here we go

Tonight is the first of our two concerts at home to get ready for Carnegie next Thursday. Normally, they’d be simple shakedown cruises for the program, but there is added pressure: they will be recorded live for commercial release. There will be a lot of faces drawn tighter than usual in concentration tonight and Sunday afternoon. We do have what is called a ‘patch session’ after the Sunday concert, but it is limited in length and can only cover a relatively small number of blemishes that weren’t resolved between the two performances. The last time we did this kind of recording (as far as my imperfect memory allows me to recall) was the Shostakovich 11th Symphony with Jimmy a number of years ago. I think that live recordings really are the way to go – they give a more honest account of the way the orchestra sounds and plays in performance, largely due to the fact that there is that intangible factor of the exchange of energy between the performer and audience. These should be some very good performances this weekend.

NOTE: Please be sure to arrive early for the performance. The first half of the program is performed without pause, and no latecomers will be admitted before intermission.