Concert report

This week we had our spring concerts. The first was on Monday, and the second was yesterday (Saturday)

I was happy on Monday that I didn't make any major gaffes. I missed the 2 rehearsals prior to the concert because I was traveling, so I was very nervous before Monday's concert.

We played
Butterworth - Shropshire Lad
Holst - Suite No. 2
Vaughn Williams - Pastoral Symphony

The music was beautiful. Our conductor gave a short talk about the Vaughn Williams piece and we played short excerpts from it prior to playing the entire symphony. He wanted the audience to listen for some of the sections, such as the horses and mules in the 3rd movement (love the donkey sounds!), the heroic theme from the winds, and the sound of the bugle...

I thought we played better on Monday, but our conductor thought that Saturday was better, with the exception of the last movement of the Vaughn Williams. The 2nd concert was in a different place than where we rehearse, so the sound balance was very different. I couldn't hear myself very well; couldn't hear my stand partner at all; could hear things I'd never heard before; and couldn't hear sections I was used to hearing in rehearsal. It really threw me off. There was one place where the cellos had a exposed note and I saw our conductor wince when I hit the wrong note (but quickly fixed it). Ouch. Still, it was fun!