Comments

Karen - I can relate to your feelings about pieces I dislike. My orch tends to do lots of 19th century Romantic and later. I do not like a lot of it; I much prefer High Classical. But, it is important to do these pieces because they do represent an important part of the repertoire. However, the distinction I draw is that I do not pay money to go hear them. With an orch, you take the stuff you like (I love our annual Messiah sing-a-long concert) with what you don't unless you go into a group specializing in your favorite stuff. You do the Messiah every year? Cool! I have never done a Messiah concert, except for singing the soprano part in a sing-along one year. But the ArlPO is doing the Messiah this year in December, and I'm really looking forward to it. Doing the Messiah should be one of the truly great musical experiences you will have. It is for me every year; I never tire of it. Karen...I'm whispering here so that no one hears me say that I too, have decided that I only like flute playing in small doses. This is blasphemy for me, because I own and play a flute.
There is an excellent flute teacher at our arts school, and she has a couple of flute choirs. I am always amazed at how beautiful it sounds for the first 2-3 minutes. After that, it begins to feel eternal, and the same.
We are, in fact, limiting how many pieces we ask the flute choir to contribute to the Christmas concert for that very reason. Beautiful, in smallish doses. Incredibly monotonous in large servings.
Are we bad??:) Well, here's a plug for live music! The soloist sounds great. The rehearsal with the soloist was much better than any recording.