I suppose Wakuwaku can't go on forever. No one said that it would. But what a sudden surprise to realize that we have only four more performances of this program remaining. In two days, less than 48 hours from now, this Wakuwaku year will come to a close; Smetana's famous melody from the Moldau and the lively wedding folk dance will be laid to rest. No more the excitement of Rossini's William Tell Overture or Bizet's Intermezzo and Farandole. (Fear not, the Radetzky March will surely escape this coming end.) The carefully made arrangements for viola sextet and bassoon duet will be stacked on someone's dining room table for a few weeks until being filed away for next year or until the memory of love's labor is forgotten into the every-other-Monday paper disposal. A computer file lives forever...
In this last week, our new steady-hearted conductor revitalized some very small things in our well-worn performance patterns, pointing out intonation in places where we'd never really heard the harmony, addressing ensemble in places where it was never quite together, pulling out the melody from the dustpan. There's only so much you can do in a short one-hour rehearsal on music that has been engrained in 30-plus performances and will only live on for a few more for the benefit of a sleepy group of middle-schoolers. I feel really lucky whenever I encounter those who do it anyway.
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