Over two decades of sitting behind the cello and it's finally happening. I'm playing a Bruckner symphony. It's not really something that I've missed or sought, but it's interesting to finally be in the middle of it. So far my experience is that I have a hard time finding the rehearsal letters on the page and a hard time hearing the melodies in the texture. Maybe that's why we need "hervortretend," the German term that tells us something is supposed to be prominent. What is a melody anyway? We used to teach kids that it's the thing you sing, but sometimes, like many things in elementary school, it gets a little more complicated later on (see Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunair).
The week-long yasumi that we had in late February and the reduced personnel needed for the last program meant that many of our members left Japan for auditions or good times abroad. Bruckner has brought us all together again. We packed into the rehearsal space and our conductor, a small young Japanese man, took to the podium. "May I ask you to start at letter H?" Well sure, why not? "Please don't look at me, the conductor only gets in the way, but I'm here so...." Ok, we're orchestra musicians so it shouldn't be too hard to manage. "Violins can you please make the phrase two measures (sings it)? I know it's my problem, but please help me." Of course, why didn't anyone just say so before? Such a sweet little man. This is his second year in a row conducting a Bruckner symphony at HPAC and it seems that he has recorded this particular symphony, the 9th, before.
And so here we go together, looking for things that one another may be able to offer: he seeking my permission to work, I seeking his understanding of this goliath of a piece.
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