Whenever we do a major, difficult work, even if it’s core repertoire, I’m surprised by my own individual performance and how it changes night to night.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know why I’m surprised – it seems to follow the same pattern every time – it’s like catching a cold every year: the buildup is always the same, and you never realize you’re coming down with the bug until it’s upon you.<\/p>\n
Saturday night is nervous night.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m never sure if the rough patches that I’ve been struggling with will come off, and if I’ll be a good, supportive stand partner to our excellent principal, Jo\u00c3\u00abl Belgique.\u00c2\u00a0 Every sense is on edge, and there is often a bit of pulling of punches, so to speak, and second-guessing.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually I do ok on the first night – it doesn’t feel great, but usually the job gets done and I can go home without a bag over my head.\u00c2\u00a0 Generally speaking, the whole orchestra is in the same boat for the opening night.<\/p>\n
Sundays I always think that it’s going to be much easier, and I can just play, and everything will be gravy.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, right!\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve gone over the rough spots again, warmed up thoroughly (always a bigger project on Sundays since we haven’t had a morning rehearsal that day) and am feeling good.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the concert comes, I’m loose and ready to go, the bow goes to the string, and I cannot play my instrument<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Literally – anything above a mezzo-forte turns into horrible crunching, I’m mis-reading whole lines of triple-stops, and life just sucks really, really bad.\u00c2\u00a0 I should learn to bring my paper sack with me on Sunday nights – if I don’t feel like putting it over my head, I can at least fill it with what’s left of my dignity and self-respect and skulk on home.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s too bad, since it’s often the night that the orchestra sounds its best.<\/p>\n Monday nights are often the best for me, but often not so for the entire orchestra.\u00c2\u00a0 People are getting tired, most often we’ve started rehearsing some other program that same morning, and some of the focus is gone.\u00c2\u00a0 A bit of squirreliness and mannered playing can begin to creep its way in, too.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s strange, because I find that for me, it’s often my best night since it combines the focus of Saturday night with the looseness of Sunday night.<\/p>\n It’s frustrating on so many levels, because I cannot seemingly practice enough hours to make the focus problem go away (though I could get more sleep and exercise – hm…) and that when I sound my best the orchestra sounds at its worst, and vice versa.\u00c2\u00a0 At least I’m not a solo wind player, I would last about 10 minutes in that hell hole of Prozac and stomach acid!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever we do a major, difficult work, even if it’s core repertoire, I’m surprised by my own individual performance and how it changes night to night.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know why I’m surprised – it seems to follow the same pattern every time – it’s like catching a cold every year: the buildup is always the […]<\/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":[115,2,22],"tags":[159,3668,3660],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","category-viola","tag-concert","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-ff","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1297,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/17\/close-call\/","url_meta":{"origin":945,"position":0},"title":"close call","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, my cycling adventures continue.\u00c2\u00a0 I was out on a ride this morning ( a beautiful fall day for riding!) with my neighbor Jon and we were coming back up Upper Boones Ferry Road on our way to Hall Blvd.\u00c2\u00a0 I was riding in front, and I noticed a brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cycling"","block_context":{"text":"cycling","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/cycling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2813,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/05\/going-mental\/","url_meta":{"origin":945,"position":1},"title":"going mental","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo - pavlen|istockphoto.com I had a strange, roller coaster like experience with my performances at the Aronoff Institute last week.\u00c2\u00a0 The Brahms clarinet trio that came on opening night was one of those performances where everything worked: the difficult sections felt easy, the ensemble clicked, it all fell together just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"iStock_000008183124XSmall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/iStock_000008183124XSmall.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7384,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/03\/09\/saturday-is-viola-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":945,"position":2},"title":"saturday is viola night","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a duel between two violists this saturday night: teacher vs. student in a cross park blocks skirmish. At Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall is the student: violist Lauren Siess plays the great Viola Concerto of William Walton with the Portland Youth Philharmonic under music director David Hattner. Across the park\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":954,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/09\/eastern-exposure\/","url_meta":{"origin":945,"position":3},"title":"eastern exposure","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm here in La Grande, Oregon with the Oregon Symphony, in case you're wondering.\u00c2\u00a0 And it's been a busy first day.\u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday my wife (a freelance\u00c2\u00a0cellist who plays often with the orchestra) and I arrived here at around 9:00 p.m., enjoying the great change of scenery and ecosystems that we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":203,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/10\/spring-recital-planned\/","url_meta":{"origin":945,"position":4},"title":"spring recital planned","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"My first major, formal recital in Portland (it only took 11 years!!) will take place on Saturday, April 7th at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Music Center (3350 SE Francis St, Portland, 97202). I'm delighted to be able to invite some of my incredibly talented colleagues to join with me\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":4187,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/12\/tough-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":945,"position":5},"title":"tough stuff","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend is a bit of a strange classical week for us, with this program being played only once in Portland, on a Sunday matinee.\u00a0 On Saturday evening, we bring the show on the road (down Route 99W, to be exact) to Newberg, to the excellent auditorium at George Fox\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"click to enlarge image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/rvwexcerpt-400x287.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945","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=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Monday<\/h3>\n