Yesterday was the "Sponsors' Concert" for the Arlington Philharmonic. This means it's a big fundraising concert, inviting all the sponsors. We also had a soloist, Er-Gene Kahng, playing the Mendelssohn violin concerto, in honor of Mendelssohn's 200th birth anniversary. She won the Young Artists' Competition last year, and for this concert flew in from Arkansas, where she is an Assistant Professor of music at the University of Arkansas. We didn't get much time with her, just one rehearsal. She's very humble and unassuming in person, but when she plays--wow. Her violin itself is also amazing-sounding. The other soloists have been kids, but she's a mature musician who I think would be comfortable and successful performing anywhere, not just First Parish UU church in Arlington. It's very neat, and we are very lucky, to have soloists of this caliber performing with us. My daughter came to the concert too, to hear the violinist. She filmed the whole thing.
I played the viola in this concert, not wanting to switch back and forth between two instruments with my viola recital earlier this month. It was the first time I'd played viola in an orchestra for an entire concert cycle. I enjoyed it. At first I thought it was going to be really hard; the sight-reading wasn't too good. I had violin moments when I was in the wrong clef. But those decreased in number over time, and it was fun sitting there in the heart of the orchestra, next to another Karen, who plays the oboe and gives us our tuning note. I had a busy weekend, as usual. When I wasn't playing the viola, I was painting the kids' bathroom. Blue. I still had a little paint in my hair at the concert, in spite of a vigorous washing, so there were several reasons it was probably good I was sitting in the back.
I spoke with the conductor about which instrument to play for the next concert. And after all this back and forth, after my saying how much I like the inner voices, and all that--after buying a viola for goodness' sake--I felt awkward saying aloud that even thought I'd enjoyed the viola part, I wanted to go back to the first violin section. I miss it. I like the first violin parts. And, I like sitting up front and leading the section. He not only let me go back, but is happy about that decision. I'm glad. It's important to me to feel like I'm doing something that will help the orchestra be a better orchestra, not just to feel like I'm doing something to satisfy my own personal musical whims.
So I'm getting to the point of having to make a decision about the violin I have on trial. I like it pretty well and my teacher likes it too. She thinks it's a great value at the price, which is very reasonable. I was supposed to go to at least one more violin shop in the past week, but it's just not happening. A couple of days ago I was messing around with it and just decided to play the opening of the 1st movement of the Bruch concerto. I hadn't played that in 20+ years, and hadn't done very well with it when I tried back then, but it sounded really quite nice on this instrument. I played it for my teacher too and she was impressed. She said the instrument had clarity and projection without sacrificing warmth of sound on all 4 strings. Another friend of mine liked the instrument too except for the E-string. I also am skeptical about the E-string. I'm just a little concerned that, in trying to get what my current violin lacks (the rich warm G and D), I might be sacrificing a little E-string sparkle. What's on there now is a set of Thomastik vision strings. The apprentice offered to send me an Infeld Red E-string so I could try that one instead (I have that on my current violin and like it). If this violin can make me playing the Bruch sound good, it must have something going for it . . .
I mentioned annoying tendonitis-like symptoms a couple of weeks ago in my blog. They flared up right before my viola recital. I thought they were due to computer work. My work laptop setup is not very good. So I've been concentrating on trying to fix that--I got a nice ergonomic keyboard for it (rather than the small laptop keyboard) to try out.
But then last night at orchestra rehearsal, in which I'm playing viola, I noticed something worrisome. Every time I lifted my viola up under my chin, my left forearm would hurt a little bit, radiating from the wrist to the elbow. There was a passage I was fingering with a 4th finger extension on the G string. That hurt a little bit too. My teacher warned me about those. I refingered it in 2nd position so I don't have to extend.
I talked to one of my friends in the 1st violin section during the break. She's had a lot of tendonitis experience (I have not, except for the end of my PhD thesis, when I was pipetting too much). She suggested I might want to stop playing viola for a while. She also suggested taking some anti-inflammatories overnight. I did that last night and my arms feel better now.
The discussion I had with my teacher was a little worrisome, too. She has a viola student who had to stop playing altogether for a few months because of tendonitis.
I have a concert this Sunday. It would still be good, musically, if I practiced the music a bit more, but maybe I won't. I am not sure what to do.
I use a computer for a living, but I may have to minimize typing for a while, too. That would be better than minimizing practicing . . .
A certain violin shop came to Boston yesterday and set up in a conference room in the Boston Cambridge Marriott. This hotel is one block away from where I work, in Kendall Square, Cambridge Massachusetts. Later that afternoon I had to call NIH, proofread a proposal, go to a meeting, go to a seminar, have dinner with the speaker. I was hoping I'd be able to come back later, but, if not, I was going to make the most of these 30--oops, 29--minutes.
The apprentice lays out the violins on the tables, attaching shoulder rests to them if you want to use them. One of the tables has affordable instruments (one doesn't). To be honest, none of them looks as nice at first glance as the violin I own now. None of them is quite the right color, none of them has the beautiful flamed one-piece back that mine has. This is indeed like speed-dating: first step, unfairly size up your potential partner based on superficial appearances.
Fortunately, except for the apprentice and all the violins looking at me, I'm the only one in the room right now, so my self-consciousness doesn't completely overwhelm me. Twenty-six minutes.
I pick up the one on the affordable table that looks the prettiest and play a G-major scale. Like my own violin, it is dissatisfying on the G-string. It sounds like it is straining, a little bit of the flavor of a rubber band stretched across a matchbox. I put it down. I'm not going to spend that kind of money to get what I already have. I tell the apprentice, as I already told him by email, I want something with a deep, rich sound in the lower register. He suggests two others. Both a little too red-looking, a little too wide-grained. But affordable.
Now that he's got all the shoulder rests attached, I just pick them up in a row and start playing the opening to the 1st violin part of Cappricio Italien. I don't play it that well in tune just off the top of my head, but it's not too bad. It gives me the flavor of playing sul G, of shifting to 7th position. And then I get to the C, the one that would be a 2nd finger on the A-string in first position. It sounds really odd. Scratchy. There's that rubber band and matchbox again. (Maybe it's just me--I'm not very good. At least nobody else is here and the apprentice is humoring me). I try again and it's no better. "Is that a wolf?" he asks.
"Maybe." I've never heard a wolf before. I don't think my current instrument has one. But here I am in 7th position on the G string, and somebody on violinist.com told me that was where wolves hang out. I play it for the apprentice. "Yep, a wolf." "Cool! Fascinating! I've never heard a wolf before." I play the wolf a few more times. Then I realize that I have only 20 more minutes, and I'm not buying this one either.
The next one I pick up has a wolf too, in the same place. Now this is getting creepy. Maybe it IS just me. But the next one doesn't. In fact, the next one is kind of like my viola, only smaller. I play the whole CI opening. Then I try a Handel sonata with a bunch of string crossings. I play some of the 1st violin part of the William Tell overture: ricochet, spiccato 16th notes. The bow seems to be doing everything I need it to do. I'm intrigued, but I'm not necessarily in love.
Next. This one passes the CI G-string test, but not the Handel string crossings. The bridge/fingerboard are too flat. I hit the wrong strings when I don't want to. Next. Another rubber band/matchbox deal. Next. Scratchy, too. I only have 5 minutes left.
Out of all of these, there was only one that I really want to consider further. The one that was "like my viola only smaller." Now I look at the tag. It is a Carlo Lamberti model, and it's reasonably priced. I ask the apprentice to set it aside for me and run back to call NIH. I pick up some lunch on the way.
Unfortunately, I don't get back to the hotel again that afternoon until I'm on the way to the seminar. I can't stop long. There is a teenager there now, playing an instrument off the non-affordable table. Two adults are listening and giving advice. My apprentice sees me, and suggests we go to the room next door so I can play some more. No, I can't stay. I'm so sorry. (Aargh.) Can I take the Carlo Lamberti I reserved home for a trial? My lesson is a week from Monday.
"Play some more double stops," says one of adults. The teen starts playing the 3rd movement of the Bruch concerto. She's self-conscious too, hits a few out-of-tune notes, but generally she's an excellent, accomplished player.
While she's playing, I fill out paperwork, get the Lamberti and two bows in a serviceable, but slightly beat-up tank-ish looking case. Just the fashion accessory to take to a Brain and Cognitive Sciences seminar!
Later, as we're waiting for our table at dinner with the seminar speaker, because there was a mix-up about the reservation, the concierge asks me what and where I play. It turns out he's a local freelance musician (not on violin). I feel a connection. We get the table.
Now, the next morning, the real "getting to know you" process begins.
And an auspicious violin omen greets me upon checking my email: I won a Tasmin Little CD! I have been entering these violinist.com CD contests for, like, every day for the past year. I would recognize the names of the winners, week after week, but mine was never one of them. I'm psyched!
I'm in the middle of a post-recital let-down. I feel scattered: I have two viola pieces that I was learning that I didn't finish: the Schumann Adagio and Allegro and the First Movement of the A. Stamitz concerto. I've made significant progress on both, they're both challenging but do-able, and I didn't really want to let them go, it just kind of happened. Orchestra, recital, day job, computer-related tendonitis-like symptoms . . . all got in the way.
Computer-related tendonitis-like symptoms. Yeh. Last weekend, as the recital approached, I started to feel pain in both my wrists. I was going to play my recital piece at our church talent show the night before, it might have helped me be less nervous. But I bailed on that because my hands were hurting. I didn't believe it was from practicing too much--I hadn't BEEN practicing too much. Instead the pain had the symmetry of how I hold my hands on the computer. I'd been sitting on a fitness ball while I typed because that felt good for my back. But then the fitness ball was too low, causing me to hold my wrists at a funny angle. Back to my old chair. In search of a new, bigger fitness ball. It's getting better again, but is still not back to normal.
In the interim, since I started learning the Schumann and the Stamitz, two interesting things happened. One, I started playing violin in a string quartet. And two, after my current stint in the viola section, I decided I wanted to go back to the first violins for the next orchestra concert. The violin I bug has bitten me after all. And so I'm shopping for a new violin next week while my load at work is lighter.
My teacher told me a couple of lessons ago that I'm making amazing progress for someone who only takes a lesson every 2-3 weeks. I take heart from that. I've learned to be more focused and organized this time around. But right now I'm really in the middle of a tough patch and I am not sure where to go next: just focus on the new violin for a while? Finish those old viola pieces? Set some new goals, like a Farmers' Market Date or a church performance (and then what to play for those??)
It's a famous student line: "it sounded better at home!" But is it true?
Philip Johnson says, in The Practice Revolution, that students who say this are usually remembering some bright shining moment when everything came together, once, at home, when no one else was around. And that they forget the multitude of times it actually sounded worse at home.
I decided to test the theory with my viola recital piece, "Passacaglia on an Old English Tune," by Rebecca Clarke.
At home in the rec room (~1 hour before the recital)
The recital itself (filmed by a 9-year-old):
Something I did not anticipate: how much my hands would sweat due to nerves. And how that could cause fingers slipping off the strings! I thought if I solved the "cold, stiff hands" problem, I'd be able to move on. Not exactly.
Something else I did not anticipate: it may not be obvious to other people, just from listening to this, why I love this piece. So here is how it is really supposed to sound, played by someone who knows what she is doing:
Mark O'Connor's method books -- released this week -- teach students using many styles of American music. Enter to win a set of the books this week, on Violinist.com. Photo: Deanna Rose
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