Orchestral ongoings

So far, 2007 has proven to be a very busy and exhausting month for MSO musicians.

Last week we did both Stravinsky's Petrouchka and Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. I would like to sit down and have a little chat with whoever programmed that doozy of a concert. It was exhausting, both mentally and especially physically. I do love both pieces, but I've never played the Tchaik without an assistant and I was really stiff from all the loud and constant playing. I did love not having to play the solo. It was nice to just listen to it and enjoy it. Barnewitz did an exquisite job with it. I have to ask him about how he approached it - it was different from how I've done it in the past and I liked his better. More introspective, not overplayed; and I really loved his articulation for some of the sustained notes in the peak phrases.

Petrouchka was fun and very intellectually stimulating. If you've ever played Stravinsky, you know you have to count like a crazy person just to know where in blazes you are at any given point. What the Tchaik did to my face, Petrouchka did to my brain. By the time the week was over, I felt like my face and brain had been pureed, thrown into a saucepan and scrambled along with my sanity.

I did enjoy the Stravinsky though. Stravinsky's my favorite composer of them all. Can you guess who else is in my top 5? ;)

This week is much more manageable. We're doing Prokofiev's Cinderella, and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3. Gorgeous, beautiful, sweeping, moving. The best combination of elements in a horn part - we have lots of interesting things to do, but none of them wastes your face. There's plenty of recovery time in between, too, which helps immensely (the Tchaik was just constant playing, pretty much the whole time).

What's next week? Hmm...Oh yes, Scheherezade, which I adore, and Shostakovitch Vln. Concerto #1. We did the Scheherezade already on tour this year, so I don't have to practice it. I don't know what my part looks like for the Shostakovitch, but I don't care - he's one of my favorite composers of all time (oops, I gave away another one of my top 5 composers!!).

What else? Bianca, Emma and Gabby are doing fine. I took some hilarious pictures of them recently that I will post soon. David and I used a gift card tonight for the Cheesecake Factory and it was really good but we're both rolling around like stuffed potatoes now. I didn't even have cheesecake (well, okay, I had a few bites of his, but still...) and I had a salad and some fish tacos which were amazing going down, but they felt like anvils when they finally landed. I think we'll be atoning for our indulgences tomorrow with lots of oat bran and high fiber foods like lentil soup for dinner...

Enjoy your weekend!