dress

Tonight is dress rehearsal for the Beethoven. I feel like it is not getting the time it deserves in rehearsal - of course we had the soloist come in for the Artunian last night so that needed a bit of extra time. He sounds great, would be nice if we don't screw up the accompaniment!

And the Elgar (Enigma Variations) is ok, some of the transitions are rough since we usually stop and start each mvt but last night he tried to go straight through. I couldn't believe how many people didn't know what meter things were in (like the 6/8 was in 6, not in 2 which a bunch of people did) so frustrating. Hopefully they wrote it down since the concert is TOMORROW! grrr. Also lots of missed entrances - I think people will settle down tonight but it is worrying. I missed some stuff too, but not much...there is one big solo in the Elga (Dorabella) and it has this 4 16th note passage over and over again, always on beat 2. (rest, da,da,da,da, rest,/,rest, da,da,da,da, rest/ etc) Somehow in the MIDDLE of a million of these, I played on the and of 1. So bizarre. But I got right back on. I hate when I loose concentration like that, I feel like I should be an example since I'm one of the principles and all. What a dork.

But the Beethoven (6, Pastorale) we have only played once! And there is a lot of stuff for the strings - the winds have a few place where we just need to get the ensemble down, no technical things. But you can't *really* practice ensemble unless you play the piece! I do wish more people would get familiar with the music - they give us practice cds and of course there are a million recordings out there. At least most of the principles do, and it is hard to ask as much from the section players (especially since they don't get paid). Hopefully that will change, but unless they actually market this orchestra I doubt it will happen soon. I can't believe we aren't even on the NPR list of events (which is FREE, and goes directly to an audience that likes classical music - doh!)