Sunday, October 14, 2007

The reviews are in...

...and last night's concert was another NYRO triumph. The dress rehearsal on Thursday night had been a little rough (as they tend to be) so I was a bit worried about the performance. But I looked over my music before the concert and I suspect most everyone else did as well. All of the pieces came off beautifully. The Hindemith in particular stood out as one of the best works I've had the pleasure of playing with NYRO. I didn't like it when we sight-read it the first night but it grew on me during rehearsals. While playing the triplet runs in the last few minutes of the piece I saw little clouds of rosin flying off my bow, which meant I was really enjoying myself (or that I'd used too much rosin). I had a few friends in the audience and they all enjoyed the performance immensely.

After the concert most of the orchestra went to O'Neal's, our usual post-concert watering hole. My friends and I were the first ones to arrive, and we went to the 65th St. side. Usually that side of the restaurant is empty, but last night there was a soprano singing a song from "Candide" to a room full of occupied tables. My father was right: the overture is the best thing about that opera. The four of us waited a few minutes, but when it was clear the show wasn't going to be over soon, we led the rest of the NYRO crowd to the other side of the restaurant on 64th St. As it happens with my friends at these concerts, it was an occasion where new friends met old friends. Everyone got along splendidly, which is always good to see.

So now I'm experiencing a bit of post-concert letdown. I have this week off from rehearsal, so I have to find something else to do with my Thursday night. I can't wait to get back next week and start on December's program. For those who want to mark their calendars now, the next concert is December 8, and will feature the music of Wagner, Shostakovich, and Haydn.

1 comment:

Jonathan said...

Glad to hear that the concert went well. Do you get penalized if you have too much rosin on your instrument, kind of like having pine tar too far up on the bat? You need to use your powers of persuasion to get the orchestra to play along with a metal band. That would be cool.