Clarinet on the Town....
Hello! For those of you who don't yet know me, I'm Sally, the Orchestra and Auditions Administrator for the SSO and occasional member of the Merchant Sinfonia clarinet section. I'm going to be giving a clarinettists-eye view of the rehearsals each week, and sharing your views and (clean) stories from the pub as well :)
What a fantastic sectional with Barry Deacon last week! I could hear the difference almost immediately - the section was playing as one; breathing together, moving together and generally making a lovely sonorous sound. I was very proud of us all! There are some really tricky sections in the Offenbach, namely clarinet cadenzas and fast passages in f# major, but the section is certainly coping admirably - pats on the back all round!
As for pub stories this week.....lovely to see a member of the April term come and join us for a drink afterwards - that's true MS dedication! Any other April attendees who fancy popping in after a rehearsal: you're all welcome. I also have a recollection of a lot of photos being taken. Perhaps we need a group on a certain social networking site so we can share and comment on photos and arrange socials? Let me know what you think next week.
Well I'm off just now to practise my f# major scales.....
'Lock and loll'
Sally :)
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~07~RS~)
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Have just found the blogs for the fab merchant sinfonia... or as one friend put it - that tuesday night orchestra thing you do. I think he may be a bit jealous of us, but really, 5 oboes would be a touch excessive!
Great to be back and playing again after the summer - can hardly beleive we are just about into week 4 of 7 already!
Really enjoying the music (except the 2nd Oboe part for Sibelius which should be burnt) and very much looking forward to 7th December.
Hope some more people will find there way here to add comments too. I think constant encouragement it required!
... And I agree with you on the social networking thing, Sally!
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Well, we have been told to blog. So I’m blogging! Week 4 of 7 already and the music is beginning to blossom-well, a bit. Last week we were a bit thin on the ground-there seemed to be a few people away or off sick, including the first violin and our principal cello. This has fairly major issues for us in the cello section, because there are sections of our music that only Pamela can play. When we get to runs of fast hemi semi quavers, brutal arpeggios or just plain undoable shifts, the rest of us just pretend like fury and Pamela just has to play for all six of us. She does so well that the section collapses when she isn’t there. Well, last Tuesday she wasn’t there, and neither were two of the others, so we were reduced to three. And in comes Jeremy Bushell, the SSO player who has been railroaded into soloing with us in our concert when we play some of Strauss’ horn concerto. Now some of this involves horn and cello. Just horn and cello. In the absence of Pamela, that means…just horn, really. Oh dear. Jeremy played gamely through the movement, and we all played happily along beside him, and we did finish together-ish, but I suspect he is bitterly regretting agreeing to get involved with us. He popped in last night for a word with Louise, probably to tell her that his professional reputation would be forever wrecked if he was associated with us, especially since the cello section seemed a bit unprepared! Happily Louise seemed to be having none of it, so he is stuck with us. I suspect we will have improved a bit come December.
Last night, things were much better. Lots of players, including the full cello complement (which had actually fallen to five since the week before). Just as we were due to start, in came Ilan Volkov. Louise explained to us that Ilan wanted to hear us play, and we all started to laugh, partly in panic. Louise was completely unfazed by the appearance of the SSO’s chief conductor; she was already performing under the watchful eye of her mum, who was sitting in the corner supervising. I think the orchestra was a bit thrown though. Ilan is conducting our concert in December, so presumably he wanted to hear just what it was he was going to have to deal with. Well, we crashed our way through Finlandia for Ilan’s benefit. Some of us have only played that once ever in our lives. The brass had a great time. They hang about up the back, make as much noise as they can, and can’t even spell piano. Ilan looked a bit shellshocked. I suppose when you’re used to working with the SSO, our enthusiastic anarchy must come as a bit of a jolt. Or maybe he was just really impressed-we can play all sorts of notes that he’s never heard in his life from the SSO! After all, the Sunday Times reviewed us as being 'simply wonderful'.
It is amazing how much our orchestra improves over time, given the mix of abilities that makes it up. But most of all, it never ceases to amaze me how much fun it is.
Allison from cellos
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Testing 123. Is this thing on? Good evening, fellow Merchant Sinfonians, or should that be Sinfoneers? Just testing to see if my new secret identity works.
TTFN
Karen of the clarinets.
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