October 2006
October 29, 2006 18:30
The program last week was Part's 3rd Symphony, Greig's Piano Concerto and RK's Sheherazade. Not for the first time this year, the program included large concertmaster solos. The ones of particular note this season have been Zarathustra, Glazunov's ballet Raymonda (hmm...who would have thought? a tricky CM solo in a ballet) and this one.
As usual our CM did a marvelous job with the solos, tremendously musical with a beautiful silky sound. A real pleasure to listen to.
We all know how hard these solos are, we spend hours with our exerpt books learning the standard ones for work, auditions or sometimes just for fun. One of the difficulties however that's underestimated, is actually placing the solos in context...especially with the Ballet where you really have very little control over how it's going to go.
But spare a thought for the poor understudy. Why does the ACM know how much work goes into these solos? Because he or she also has to learn them to concert standard as well. He starts preparing a few weeks ahead and has to be ready to perform right until the last concert. The drawback? Very rarely does he ever perform the part. And if he has to? No rehearsal.
Earlier this year, the CM was extremely sick for one concert and even though he came to the hall, he definately couldn't go on stage. We were already on stage and the manager came up to the front and told me that I was to lead the concert.
The main work was Elgar's 2nd Symphony which only has a couple of tiny solos but it was my first time 'stepping up to the plate' and was a real shock to the system. I'd never realised how tricky playing the same part from a different angle (with new divisi's)could be if it was already the 2nd of 3 concerts. It certainly gave me a whole new perspective on the amount of preperation the ACM needs to put in.
So with that experience relatively fresh in the mind I embarked on the Sheherazade solos. This time I was definately ready. I had even mentally prepared myself to move across in case of illness.
As the final solo in the final concert sailed past (no pun intended), I had to remind myself that I had done my job well. I was prepared to perfrom those solos even though I hadn't had to. As I wistfully looked back on the week I reminded myself that it was fantastic experience to have kept the solos up at concert levels for a week.
When I took the job, one of the other violinists told me that the most frustrating thing about the position was going to be all the wonderful CM solos that came by that I would always prepare but never have the opportunity to perform. At the time I thought 'well, it can't be that bad'. Now I understand how the opera understudy feels.
I suppose sometimes it's a good thing though...as the last solo in the ballet season danced past I breathed a sigh of relief :)
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October 12, 2006 08:25
My wonderful fiance is a pianist so since we've been together I've been discovering heaps of new piano repertoire which has been wonderful. One of the wonderful things I've been rediscovering is the piano concertos of an old favourite...W.A. Mozart. They really are amazing!
And of course there are many different ways of playing them...from Robert Levin on the fortepiano to a heavily romanticised version with a brick on the sustain pedal.
So...in discovering them I've stumbled across a couple of names (well...I knew them before but they've stuck out for me in this genre) Murray Perahia and Mitsuko Uchida.
Both of these players seem to have everything that makes me want to quit my job and just sit at home all day everyday with a cup of green tea and my cd player. Gorgeous sound, exquisite phrasing and timing to die for.
It's been such a refreshing experience that I've been inspired to go back to the piano (I used to play for about 10 years) but I fear I'll always be dissapointed in that respect.
As it turns out, these two performers seem to have recordings of Mozart that most pianists consider as benchmark performances and I can certainly see why.
So I started to look through our CDs for the Mozart violin concertos which yeilded a rather disapointing result. We have a few recordings which are all good in their different ways but none of which made me feel the same way as the aforementioned piano clan.
This got me thinking...which recordings are considered the benchmark recordings for the violin concertos? Of course there are many many styles in which violinists play mozart from the "historically informed" mob to those who feel mozart like Tchaikovsky.
Having not listened to the vast majority of recordings of Mozart violin concertos it's difficult to pick which one to buy next (unfortunately my funds don't stretch to just buying them all).
I figure that most people reading this would have opinions on the topic and I'd love to hear all of them!
Thoughtfully,
Graeme
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