Spring Concert 2013

On Saturday my orchestra performed its Spring Concert.  I think it went reasonably well.  We were playing in a lovely local church.  It is quite small but very beautiful (and incidentally our local ABRSM music exam centre).  I think the orchestra took up as much room as the audience but we had a reasonable number of attendees - there were very few empty seats.

Our programme was:
Rossini - The Thieving Magpie.  This went better than I expected and I was very glad to get it out of the way first.  Stamina and speed wise this was the most challenging piece of the evening for me.  I am quite glad not to have to play this again. 

Warlock - Capriol Suite.  I quite liked this in the end, even with all the strange discords in it.  It was fun to play.

Bizet - L'Arlessienne Suite.  Possibly the most well known of the pieces we were playing.  It always reminds me of my school orchestra, but it is not actually as easy as that may suggest.  I think we got through it in tact though.  Though the afternoon rehearsal was, in truth, much better than the performance.

INTERVAL

Schumann - Symphony no 1. I grew to actually quite like this - especially the first movement.  We seemed to have settled down a little more in the second half and, I think, played much better. This was definitely the best we had ever played this piece.  So it was a triumphant way to finish the programme.  A couple of people said they thought it was the most difficult symphony we had ever played.  I am not sure whether that is true or not. It is hard for me to judge when  my playing and orchestral skills are improving.  I found everything we played much more difficult a couple of years ago.  But there were some tricky moments in this one - especially around tempo and time signature changes - some of these we got right for the first and only time on the night! 

It was an enjoyable evening,  my reed worked,  I managed to get through the programme without my lip going and overall I was pleased with how I played.

But most of all I am REALLY looking forward to some new music at tomorrow's rehearsal!