May 7, 2006 at 11:56 PM

In my last blog I posted the links to the two performances I did in my music school's annual concert (one with my quartet, one as a soloist). My string quartet (Seraphina) went first, and we played the first and second movements of the Shostakovich 8. It is one of our favorite pieces as a group. We've have a pretty varied repertoire as a group; we have the staples, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and more fun and modern pieces such as "Short Set for String Quartet" by Gwyneth Walker.

Playing the staples when we first started the quartet really helped our development a lot. The only reason we played the Shostakovich is that the other violinist played it at camp and really loved it, and wanted us to play it. Of course, the rest of us loved it too. And after the performance, which we felt good about, our coach told us that we could never have played the piece when we started the group three years ago, but that we had come really far along. It was wonderful to hear that.

After we we performed, there was a break between the two concerts (they had to split it into two since there were so many performers, I was on the second half) and because it was such a beautiful day, the quartet walked to South Street and got ice cream. When I got back to the school, I rehearsed Praeludium and Allegro with the accompanist. I was kind of tired (the Shostakovich is pretty draining) but the rehearsal was good. The only thing was that near the middle of the Praeludium, my D string slipped.

While I was retuning, my teacher said, "If that should happen in the performance, just smile, retune, and start over." Of course, that had never happened before and I didn't think it would happen again. But when it came time to perform it, the beginning was fine, but the same string slipped in the same exact place, within the measure, as in the rehearsal! So I retuned and started over, and it was fine. But that's really weird, because it's never happened before and hasn't happened since! I'm glad it happened in the rehearsal, though, because I knew just what to do. The rest of the performance was great, the only bad thing that happened is that my ponytail slipped and there was hair in my face. Since I wasn't using music, it didn't really matter. It was just a little distracting.

Yesterday, my quartet was in a master class coached by the Miro Quartet. We played the Shostakovich since we had been working so hard on it and had it really good. We had a half hour slot in the master class, and they let us play both movements all the way through. Out of the four of them, one of the violinists was missing, but the guys that were there were really nice. One of the things they said was that in playing this piece themselves, they discovered that, "it will sound even more wild and frenzied if you play it with a lot of clarity and precision". They said it looked like we were really getting into it, but if we had more control, it would bring out all the crazy off-beats and discords, and make it sound even more frightening. That was one of the most helpful things they said.

--alice

From Carley Anderson
Posted on May 8, 2006 at 12:43 AM

Yeah, as Colleen said, it was pretty funny the comment the lady said really close to the camera after you left the stage.

But it's scary to have that happen. My violin's been acting strange like that (though thankfully, not usually during a performance or while playing)...unreliable thing...and it used to be such a polite violin. Hmm...

Anyway, your performance was really lovely, and very inspiring nonetheless (of the ponytail and string slipping)...I loved your stage presence, as a I mentioned in the previous comment, it was a lovely job. Makes me jealous! ;)

From Jasmine Lewis
Posted on May 8, 2006 at 2:13 AM

Good performance!

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on May 8, 2006 at 4:52 AM

You've had a couple of good performances and good feedback in the masterclass. Congratulations.

The weather here has been very variable in the last few days, and my strings keep going out of tune.

From Linda Lerskier
Posted on May 8, 2006 at 7:34 PM

Smile, retune, and start over. What great advice! :)

Good job!

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