Welcome Back!

February 3, 2007 at 12:08 PM

Last Tuesday we started rehearsing for the first concert to be performed in the garden end of this month. They do this garden concert every year as it is sponsored by the local Council and is free for the public. I quite like the music although I never heard any of them before the rehearsal:

- Ma Vlast (Smetana)
- Capriccio Espagnol (Rimsky-Korsakov)
- Symphonie Descriptive (Berlioz)
- Concertino fur Klarinette (Weber)
- Small Town (Sculthorpe)
- Le Train Bleu (Milhaud)

We did sectional work on the first rehearsal and worked out some tricky bowings in Capriccio Espagnol. That was fun to play.

Today rehearsal at the other orchestra started. So far we only have the music for Beethoven's Coriolan overture. I never heard this music but I knew it was going to be good. For some reasons, despite my hopeless sight reading skills, the music made sense. Sight reading through Beethoven was as smooth as a surf board.

Violin lesson resumed today too. We started working on the tricky bits of Rode's 4th Carprice. Then I played Bach Sarabanda and Giga. Learned a lot of things today, most importantly, a new tone, some solutions to problematic bowings in Giga and practise tips.

Then I went on with Beethoven's Romance in F. I ran through the whole thing, then we discussed the tricky bits. I found that I have problems getting compliments. As soon as my teacher complemented, "that phrase was beautiful!", the subsequent phrase went terrible!

Then there was a part where I played Martele bowing in a series of 16 notes with 2 down bows and 2 up bows instead down and up for each note. My teacher said she never seen it done that way before and thought I did it very well. She thought this bowing would be useful for other music she knew. Who knew, I get to teach my teacher something today! I confessed to her that I didn't come up with it. It was a video of a concert of Vanessa Mae I saw many years ago. I wish I still have that video and learn (copy) more of her ideas. Any DVDs of Romance in F out in the market?

Bow no. 2 has been sent for extensive plastic surgery. It will be ready this coming Friday. I can't wait!! I miss him!!

January-itis is over. Welcome back music life!

p/s: I ordered and finally got Dancla's 20 Etudes Brillantes. I think I will substitute Rode's 4th with Dancla's 4th for the exam.

From Linda Lerskier
Posted on February 5, 2007 at 12:31 AM

Heehee, nice entry!

Plastic surgery eh?

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