Speck Speaks

“Every time I hear the musicians of the Mobile Symphony play, I’m awestruck by the sound they create — totally committed, passionate, swift, thrilling, lyrical, singing, virtuosic. Our musicians seize full ownership of every moment onstage. As their Music Director and coach, I’m just inches away from the formidable wall of emotion and sound that flies over my head and out into the audience.

I’m struck by the fact that each musician plays one musical line, and yet, somehow — magically — all these lines combine in midair to create the music exactly as the composers intended. We create this music anew every day. This is only possible in live performance, and it only happens when you are there to receive it and complete the circuit with your own energy. What a thrill it is to participate in this act of creation in real time.

And I’m struck, too, by this fact: If you want to experience the Mona Lisa, you have to go to Paris. If you want to experience the Colosseum, you have to go to Rome. But if you want to experience Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, or Handel’s Messiah, or Ravel’s La Valse, or Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, or Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, you literally have the REAL THING right here in your own backyard. Just as true and rich, just as full of vitality, just as faithfully created before your eyes and ears, as in the biggest cities in the world. The Mobile Symphony has ALL the great music, right here at home.”