{"id":573,"date":"2011-03-20T22:23:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T22:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=573"},"modified":"2011-03-20T22:23:23","modified_gmt":"2011-03-20T22:23:23","slug":"superb_is_not_the_word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2011\/03\/superb_is_not_the_word\/","title":{"rendered":"Superb is not the word"},"content":{"rendered":"

My mother always told me “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Maybe your mother did, too. <\/p>\n

This, however, can be a challenge in our little industry, because we are dealing with…artistic types…and they always need to be told something. I’ll never forget the cellist who cold-called me and opened with, “This is So-And-So; have you heard of me?” I had not. A couple weeks ago, I was asked if I had come to an artist’s show, by the artist. “I did,” I said, then blinked blankly a couple times. If I went and had liked it, would I not have provided a compliment without provocation? You can’t really lie–well, I can’t really lie (insert publicist jab __here__)–but tell me, Mom, what do I say when I don’t have anything nice to say but have to say anything?<\/p>\n

Back in February, The New York Times<\/i> ran an ad for the Gergiev Mahler Symphony concerts at Lincoln Center<\/a> in the Sunday Arts + Leisure section. I didn’t see it–someone who’s behind in their Times<\/i> reading with a scanner send it to me!–but it came up in a meeting. Apparently, the ad included the line, “You’ve never heard Mahler like this before!” This is amazing, of course, because be the Mahler brilliant or be it an unmitigated disaster, you’ve never heard it like this. <\/p>\n

My all-time favorite post-concert comment comes from an artist friend: after a composer’s truly terrible premiere, my friend said, “Well, that was honest music.” A publicist colleague at the meeting where the Mahler ad was discussed said her go-to backstage line is, “Well you just looked<\/i> fabulous.” That’s like, “How was your date?” “He had nice teeth.”<\/p>\n

Tom Morris, artistic director of the Ojai Festival among many other things<\/a>, trumped us all, though, with a list. And lucky for you, gentle readers, he said I could post it. <\/p>\n

TOP TEN THINGS TO SAY (NOT TO SAY) TO A CONDUCTOR BACKSTAGE<\/p>\n

1.  “You should have been in the audience”<\/p>\n

2.  “Superb is not the word”<\/p>\n

3.  “Wow!”<\/p>\n

4.  “Leonard Bernstein never did it like that”<\/p>\n

5.  “I heard things in that performance I’ve didn’t even know were in the piece.”<\/p>\n

6.  “I’m speechless”<\/p>\n

7.  “I really loved the last note.”<\/p>\n

8.  “You did it again.”<\/p>\n

9.  “Now I understand”<\/p>\n

10. “Fascinating!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So you’re welcome: now you can go into at least ten terrible concerts armed with euphemism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mother always told me “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Maybe your mother did, too. This, however, can be a challenge in our little industry, because we are dealing with…artistic types…and they always need to be told something. I’ll never forget the cellist who cold-called me and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}