don't have any desire to form a band of my own, or tour with another band, or do anything like that.

Many people out there know that I was trained in classical music, and I studied composition for many years before joining the band. One of the things that I'm doing now is composing a song symphony that's based on Grateful Dead song themes -- the melodies of the songs, chord progressions, rhythmic riffs; I'm going to weave them all together into a seven-movement, 45-minute composition, which I'm working on now. Hopefully I'll have it done by this time next year. And there have been some record companies that are interested in it, and so hopefully I'll be able to find an orchestra to play it, and somebody -- maybe I can conduct it myself. I'm going to try and write myself into it. There might be a part where there'll be two conductors necessary...

In a way, it's my way of dealing with, finding closure with Grateful Dead music, and giving thanks in a way to Jerry and Bob and all the guys in the band for making up this wonderful music. I want to take and, you know, interpret in my own way. Of course, in the band, we all interpreted in our own way simultaneously, so this time I'm just going to do it all by myself and see what comes out. It's a very exciting project, and I'm really enjoying doing it. It's so pleasing to be able to just think and write and just have it come out.

Gans: I'm looking forward to hearing it. I have here on tape your exploits as a guest conductor with the Berkeley Symphony from three years ago.

Lesh: Yes, I remember that. That was a very exciting experience for me, conducting music that I really, really love: Stravinsky and Elliott Carter.

Gans: I've got the Stravinsky cued up here, so why don't you talk a little bit about the piece and then we'll listen to it.

Lesh: Well, this is an excerpt. It's not exactly a bleeding chunk, because it's more or less self-contained, even in the ballet score. It's called the "Infernal Dance," from "The Firebird," by Stravinsky, and this is the big scene for the villain. "The Firebird" is a ballet, and this is the scene where the villain gets to prance around and show everybody how baaaaad he is.

Gans: You'll hear briefly an introduction by Jeffrey Shattuck Leiter, who was the acting mayor at the time, and also the master of ceremonies of this guest conductor evening. I want to add, though, that it was a fascinating and sort of bizarre night, because you were the only, like, real musician-like guy. The other conductors were [UC Berkeley] Chancellor Tien; the elephant mascot from the Oakland A's; the basketball coach from Cal --

Lesh: From Cal, at the time, Todd Bozeman; Maxine Hong Kingston, who did beautifully, I thought.

Gans: She did, she was wonderful. And there were several other interesting characters, um --

Lesh: I can't remember now.

Gans: Yeah, I don't either <laugh>, but --

Lesh: It was three years ago, remember.

Gans: -- but here's Jeffrey Shattuck Leiter introducing Phil, and then you'll hear Phil conducting the Berkeley Symphony. This was recorded May 11, 1994.

After this, we'll take some phone calls. We would like to hear intelligent questions, articulate praise, no cranks, please. And --

Lesh: <laugh> Aw, crank it up if you want to.

Gans: Oh, okay. <laugh> Here we go.



