oboeinsight

… with the Sunday Matinee to come.

I thought it all went very well. The audience loved Jon Nakamatsu, of course. He did a superb job on the Grieg, and then treated us all to two encores. The audience was pretty darn ecstatic. However I thought their response to the Sibelius Symphony was tepid. I’m not sure they really got it. I’m not sure I do either, but there’s something about it that I really do like. Still, it’s kind of like “What was that?” when we’re done. I’m not sure what to make of it, and I wonder if I ever will. Sibelius is like that. The orchestra ended (without oboes as well as other instruments) playing Sibelius’s Valse Triste for an encore. It’s certainly not a flashy piece, and I think some folks prefer something fast or cute or flashy, but at the end I did hear some respond with that kind of “ahhhh” sighing thing. That was nice. The applause was, similar to the Fifth, a bit reserved. Oh well! I was pleased with my playing, and thought the orchestra did good work.

Tomorrow I play with a body out of whack; I don’t deal well with daylight savings time, and I think it should be banned. This is the time of year when I think moving to Hawaii or Arizona would be a good idea … at least I think those are the two states that don’t observe this travesty we call daylight savings time. It’s really steal an hour from my life time and it ticks me off.

In order to make certain that I am able to concentrate and make it through the concert I’ll probably have to stay home from church and get a good amount of rest. Not good, but there you go.
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So … we are playing music by Beethoven (German) about a Flemish man (Egmont). We are playing Grieg (Norwegian) and Sibelius (Finnish). Someone decided we should make this concert—full of angsty and somewhat tragic music—more viewer friendly. So while their ears and hearts might be in anguish, their eyes will be full of color and maybe even joy.

Yeah. Sigh.

We are all supposed to don costumes. We can even wear headgear if we can locate it. Those of us with German, Dutch, Finnish or Norwegian blood are supposed to attempt to throw together a costume of that nationality. (Anyone have any wooden shoes or lederhosen?) If we don’t have a heritage of one of those sorts, we are to dream up our particular national heritage costume. (Can anyone say “Patty is a mutt!”?)

I have an old dress I made years ago called an “Afghani nomad dress” but I don’t know that that will work. I’m really not from Afghanistan; I just liked the dress. I used to have a dress made of an Indian (East) bedspread (remember those days?) but I can’t find it and, again, I doubt I have Indian blood in me either. I have a dress that looks sort of like an early American sort of thing, but I doubt I can fit into it any longer.

Why, oh why, can’t we wear black like always? I love black. Black is my favorite.

So too bad the concert is sold out, eh? You might have wanted to check the mess out.

Oh. And have a great April 1st. 😉