My woodwind trio had its first rehearsal back since the Christmas holiday and due to exam leave we’ve not been able to rehearse. The second and third movements are mostely secure and the first is the most difficult so we worked on that. We focused on the dynamics and articulation and started focusing on playing as an ensemble and listening to balance. For the next week I asked everyone to focus on the dynamics in their individual parts and looking at the articulations.
Finer detail
Over the past week I have been focusing on the finer details of the piece to try and elevate it to the next level. In my lesson, my teacher started pointing out some of the accents and diminuendos. At the start of the piece there are three accents that are on very high notes that are proving difficult. I quite often get a squeak instead on the note. My teacher has suggested an embrechure change that should help me get the high notes secure. This week I will be focusing on identifying the dynamics and practising the high notes with this new embrechure.
Christmas practise
Over the Christmas holiday my goal was to break the back of the first movement. I looked at the technical passages and practised them very slowly and in rhythms to get my fingers around them. Attached is an excerpt of my practise technique. It worked well and allowed me to get a feeling of the end tempo of the piece. Over the next week, I will be focusing on dynamics and articulation.
Tchaikovsky 5
On Thursday the 14th of December, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performed a magnificent concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The orchestra was under the baton of John Storgårds, a highly experienced conductor who is the Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, as well as being the Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductors of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Artistic Partner of the Munich Chamber Orchestra. The concert programme consisted of three pieces: ‘Love Scene from Vertigo’ by Bernard Herrmann; the Korngold Violin Concerto with soloist Baiba Skride; and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number 5.
The concert started off with the ‘Love Scene from Vertigo’, an incredibly moving and delicate piece. The score was written for Alfred Hitchcock’s movie ‘Vertigo’ and is unusual as it can stand alone as a concert work without the visual. The piece is mainly string-based (I have to admit when I found out it was mainly strings I thought it was going to be rubbish!) and has fascinating harmonies. The violins were outstandingly balanced and had a beautiful tone. Unfortunately, the rest of the piece was ruined by the fact that the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ushers were talking at the door throughout the whole piece and broke the illusion of the piece. Luckily, the rest of the audience who were far away from the door loved the piece and rightly so.
The orchestra then moved on to play the Korngold Violin Concerto. The soloist was Baibe Skride, a truly virtuosic player. She was born in Latvia and studied there until she moved to the Rostock Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Germany. In the 2017-18 season alone, she is playing with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and many more. The first movement had very complex and interesting harmonies whilst the soloist demonstrated her incredible technical ability. There were moments where you were convinced you were listening to a Hollywood movie. The second movement was exquisite. It was similar to the Herrmann in many ways and the soloist showed off her gorgeous tone and her stunning vibrato. The melodic lines of the violin was supported by delicate orchestral writing. The third movement is a highly decorated piece that is in a theme and variation structure. However, instead of stating the theme, the soloist okays a highly decorated version of the theme, and then plays a simpler version before returning to another highly decorated version of the theme. It is very unusual that I come across a piece that I have never listened to and instantly fall in love with it. The piece was a revelation and received thunderous applause fro the audience, and deservedly so.
The concert then finished with the 5th Symphony by Tchaikovsky. After Tchaikovsky showed the score to a friend how highlighted some of its ‘flaws’ he was so damaged that he called it an awful piece of muck! The first movement starts off with a solo clarinet in a funeral style. The piece then moves to a faster tempo and the listener feels a sense of hope before returning to the darker themes. The movement had some magnificent orchestral tutti sections alongside some fantastic wind solos and low string playing. The second movement then starts with a solo horn that plays a gorgeous melody that is then passed to the clarinet. The oboe the introduces a new more spritely melody before the piece then winds down to a beautiful ending. The movement featured incredible wind and brass solos and was incredibly well balanced and in tune. The third movement is a waltz and is a fairly simple and charming movement. It contrasted nicely to all of the other movements and was very easy to listen to. There are no big surprises. The movement had no stand out players and was probably my least favourite movement. However, the symphony finishes with a spectacular fourth movement which is joyful and triumphant and is a magnificent way to finish the symphony. The symphony received a huge round of applause and topped of a cracking concert. I think I will remember this outstanding concert for years to come.
Saxophone
The piece that I’m currently working on is the Paul Creston Sonata for alto saxophone and piano. I plan on performing this at the school chamber concert (the same concert that my trio will be playing at). Continue reading “Saxophone”
First Rehearsal
On this post there are the videos of my trio on their first rehearsal. The first video is the sight reading. The second is a video at the end of the rehearsal. In this rehearsal we were focusing on rhythm and notes. I think the improvement is monumental. I hope we can keep up this progress! The link is the first video!
Woodwind Trio
To demonstrate my leadership and coaching abilities, I decided to create a woodwind trio that I conduct and coach. The members of the trio are all from my school – Bearsden Academy. We rehearse on Tuesday lunchtimes in the music department from 12:55 till 1:25.
Back in September we met for the first time to discuss what type of piece they wanted to play and when our performance would be. The members of the group are about grade 7 standard and wanted a piece that was challenging but wasn’t ‘too whacky,’ to quote the clarinettist! We decided that an appropriate time to perform would be at our school’s chamber concert.
I listened on YouTube to various recordings of different pieces. However, the piece that I thought the group would enjoy the most was the Three Pastels by Alexander Von Kreisler. It is roughly five minutes long and is in three movements.
I then handed out the music at our first proper rehearsal and I recorded them sight reading part of the first movement. I will post videos of the sight reading and their progress at the end of the rehearsal in the next post. Due to the fact that the music was challenging, the sight reading was very difficult. However, during the rehearsal, we worked on how the parts work together, as well as figuring out the rhythms of the individual parts.
I asked that all the members of the trio listened to the piece on YouTube; they had a look at the other movements and tried to figure out the rest of the rhythms and technical passages in the first movement.
Overall, I think the first rehearsal went really well and the piece was well received by the group. The group are very enthusiastic and are really fun to work with however I feel that in future the group might struggle with focus but that will be revealed in the course of time.
