There are times when adrenaline works well for you, your fingers feel like oiled machinery on a track. That was last night for me. The Beethoven went like a dream, all the little runs slotted in and I nailed all my entries. The bits in Don Giovanni that felt shaky before, even still in rehearsal in the afternoon, somehow worked out.
I was terrified in the Sinfonia Concertante as I didn't feel as confident about the part but I acquitted myself well, despite my chair.
You see, in the church we were performing in there was a distinct lack of single chairs, and because I wasn't playing cello full time, my chair kept disappearing as other orchestra members suddenly needed one. Just before the concert started I had to run around looking a spare one. I finally found one in the front foyer and put it in my place, telling my cello section-mates to stab anyone trying to take it with their bows.
But when I walked down to the cello section and sat in it before we started the piece, it made an ominous cracking sound. I dared not move a muscle in my lower half for the whole performance in case my chair disintegrated. I shifted once, and the chair complained with another crack. At interval, two audience members, who were sitting right next to me in the first row, mentioned it to me so I didn't come back and truly fall on my rear end. When I thanked them and said I did know the chair was broken, one woman said 'I know! I could see it in your face!' That was probably the panic then.
The extra elements of stress we don't need right in the middle of a concert! Whew.
Starting in January: Mendelssohn 1, Barber of Seville overture (oooh so glad I'm not playing flute now!) and Saint-Saens' Morceau de concert for solo harp.
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