Feast

Today we had 6 of us, 2 violas no less! For a long time my Saturday chamber group has been 3 of us playing piano trios. I love piano trios but we were longing for a change, and I wanted to play the cello. It started last week when I was gone, but for some reason all sorts of people have found out about our group and are asking to join...

A new violist joined the group. She said that she began playing 7 months ago after a 20-year break. She fit right in and we are happy to have another violist. A string chamber group like ours can never have too many violas! The leader of the other group I play with on Sundays was able to join us today. He is the versatile person who plays violin, viola, and cello, and today he got to play each one (not at the same time, of course!). A new person, a flautist, came too. I felt bad for her. This group reads through music, sometimes not too much slower than speed, and she could not play with us. We had her double with our first violinist, but she spent most of the time sitting there not able to play. We slowed down one fairly easy piece quite a bit, to try to have her join in, but she couldn't keep up even at a slow speed. So, we went back to playing faster. I wonder if she'll come back...this shows how hard it is to find a group to play that is at the right level. This group has been so patient with me during my efforts to keep up. Everyone has been playing for a long time and playing with people who play better than me over the past 2 years has helped me improve my playing.

We started with string trios - a Beethoven Divertmento and a Schubert trio. Then our new violist came and we switched to a Mendelssohn quartet. Then another violinist came and we played quintets for the rest of the time. We played through some of the Schubert 2-cello quintet, the Vivaldi g-minor double cello concerto, and a Mozart string quintet (2 violas! what a luxury!). We played for a very long time today. It was so much fun! My fingers still hurt, though!

I just want to get home....

I am stuck at the San Jose airport. The flight time kept creeping back...from 6:30pm to 7:30 to 9:00 and now about 10pm....meaning if we actually leave at the new time I'll get home around 1am. I'm exhausted from the week and really didn't need a severely delayed flight. For a while it wasn't even clear whether the airline could even get us out tonight. I tried to switch to a different flight but everything is sold out, even at the other nearby airports (San Francisco and Oakland airports aren't far away).

What really tweaks me out was that I wanted to take an earlier flight, but my manager switched a meeting that was originally scheduled for Friday to this afternoon, forcing me to stay on this extremely delayed flight...and then didn't bother to show up for the meeting. Aargh...

Sneaking off to Play the Cello....

It's been a very busy week - my days have started at 5am and finished at 10pm, with the exception of Sunday, which started at 1pm and ended at 10pm. I am really tired - one more 1/2 day to go and then I can fly home.

It was a delight to play the cello with my friend! We both brought music, and of course didn't get to play through much of it, so we have a lot to look forward to if we ever get to play together again (and fantasize about playing together with better cellos!).

On Sunday her flight was late, so she hadn't arrived during the time we were going to play; but we managed to sneak away for a 1/2 hour and play! We played some of the de Fesch sonatas for 2 cellos, while she got used to her rental cello.

On Monday we snuck away for another 1/2 hour at lunch time and then again before dinner - playing through some of the Bartok duets (the ones originally written for 2 violins but of course arranged for 2 cellos), more de Fesch

Yesterday we played 2 movements from the Vivaldi double cello concerto, some Popper duets, and then tried to play a Haydn duet but were too exhausted to play any more. There never was enough time to play....

Today we were going to play, but work interfered for both of us and we were never free at the same time. I'm afraid that the little time we had to play was it for this trip; tomorrow we are both leaving as soon as the program is over. I need to rush back to my brother's house to drop off the rental cello plus other assorted stuff and get back to the office for one last meeting before I leave for the airport.

I brought orchestra music and the Popper Requiem to practice since our concert is now less than 2 weeks away. I managed to get some practice time in late at night, since it is now panic practice time to get ready for the concert.

Good thing I will have part of next week to recover and get back on my cello! And it will be nice to be able to sleep in this weekend...

The start of a busy week...

It is the start of a busy week. It may be Sunday, but I have a full work day ahead, with the first meeting starting at 1pm, the next at 3pm, then a full evening ahead when the program that I am working on kicks off at 5pm. I expect to be completely exhausted by the time I get home Thursday night.

But there will be some time for cello! One of the people coming (well, actualy teaching) the program, is a cellist, but she lives in the Boston area. We have talked about playing together for over a year, but the challenge has always been how to get 2 cellos in the Bay Area. This week she has arranged to rent a cello from the same place where I rent the one I have here in the Bay Area...so we are going to play together! Hooray! I picked the cello up yesterday (she arrives today, when the place is closed), and later today will be transporting both cellos from my brother's house (where I stayed last night) to the hotel where we will both be staying for the rest of the week. I am really looking forward to playing with her!

I even brought a bow down with me; I haven't really liked the bow with my rental cello. Last night I played around with both cellos, switching between the 3 bows. It was fascinating to hear the differences between the cellos and the differences in sound with the same cello and the various bows. The bow that is paired with my rental cello is by far the worst bow - I now understand why I've disliked playing the rental cello so much.

The 2 cellos had very different sounds; the one my friend is renting has a much more mellow sound than the one I have, which was set up to be more powerful in the upper range. I'll have to try to mellow out the sound of my rental when we play together, which I was playing around with last night. I think it was a sign of the progress that I've made that I was able to even tell the difference in the sounds and even more to the point, begin to feel like I could control the sound even a tiny bit with my bow. Last week I was waffling about carrying a bow down with me for this trip, but now that I've had the chance to play with all 3 bows and the cellos, I'm glad I did.

I am going to be quite the sight when I arrive at the hotel! Suitcase, 2 cellos, computer, extra bow, and bag of stuff with things I normally leave at my brother's house - definitely not my usual travel light scenario!!!

Playing for the Dalai Lama

During last week's orchestra rehearsal, our conductor mentioned that we needed to look for the invitation to play the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for the Dalai Lama.

There is a 5-day event in Seattle in April hosted by a group called Seeds of Compassion, featuring the Dalai Lama. For the last session of the 5 days, the organization is partnering with the Seattle Symphony to gather a mass orchestra and choir to play the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth. Our conductor said that Maestro Gerard Schwartz of the Seattle Symphony wanted 300(!) people from the community to play in the orchestra, so he has reached out to many of the area community orchestra and choral groups to assemble a massive number of musicians to perform.

We got the invitation today. I signed up, hoping that I'll be able to fit it into my work schedule. Who could resist playing not only for the Dalai Lama, but for Desmond Tutu as well? There will be one rehearsal the night before the event. Maestro Schwartz will conduct. I'm kind of giggly about all of this...if I actually do this I'll be able to say that I've played for the Dalai Lama!

Playing Nice with Each Other: Not!

Popper rehearsal today: we are starting to sound pretty good when we're on our own; only 2 more rehearsals left with the orchestra before our concert. Playing with the orchestra is so different than playing with just the 3 of us. The first concert is in 3 weeks but I will be in the Bay Area all of that middle week, and will have to practice with the rental cello. I'm glad I have a week back on my cello prior to performing. It takes me a day to switch back to my cello.

I'm still trying to figure out why Cello1's advice rubs both me and Cello2 the wrong way. Her playing is incredible technically; she sounds great. I've learned a lot from her. Her advice is right - what she recommends does improve how we're playing the piece. We are definitely playing and sounding good because of her passion and insistence on how we should play. But there is something about the way she delivers the advice that sets me on edge (and from Cello2's comments after last week and this week's rehearsals, him too).

Today's advice to me was about vibrato. She kept showing me how my vibrato was wrong and then demonstrating how it "should" work. She also wanted me to time my vibrato so that I did 4 vibrations per 32nd note. Now, those of you who have been reading my previous posts may have read about my trials and tribulations with vibrato - I can barely keep my vibrato steady and keep it going through a long note, much less control how many I am doing per beat! We went through some of my bits a few times, with her correcting me every time (showing me what I was doing wrong and then demonstrating how to do it 'right' saying each time, see, it sings better this way or see, it sounds better when you do it this way). I was definitely trying, but...I really need some time on my own to practice. Cello2 got even more of a lesson, on bowing - she kept telling him that he wasn't bowing sections of his solos correctly, and she showed him how she thought they should be bowed (saying, see, this is how to make a beautiful sound) and then kept making him play it over and over again, even after he said, I'll practice it this way this week...

I know we're playing the piece better because of Cello1, but it has been so darn unpleasant. Neither he nor I have any desire to play an ensemble piece with Cello1 again. Ever.

New Strings!

I changed my strings today! I'd forgotten how wonderful new strings sound. It was like I'd suddenly improved a lot - all just from the new strings! I use Larsen soloist for my A & D strings, and Piastro Permanent for the G & C strings. The strings had been sitting there for a few months waiting for me to take the time to change them. Actually, I decided to wait until a few weeks before our concert. I need all the help I can get!

Yesterday at my lesson we continued to work on improving the form of my left arm and worked on using it more, especially for speed work. It's amazing how good form improves tone. We were laughing about why my teacher hadn't gotten me to do this before. I feel like I've been constantly making changes to improve form, and I suppose that I haven't been ready to work on this part of my form prior to building up form and technique with other things.

Chamber group this morning was fun. We had a piano quartet again, although people straggled in during the morning. Cello2 (who I'm playing the Popper with) arrived first, so we spent some time reading through some Offenbach cello duets, Op. 52 Nos. 1 & 2. When our violist showed up I switched to the piano and pretended to be a violin for a Hiller string trio. When our violinist showed up we read through a piano quartet by Novak. It had some good moments; the 2nd movement was nice; the 3rd movement felt like a counting exercise (it kept changing from 6/8 to 3/4 to 6/8 to 2/4 to 6/8 to 4/4....so keeping together was pretty challenging). After that I pretended to be a violin again. Our violinist had found a (or perhaps I should say 'the') Puccini string quartet, so I played violin 2. The quartet was pieced together from a variety of manuscripts. He apparently wrote the quartet as a student composition, and none of it survived together. There was even an alternate version of the trio in it. We really liked the last movement of it. Once we finished that we were done for the day.