if I’m tired it must be january

Classical Program 6
Gregory Vajda, conducting

Bartók – Miraculous Mandarin, complete version, first OSO performance

Intermission

Debussy – Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun
Chopin – Piano Concerto No. 2, Ingrid Fliter, pianist
Dukas – Sorcerer’s Apprentice

T.S. Eliot thought that April was the cruelest month, but for me it’s January, with February a close runner-up. It’s because December is full of marginally fulfilling holiday stuff, followed by frantic running around for the holidays themselves, then a bit of blissful oblivion, followed by a panic that the season starts up again in five days, with really difficult programs, and I haven’t touched my viola since that last Nutcracker. Then it’s a sprint to the end of March, when the spring break arrives.

So it’s crunch time. I can feel it in my bones – actually in my bow-arm’s shoulder and my back. News which would normally be met with a shrug and “what can ya do?” is instead met with grumbled obscenities and toe-curling rage on the drive home. I feel sorry for the people that have to drive on the roads with me on my way home this week – they’re getting called every name in the book.* On the bright side, I usually only feel a simple sense of tiredness by the time I get home.

Trivia question – has anyone noticed anything different about Gregory Vajda this week? He’s changed something about the way he conducts – he has now adopted using a baton! I don’t know if he’d ever used one before, but there had been some complaints about the lack of visibility of his beat in complicated pieces when he was just using his hands. He was very generous and accommodating to use a baton for our concerts – it’s nice to be listened to, and shows what a classy guy Gregory is!

The program we’re finishing up tonight is a strange one – it really feels like two programs, or one program stretched into one-and-a-half programs. We start with the Bartók complete Miraculous Mandarin, which rightfully occupies the entire first half (originally the intermission was to be taken after the Debussy Prelude).

After intermission comes the Debussy, (which was amended in our part to “Prelude to Afternoon of a Yaun” – oh the pithy witticisms to be found in the first desk viola parts!), with its famous solo flute opening, played with mellifluous beauty by principal flute David Buck. Played it a million times, goes off well – next piece, please.

Then comes the Chopin, which is a wonderful and beautiful concerto as long as you’re not playing the orchestral part. This goes high on my list of pieces that I’d rather hear from the audience. The second movement had an added subtitle: “Assisted suicide special”. Lovely, crystalline playing by Ms. Fliter, who I hope gets to come back and play something that gives us more to do as far as collaborating with an obviously wonderful artist.

By this time, it feels like we should be leaving the stage and racing the audience members to their cars. But no – we get another blast from the past, Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice. If you’re a new visitor to the solar system, I’ll tell you all you need to know about this piece: it was in Fantasia – no, not the new one, the old one with Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Last night I was so tired and miserable by this point that I felt like just putting my instrument in my lap and looking around at all the other people who were actually playing their parts correctly and just nodding, thinking “yeah, that’s sounding pretty good”. Instead I muddled my way through to the end without embarrassing myself and my section too badly.

Thank god! We’re done! Oh rats – I just realized that I practiced the wrong divisi part to the intricate and exposed part to MacMillan’s Confession of Isobel Goudie (because there’s a probationary member on the first stand for this coming series), so the time I spent practicing about half of the piece was wasted. Grrrr. Watch out motorists – pissed off and tired violist on the road!!*

*No violists, innocent motorists, or audience members were harmed in the production of this blog post.