Just got back from Salem tonight after our final concert of this weekend’s classical series with the violin soloist Midori, and the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. Every so often in the life of a professional musician, there comes a time when one simply “phones it in”. What exactly does this mean, you ask. Well, it is a sort of mental detachment wherein you do all that is required of you in a given performance situation, but you do no more than is necessary to get the job done. In some cases, it might be just slightly less. Alas, I was in this position for all of the concert this evening. I aimed to play everything as required, with special attention to the technical aspects of do so, but was just not able to muster the je ne sais quoi that would make it possible to emote and do something special. Part of it was just the sheer physical effort that playing the Tchaikovsky demands from the violists – it lays so low in the register for so much of the time, and the dynamics are usually either pppp or ffff with little in between of any consequence. On top of this, if you’re just not in the mood, it’s hard to really sink into the grand, expansive melodies with the necessary verve. I know I’m a bad person for playing like this tonight, but I feel like at least I held up my end from a technical standpoint, as did the rest of the orchestra. In the not-so-distant past, Salem performances could be pretty scary affairs…
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2 replies on “phoning it in”
Interesting post, Charles. Your candor is admirable. Personally, I believe that performing a program 4 nights in a row is asking quite a bit, especially considering the energy required from the strings in the Tchaikovsky. I don’t believe that most orchestras do that many nights in a row, but I could be mistaken.
Hi Charles! I don’t know if you remember me from the Federal Way Symphony years ago. I am glad to see that you are doing so well. I think you have expressed what we all have felt at one time or another. Many outside pressures, life in general, the air pressure that day or even a full moon, among others, can be contributors to our personal performance. Although I haven’t played it for a number of years, the Tchaikovsky is a pretty good work out for the violas, although a real enjoyable one, and four nights is a lot of playing it! I’m sure they were glad to have you there anyway, if you were there only from a technical perspective.