Last night was the second and final of our Heidelberg concerts, like the night before in the Johannes-Brahms-Saal in the Musikschule. It was at least significantly cooler (though still hot enough to sweat copiously whilst playing), and the air blowers kept running, but I had some concentration and energy issues.
These were no doubt associated with me going directly from a three-hour choir rehearsal to the setup rehearsal and then concert, with only a Bretzel and a few vegetables to keep me going. Healthy eating, perhaps, for someone enjoying a leisurely day in a sun lounger, but for playing… insufficient. I was glad of the availability of “Hungarian” biscuits to get my sugar levels up during the interval.
I mentioned yesterday how I didn’t really get on too well with this semester’s programme. There’s one piece - OK, I’ll name it, the Rhapsodie Romaine by Georges Enescu - that grates more the more I play it, and another - all right, it’s the Verbunkos Suite by Rezsö Kókai - that I don’t play in, but find dull, pointless and repetitive beyond belief to listen to. There are no doubt some aspects of it that make it theoretically interesting, such as a general build up of orchestration as a story becomes more complex… but the piece doesn’t work for me.
It’s this sort of thing that makes me pity and respect the professional concert musician all the more: surviving the repetition of concert after concert playing the same thing, whilst maintaining the control and pride to keep the standards high (no doubt tinged by fear of losing the gig (aka, job)).
My last trombone teacher did say how he envied me being able to play the instrument as a hobby: I could cycle up and down levels of playing as required, whereas he needs to maintain a high standard almost permanently, whatever the temperatures.
