I’m convinced that there is no harder test of one’s orchestral mettle than playing a Beethoven symphony – especially the Symphony No. 2.<\/p>\n
What a pain (literally – there are next to no rests for the violas, and we’re busy all the time, scrubbing away or doing something that requires just the wrong combination of physical effort and mental concentration) this piece is!<\/p>\n
Compared to it, the Wagner Overture to Tannh\u00c3\u00a4user<\/em> was a walk in the park (albeit a brisk one tonight!).<\/p>\n Oy, my arms and neck are sore!<\/p>\n More later on our guest conductor and how the concert went last night…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m convinced that there is no harder test of one’s orchestral mettle than playing a Beethoven symphony – especially the Symphony No. 2. What a pain (literally – there are next to no rests for the violas, and we’re busy all the time, scrubbing away or doing something that requires just the wrong combination of […]<\/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_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":[115,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-eq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/23\/a-look-back-pt-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":894,"position":0},"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":13129,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/29\/beethoven-with-a-side-of-laugh-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":894,"position":1},"title":"beethoven with a side of laugh-in","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, our break is over, and the Oregon Symphony is getting back in to the new year by playing in both the wading pool and the deep end all at the same time. The first half of these two concerts (December 30\/31 at 7:00 pm) is a bit of a\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\/2013\/12\/kalmar12_cr_Leah_Nash_original.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6124,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/06\/opening-statements\/","url_meta":{"origin":894,"position":2},"title":"opening statements","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The concert the Oregon Symphony is presenting this weekend has been given the title \"A Pair of Sixth Symphonies\". The first of the pair is by a Czech composer who many have heard of, Bohuslav Martinu, but whose works most likely have remained unknown to the vast majority of\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\/2011\/04\/kunsthandel_stephan_andreewitch_ansicht_von_wien_von_ptzleinsdorf_aus_gesehen_12573345815208-e1302140214362.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8295,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/05\/beethoven-nine-sold-out-dress-rehearsal-tix-available\/","url_meta":{"origin":894,"position":3},"title":"beethoven nine sold out – dress rehearsal tix available","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's great news for us at the Oregon Symphony - all three concerts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony have sold out! If you were hoping to come, and weren't able to get tickets in time, you still have a chance, here's the info from the Oregon Symphony website (where you can\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":"beethoven2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/beethoven2-400x499.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3274,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/19\/thoughts-on-three-bs\/","url_meta":{"origin":894,"position":4},"title":"thoughts on three B’s","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Kiril Gerstein, pianist Tonight is the last of the three concerts making up the first of Classical Series B at the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 The program is a variation upon the famous \"Three B's\" concert format - usually Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.\u00a0 This time it's Bach, Bernstein and Beethoven.\u00a0 It pits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kirill Gerstein 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Kirill-Gerstein-1-200x298.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3020,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/26\/pre-season-highlights\/","url_meta":{"origin":894,"position":5},"title":"pre-season highlights","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As the beginning of the 2009-2010 Oregon Symphony season comes quickly upon us, it has become time to look at what some of my personal highlights might be.\u00a0 I say might, because sometimes the concerts that I most look forward to fall flat, and those which I think might be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sept08CarlosKalmar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sept08CarlosKalmar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","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=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}