Bruce, of Horndog Blog, has some audition pointers for horn players. Included in his advice he wrote:

In the first movement expositions of Mozart concertos number 2 and 4, pay special attention to the fast scale passages. At the recent audition, many candidates rushed these under pressure – especially the rests in-between each scale passage.

Yes, indeed! Rushing is an issue for a lot of folks during auditions. Those of us on the slightly less nervous side of the screen (I still get nervous, even when I’m on the panel!) are “keeping time” as you play, and I do notice that rushing. But even more, I notice when someone isn’t keep good time with rests. We certainly don’t expect a player to count something like measures of rest, but a quarter rest or half rest? Keep the time! Rests matters. Really!

Anyway, I enjoyed reading Bruce’s blog entry. Check it out!