Concert, Gershwin, Reeds

The concert on Saturday went well I think.  The venue was lovely, my reed worked and we had a good turn out.  One of my friend's came to see me and she really enjoyed it, which was lovely.  I quite enjoyed it in the end but I didn't really engage with the pieces in the same way I had at other concerts and it did feel as if we hadn't really had enough weeks to practice.  Some of the pieces still felt slightly unfamiliar, which was rather disconcerting.  I think - aside from the Elgar - my favourite bits were the second movement of the Arnold Suite and the Britten dances.  We have two more rehearsals before summer break, though I can only make the first one.  I am looking forward to seeing what we do.

On Sunday I felt a bit overplayed so I didn't do a proper practice session.  But I did have a look at Gershwin's American in Paris which I am playing in an Orchestral playday in June.  I have been looking at bits of it but I had a go playing it with a You Tube recording for the first time.  It really is very difficult.  It actually made me feel rather stressed about the whole event because I know that there are bits that are just beyond me.  I think I need to make this a priority for practice over the next few weeks.  But one of the biggest problems is the speed of articulation required - which I have been working on but is not a quick fix.

I also picked up my reed making again.  I had a go at sharpening my reed knives - reasonably successfully I think.  I began scraping the three reeds I tied on a couple of weeks ago and very soon had 3 cracked reeds.  I'm not sure if it was a problem with tying on, not soaking enough before trying to scrape or just a bad batch of cane. I probably need to do the initial scrape immediately after tying on though when I know that the cane is well and truly soaked through.    I will do some more tying on later this week.

Summer concert

Tomorrow my orchestra has it's summer concert - not that it is particularly summery at the moment.  This is our last concert before the summer break and we will start meeting again in September.  The actual concert seems to have come round so quickly that I've not blogged anything about this program so far.   So this is what we are playing:

Suite In E flat - Holst
Suite of Dances from Gloriana - Britten
The Merry Wives of Windsor - Nicolai
Little Suite for Orchestra - Arnold
Sea Pictures - Elgar (with guest soloist)
Crown Imperial - Walton

It is a very British program - presumably due to the Jubilee.  It is also a program I am struggling to get excited about.  There is nothing I particularly dislike....well, maybe the Walton...but there is also nothing that I particularly love either.  There are no pieces that I am really looking forward to playing - which is a first for me.  But sometimes it is like that, and many people in our orchestra really didn't enjoy the Russian pieces we played last time.  I am sure the concert will be fun.  The Elgar sounds very good with our solo singer - I have very little to play in that so I will enjoy listening to her!  But I am also very much looking forward to finding out what we are playing next!