Tonight was my first time playing in an orchestra since August. It is my first gig in New York and it is a pretty good sounding group of musicians. We're playing Ginastera's Concert Variations and Harp Concerto, so there is ample opportunity for people to show their abilities. It is an honor to be playing with them.
I have a hunch that my stand partner, a seemingly very well-seasoned free-lancer in New York, is quite accustomed to playing these sorts of gigs. There is a feeling about seasoned orchestral musicians, a take it or leave it when it comes to conductor suggestions, a need to express one's own feelings about how things are going in a subtle and secretive way.
It is once again exciting to be in the presence of so many sounds and colors and once again, amazing to realize the limits of our listening abilities. At several points in the rehearsal, I realized that I had no idea what was being rehearsed. Never when it pertained to me. I have a trained orchestra musician's ability to tune out when it regards someone else, but can hear rehearsal numbers when it is time to start again (like the way Japanese people sleep on the trains but never miss their stop). But what narrow-minded approach! At some point in the process I realize the flute is playing a solo, or that we are together with the timpani. There is so much to hear, so much to discover, and it is so easy to just be in one part of the whole drama.
And exciting to have another opportunity to live this challenge again.
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