Category Archives: Flute

I stumbled across the LSO on Tour blog, which Gareth Davies, talented flautist, is currently writing. I think my favourite bit is the description of pegs, wind and music stands, and the coordination of, which most of us have experienced at one time or other:

'The
second half began with a huge gust of wind as we played the opening of
Brahms 2. I reached for my pegs and carried on. Its all right when you
are a string player, as you have two players to a stand, so at least
one of you keeps playing whilst the other puts pegs on everything. I am
always left in a bit of a pickle. Take the first page turn of the
Brahms. It is pegged to the stand on the left and right hand sides. At
the end of the right hand page I have 4 bars to turn, always a bit
tricky at this speed, but much worse when you have to undo two pegs. To
make matters worse, on the next page is a solo, so I have to decide
whether to sacrifice the last few bars of page 1 and peg down page 2 to
play the solo; or do I play the last 4 bars of page 1 , turn and leave
page 2 unpegged, thereby courting a possible wind induced solo
malfunction? I should add that whilst I am making such important split
second decisions, there is a camera on a boom swinging over the second
violins coming straight at me for my solo. It is at this point that I
am sitting on the edge of my chair, my flute on my lap, trying to peg
down one side of music with the other peg in my mouth, looking like a
right idiot. Should make compelling viewing. I bet you never knew
playing the flute could be so stressful.'

Read the rest of the entry for the full-scale chaos of the entire LSO leaving the stage quickly in inclement weather.