No Love for Elgar

It was a rather weird orchestra rehearsal last night. Elgar's Cello Concerto. First read through. It was rough.

The first chair cello is an older man who is a fine musician. For some reason, he just doesn't like me, or I try to believe that he just doesn't like bass players in general. I am not sure he even knows my name. He had made snarky remarks about Gerry and me in front of the orchestra during rehearsals last year. Remember, Gerry was just returning to the instrument after 40 years and is doing an amazing job. She should pass me in a short period of time! But, he was constantly directing negative comments towards us. I spoke with the conductor about it towards the end of last season and it has calmed down a bit. I think the conductor got a whiff that I was not going to hang around if it didn't stop.

Last night, Mr. Cello took full control of the orchestra and it took twenty minutes to get through the first eight measures of his big show piece. The conductor gave his power away. No one in the orchestra had performed this piece before. Usually, we start with just playing it through then we will go back to tweak the emotional elements with the remainder of the rehearsals. Not last night. He talked. He had hold and was not letting go. Each measure had to be discussed. It was painfully long. The piece itself is a conversation between funny clown and a straight clown, the latter being the orchestra. It had difficult time signatures and not a lot of fun to play.

After we ran through it, we played a first reading of the 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which I had not played in at least 20 years. It felt fantastic to go from the showy and non-intuitive Elgar to my dear Mr. Beethoven. Then, it happened. During this movement, my hand memory returned. It knew what was coming. It knew where to go and the music just poured out of my instrument. I love when that happens.

When Gerry's husband came to haul her bass to their car, I told him to not mention the name Elgar or, in fact, any words beginning with the letter "E" for the rest of the week! Gerry and I moaned then laughed. It was a tough rehearsal and next week's is going to be the same as Gerry will be on a business trip. I will have to face it alone!