![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/prokofiev.jpg?resize=580%2C213\" "\\"prokofiev\\"")
<\/p>\nIt’s official: I’ve reached the age where an afternoon nap is essential to a decent performance. My eyesight is also not as good as it used to be: I have to go to the eye doctor soon and see if I need glasses. These two factors seemed to play a role in my part of this past weekend’s performances.<\/p>\n
First of all, this is not a hugely difficult program. The Russlan & Ludmilla overture is part of our bread and butter. We trot it out for just about every kids or special concert to wow the crowds. It was tightened up a bit for Carlos, but was pretty much business as usual for us. The Prokofiev Second Violin Concerto is not a staple of ours, but it doesn’t have any huge technical demands. Finally, the Rachmaninoff Second Symphony is in the blood of this orchestra, so while it does present some technical challenges, it is a known quantity to us.<\/p>\n
So, what makes this program interesting is that the concerto and the symphony are tricky – you cannot let down your guard for a second, or you will make a grievous error. There is one section in the last movement of the Prokofiev that is renowned to viola sections due to its trickiness – it’s a passage that is probably quite easy to play on Prokofiev’s chosen instrument – the piano – but it’s really a pain to play on a stringed instrument.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It’s sort of the same deal with the Rachmaninoff. It’s written quite well for stringed instruments, but some of the bowings that result from what Rachmaninoff writes present some challenges, such as feeling like your bow ought to be going in the opposite direction that it is. What makes the edition that we use infuriating is that it has a ton of printed in fingerings that some boneheaded editor thought would be helpful. Let’s talk fingerings for a moment, shall we? Ok. Fingerings are exactly what you might think. They’re notations that tell us which finger of our left hand to place on the string for a given note. Some musicians (like me) use a fair number of them. Others (like Jo\u00ebl, my stand partner) prefer to have as few notations as possible in the part. Each set of stand partners will come to some sort of equilibrium as to how much is written in the part. But at least you have a choice. In the Rachmaninoff, they’re printed in, so they cannot be erased, or even effectively written over (which just makes more of a mess). So you’re stuck with whatever crazy fingering some violist from the 1940’s put in there. Here’s an example from our part:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/rach.jpg?resize=580%2C74\" "\\"rach\\"")
<\/p>\n
So, one is spending a few milliseconds per note trying to figure out what one’s own fingering is while also ignoring the printed fingering, but also trying to figure out if the printed one actually matches one’s own fingering. You might see why that would present some problems when the music is flying by at half-note = 80 or so.<\/p>\n
More on the weekend’s concerts soon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s official: I’ve reached the age where an afternoon nap is essential to a decent performance. My eyesight is also not as good as it used to be: I have to go to the eye doctor soon and see if I need glasses. These two factors seemed to play a role in my part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[2],"tags":[2814,3668,2810,2808],"class_list":["post-6927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-fingerings","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-prokofiev","tag-rachmaninoff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1NJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1424,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/13\/upcoming-classical-concert-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":6927,"position":0},"title":"upcoming classical concert thoughts","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend comes Classical 4, which features an interesting program: Too Hot Toccata by Aaron Jay Kernis, Concerto in F by George Gershwin, and Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony. It's interesting because each work on the program is a standard form with an individual \"take\" on the form in the eyes of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/23\/a-look-back-pt-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":6927,"position":1},"title":"a look back, pt. 1","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought I'd start off next Monday by taking a retrospective at the 2007-2008 OSO season, both on stage and off. But for now, a list of the works we performed this season on the Classical Subscription and Inside the Score series. I'm always somewhat dumbfounded when I look through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6918,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/09\/23\/russian-triptych\/","url_meta":{"origin":6927,"position":2},"title":"russian triptych","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The rehearsal period for our first classical series concerts has finished, and Saturday night we play our first of three concerts here at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (click here for tickets). It's an all-Russian program (which can often feel like an all-rushin' program, with all of the fast passagework\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "programming"","block_context":{"text":"programming","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/programming-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/17_18-300x382.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13712,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/08\/2014-2105-a-retrospective-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":6927,"position":3},"title":"2014-2105: a retrospective, part two","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, for the big list - the stuff I played with the Oregon Symphony this past season*. Lots of variety, and some holes in repertoire that I really couldn't believe when I looked at the list - only one work by Brahms, for example? Hm... Barber - Adagio for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/noble-oso-pic-e1408736178252.jpg?fit=451%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":353,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/07\/good-ideas-in-st-louis\/","url_meta":{"origin":6927,"position":4},"title":"good ideas in st. louis","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been reading the St. Louis Symphony's blog and have found it an interesting and entertaining read. Perhaps this is something that the OSO might want to try, with different staff members writing about different aspects of the sprawling operation that is a major symphony orchestra. In the latest entry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":935,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/19\/kalmar-prokofiev-earthshaking\/","url_meta":{"origin":6927,"position":5},"title":"kalmar, prokofiev earthshaking","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Friday, the St. Louis area was awakened by the shaking of a 5.2 magnitude earthquake.\u00c2\u00a0 That evening the St. Louis Symphony was led by OSO music director Carlos Kalmar in a performance that included the Fifth Symphony of Sergei Prokofiev.\u00c2\u00a0 According to this review and other accounts, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6927","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=6927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}