Oh, I do not like those rehearsals where you're sitting at the back panicking as you sight read the music on the stand, and then you hear: 'Cellos from the bar 8 please'.
Shit shit shit shit.
Now is the time when I want to be able to not care what the much better cellist in front of me thinks, what the lovely conductor thinks. Thankfully I know my stand partner well and he was struggling too, so I know he wasn't thinking anything but the aforementioned panicking mantra. This is Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante I'm obsessing about.
So – all the things I should be thinking right now instead wanting to have a little cry:
1. This is an amateur orchestra and I am paying to be there. This is not my job and no one can fire me.
2. Everyone was sight reading and everyone was struggling.
3. The proper hired cellist leading our section wasn't getting it spot on by a long shot and didn't do the same bowing twice, mouthing apologies to the rest of us the whole time, and said afterward that this was hard stuff.
4. Our conductor said a couple times that this was going to be really difficult to get right though it looked simple, and we had to work at it loads.
This is where I take myself firmly by the shoulders and say, 'you are a good little learning cellist who will figure this out, do not freak out, just have a good sit down with the part this weekend. And all next week.'
Because at the end of rehearsal those dreaded five words rung out over the church hall:
'Next week is string sectionals.'
!
