{"id":4814,"date":"2010-06-16T12:51:27","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T19:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=4814"},"modified":"2010-06-16T12:53:52","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T19:53:52","slug":"horrors-of-maiden-performances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/16\/horrors-of-maiden-performances\/","title":{"rendered":"horrors of maiden performances"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a well established fact that the first performance of any piece, no matter how simple or complex, is one of the most terrifying things that a performer can do.\u00a0 I’m not necessarily talking about a premiere, just the first time that one adds a piece to one’s performing repertoire.<\/p>\n

I’m working on the Bart\u00f3k Viola Concerto for a faculty concert at this year’s Max Aronoff Viola Institute (20th Anniversary Edition).\u00a0 I’ve worked on the Bart\u00f3k for years – every violist has, at one point or another, studied the piece.\u00a0 And I’ve played the first three pages of it in quite a few orchestral auditions.\u00a0 However, I’ve never performed the piece, either whole or in part, in public (auditions don’t count).\u00a0 I liken the process to riding my bike up a long, gradual climb (maybe 2% grade):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo: freefoto.com | Ian Britton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and then at the end coming to something akin to the famous Alpe d’ Huez (avg. grade of 8%):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo: climbbybike.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rehearsing with pianist Cary Lewis here in town has been a tremendous help.\u00a0 Practicing with a metronome can only do so much, having a living musician playing the accompaniment is so much more useful, and difficult.\u00a0 It’s easy to get distracted by listening to the music of the orchestral part, whereas the click\/beep of the metronome just goes into one’s unconscious and fades into the background.<\/p>\n

I took the big step of recording my run-through with Cary yesterday, and spent my pre-bedtime hour listening to it last night.\u00a0 There is nothing quite so nakedly appalling as listening to one’s self play, except maybe to watch a video of same.\u00a0 But it hones one in on exactly where things need to be touched up (either just a bit, or completely reworked) in a way that nothing short of having a teacher in the room will do.<\/p>\n

It’s also easy, as an orchestral player, to adopt some pretty stupid habits in one’s playing that one might never notice until a solo work is being prepared.\u00a0 Your ear just gets used to what you do, and until you are forced to listen to it, you assume that everything is just going swimmingly.\u00a0 For me, it’s my use of vibrato.\u00a0 I stop vibrating in places where it really isn’t musically appropriate, and that’s pretty easy to fix, once I’m aware of it.\u00a0 Also, in orchestral playing, there might be a few bars here and there that are quite exposed, and even more rare are actual solo passages (especially for the #2 player), and a concerto is nothing BUT solo passages, all of which are difficult by design (concertos are meant to show off every aspect of the player’s technique and the instrument’s range), and that is always something to get used to as well.<\/p>\n

So, I’ve got ten days to go until the pedal hits the metal – wish me luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a well established fact that the first performance of any piece, no matter how simple or complex, is one of the most terrifying things that a performer can do.\u00a0 I’m not necessarily talking about a premiere, just the first time that one adds a piece to one’s performing repertoire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[135,138,22],"tags":[2307],"class_list":["post-4814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soloists-recitals","category-summer-festivals","category-viola","tag-bartok-viola-concerto"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1fE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13228,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/18\/pyp-presents-adventurous-enviable-program-on-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":0},"title":"pyp presents adventurous, enviable program on saturday","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Being a member of the Oregon Symphony, while being, essentially, a job, is often a joy as well. I get to play some of the greatest music ever written with my amazing colleagues. We have a wonderfully musical music director, and a hard working staff, without whom we would not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "concert preview"","block_context":{"text":"concert preview","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/concert-preview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_4589","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7322\/12608838184_0249f8aa9b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7322\/12608838184_0249f8aa9b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7322\/12608838184_0249f8aa9b_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4755,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/08\/bartoks-viola-concerto-a-tale-of-too-many-options\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":1},"title":"bart\u00f3k’s viola concerto – a tale of too many options","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Bart\u00f3k's Viola Concerto remained unfinished at the time of his death in New York City in September of 1945, with its dedicatee William Primrose awaiting a call to meet the composer that would never come.\u00a0 The story of the completion of the concerto is well-known, with Bart\u00f3k's former composition student\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/bartok.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4768,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/10\/bartok-viola-concerto-a-tale-of-three-editions\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":2},"title":"bartok viola concerto – a tale of three editions","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a few days since I first posted on the quandary that violists find themselves in when approaching the various editions of the largely incomplete Bart\u00f3k Viola Concerto.\u00a0 Let's take an example from a passage from the end of the first movement (just before the Ritornello that transitions from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/bartok_ex_manu-399x133.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5549,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/09\/new-performances-on-instantencore\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":3},"title":"new performances on instantencore","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a heads up that I've got two new performance recordings up on InstantEncore.com. They're both from this past summer's 2010 Max Aronoff Viola Institute, which I co-founded 20 years ago and have served on the faculty ever since. The works are the Bart\u00f3k Viola Concerto and Daniel Ott's Parting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4906,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/25\/mavi-first-rehearsals\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":4},"title":"mavi – first rehearsals","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"MAVI - the shorthand moniker for the Max Aronoff Viola Institute - the string camp that I helped co-found 20 years ago with University of Puget Sound viola professor Joyce Ram\u00e9e - is starting this coming Sunday up at Bastyr University, so it's time for the pre-festival rehearsing to begin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4925,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/28\/mavi-day-one-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":5},"title":"mavi – day one report","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The first day (half-day really) of the 20th Max Aronoff Viola Institute went quite well.\u00a0 Heather and I drove up from Tacoma, arriving around 1 p.m. at the Bastyr University campus.\u00a0 We got our stuff moved in, and then I started to warm up for my 2 p.m. dress rehearsal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/2647609008_8d7e82e6b0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}