Opening Day

This afternoon was opening exercises at Ozawa Hall for Tanglewood. We (being the TMC Fellows) sang Randall Thompson's Alleluia. This is the fourth time now I have sung this piece for the opening of TMC (twice as a BUTI student). The first time I heard this piece was in 1999, for a Christmas concert at my dad's school. Today, I ALMOST cried. :-) Almost. This place is incredible. There may be a lot of crap at times, but Alleluia has been sung every summer here since 1940 (I believe I told someone earlier today it was 1938. My mistake). The tradition is ridiculous. And now I need to be done with my sentimental mood. So I'll talk about how I'm a bad violinist instead.

I'm having a slight problem in the third movement of the Shosty 10. There are all these rests and I usually pay attention to the bassoon solo (because this guy is incredible) instead of counting rests. I think the entire 2nd violin section is having this problem, because about half of us are always slightly late. I complained of this to Tahlia, and she said: "When in doubt while playing Shostakovich, just play D-S-C-H." Problem solved. There is a LOT - REPEAT - LOT of D-S-C-H in this one. Its like the 8th string quartet all over the place.

I HAVE NEVER LOOKED AT MY ELEKTRA PART AND WE HAVE REHEARSAL TOMORROW AT 10 AND AGAIN AT 2. And its quite easily the hardest orchestra part ever. James Levine, what the hell are you thinking???????

Tonight is the opening concert. Since I don't have aim here, I will post here what my usual away message would be:

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Music of Mozart, Strauss, and Shostakovich.
8:30 PM, Ozawa Hall, Main Grounds, Tanglewood.

Thank you.