"When God made time, he made plenty of it." It was our last conductor that said this to us as we worked on Barber's Adagio for Strings, but it is our current conductor who seems to embody it. Bruckner is dense, and even our maestro is quick to admit that the melody is not always so easy to detect. Today as we embarked on the third and last completed movement of this incomplete 9th symphony, he took time to nuance our dynamics and explain transitions. I'm getting the sense in Bruckner that one must smell the harmonies more than groove to the beat or sing along with the violins. Over an hour of rehearsal and we had not covered a full page of music.
I awoke with a cold this morning and so I shut my eyes and rested during times when I didn't have to play, drinking lots of water in the rests and breaks. At one point my empty water bottle fell in an overly dramatic fashion right before we were about to begin. Our conductor looked at me and smiled, "Are you angry?" I just grinned back at him, shaking my head no. In truth I was loving the slow and caring pace of this rehearsal. Couldn't be a better way to spend an under-the-weather morning. He kept teasing me, "I am conductor," he said as he puffed up his chest in a faux-dictatorial manner. We had fun for a minute and then continued.
He seems very sincere about his work with this piece and I'm starting to hear and appreciate Bruckner in a way I never thought possible. He's taking the time to open up the space and while it can be tedious, I think Bruckner is lucky to have someone who understands his music in such a way. And I feel fortunate that to be introduced to Bruckner by such a person. In all honesty, of all the music scheduled this year at HPAC, this was the concert I was least excited about playing. But this dear man has changed my mind. Power to him and all those that work against the odds.
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