John Metcalfe, circa 1967
On April 12, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra will perform “The Pines of Rome” by Ottorino Respighi. I have had the opportunity to perform this work two or three times with various ensembles. But the first time I ever played it, or any part of it, was while playing with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra at Northrop Auditorium.
OK. A little clarification here. It was in the spring of 1967; I was a senior at Edina High School; and I was playing euphonium in the Concert Band. The Minneapolis Symphony had a program called Adventures in Music, whereby local ensembles would share a concert with the orchestra. We were invited to participate in one of these concerts. Our band played three or four short pieces to open the concert. Then the orchestra played a number of short pieces for the second half. And then the grand finale was to add the band’s brass section to the orchestra for a performance of “The Pines of the Appian Way,” the closing movement of “The Pines of Rome.”
While the concert was a wonderful experience, the brass rehearsal at our school may have been even better. The conductor for that concert was George Trautwein, one of the associate conductors. He came to the school one day to rehearse the brass. Now Mr. Trautwein was not what most of us students pictured as the usual symphony conductor. He was not an older man with a head of long, wavy silver hair, and he did not speak with a thick accent and an air of superiority. Rather, he was a younger guy with dark hair and whom we could easily understand. And … he had a goatee! He was cool!!
And he put us through our paces. As it turned out, we were doubling the brass parts from the original score and also covering the off-stage parts. He was demanding, but he was also complimentary. We loved it. My favorite moment was when he sort of pointed and waved his baton toward the euphoniums and, with just a bit of a snarl, said, “Give me as much euphonium as you can!” This was serious business, but what great fun.
The concert went quite well. A newspaper review the next day mentioned that the auditorium organ was also playing during the Pines but that it didn’t matter. You could not hear it, anyway.
— By BSO Principal Trombone John Metcalfe