If you’re an assistant principal (as opposed to “assistant to the principal” for you UK Office fans), you’ve got a pretty cushy job. You don’t play any of the solos (unless there are solos for the second chair), you don’t do any of the bowings, and you basically try to help the principal do their job with as little hassle as possible.
Every so often, however, circumstances push you over into the principal chair, and usually there isn’t much or any preparation for that change.
This morning, at the dress rehearsal for this weekend’s classical program, my principal had to leave midway through the rehearsal for personal reasons. It took place during the middle of the first movement of the Mozart piano concerto, and I just had to slide over to the first chair, the on-call player moved up, and we seamlessly went on as though nothing had happened. On our stage, however, the difference in sitting three or four feet downstage makes a huge difference in what you can see and/or hear. Suddenly I could see our concertmaster, but couldn’t hear the first stand of cellos very well, and I was suddenly face-to-face with our soloist (Angela Hewitt) down the length of the interior of the piano, which is always disconcerting to me. Then, in the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, there are quite a few divisi sections, where the inside player plays a separate line from the outside player, and it just might have been since I was in grad school that I had last played the top line in that piece! So, add in the fact that there is now a little bit of sight-reading put on my plate! And finally, there was the fact that I might have to play the treacherous solos in the Webern Passacaglia, Op. 1, without even having played a rehearsal, which did not make for a fun afternoon of practicing.
I made it through the rehearsal with only a slightly elevated stress profile, but playing in the hot seat reminded me of just how different the demands are on a principal string player than even his stand partner, not to mention the rest of the section. They earn their extra pay, hands down.
I just got the call that Joël will be playing the concert tonight, so I can put the part away and watch some Olympic coverage before heading to the hall tonight.