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June 16, 2005 at 5:07 AM

My chamber groups had very productive coachings today with Canadian violist Steve Dann. We are working on the Mozart D Major Flute Quartet, and brought the first movement to the coaching and were able to play through with no problem. Mr. Dann, however, gave us lots of ideas for bringing it to a higher level. He suggested that we sit as they would in the 18th century--from left to right from the audience perspective, flute, cello, viola, and violin. This was an improvement already as it's nice for the flutist and I to sit across from each other and easily make eye contact. In general he asked us to lighten up to match the quasi-wooden flute sound more closely, and to really work out the details of each phrase--not so that the phrasing must be exactly the same each time we play, but so we are aware of when to follow and when to lead, and what the primary material is in every bar. Obviously it's largely in the flute, and he very much encouraged our flutist to take more liberties and to phrase repeated sections differently to keep the sound fresh and to prevent it from becoming square or short-sighted. We got to a bit of the second movement, which is simply a flute aria with all pizzicato accompaniment in the strings, and he helped us bring out the romantic, operatic, and even seductive qualities beneath the surface of the music. It should be good to go through the third movement with Mr. Dann next coaching, which technically is the most difficult for the strings with lots of sixteenth notes.

We are also doing the Britten "Phantasy" Oboe Quartet, Op. 2, written when the composer was just 17. It's no Mendelssohn Octet or Mozart Violin Concerto, but it's a fun piece and Mr. Dann was pretty passionate about it and encouraging of our getting involved and really digging into the string and playing marcato when called for, and not letting any of the pizzicati get lost. As far as I can recall, this is my first time working in groups with wind players. They found solid people for the program and it's great to play with them, but it does take some adjusting balance-wise; it simply seems that the dynamic range of wind instruments is not as wide and therefore the strings have to be constantly sensitive to the wind sound.