Classical picks: N.Y. Phil's 'On the Cover'; Brady's 'Instruments of Happiness'

"If we do our job well, then you'll never know we're around."

So says Sara Griffin, assistant principal librarian of the New York Philharmonic in a recent video interview on the Philharmonic's website (

» READ MORE: www.nyphil.org/whats-new

). In fact, this video series aims to cure classical anonymity by demystifying how an orchestra works in the orchestra's own "On the Cover" series of interviews with its musicians:

"Dogs or cats?"

"Dogs."

"East Side or West Side?"

"West Side - Hamilton Heights."

Some of the attempts to humanize its members are silly. But "On the Cover" also brings listeners into the sometimes bafflingly inside-baseball rituals and practices of the orchestral world. Librarians, we learn, are not responsible only for making sure the right music, in the right edition, ends up on the right music stand at the right time. They also do a lot of music preparation - for instance, marking bowings from the concertmaster's part into parts of other players, and making corrections to the manuscripts.

The timing and placement of what an orchestra's timpanist does is so crucial the player is sometimes thought of as a "second conductor," says principal timpanist Markus Rhoten.

Second clarinetist Pascual Martínez Forteza recalls a particularly emotional performance: Brahms' A German Requiem with Kurt Masur shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 - "the whole orchestra was in tears." And he reveals that his clarinet is not made of the usual wood, but of ebony powder and synthetic materials, giving it the virtue of not changing with humidity and temperature.

Each video begins with that most stirringly expectant sound in the universe: an orchestra tuning up.

- Peter Dobrin

Instruments of what? Canadian composer Tim Brady has just issued Instruments of Happiness on the Starkland label, in what would have to be one of the first substantial recordings by an electric guitar quartet. Unlike similar foursomes (whether string or sax), this is not a case of four instruments played basically the same way. The range of sound and expression is orchestral in its scope, so you're not surprised that the main piece is Brady's often-impressionistic symphony titled The Same River Twice. In fact, he includes two rather different versions of the piece, one for quartet and another for all manner of electronic effects. Quite absorbing. Electric guitar symphonies have existed since Scott Johnson's John Somebody, but this may be the start of something . . . else.

- David Patrick Stearns