This person plays oboe. She also knits.
Another knitter who plays oboe, or oboe player who knits. Whatever.
And yet another.
Pam Hakl, my oboe colleague in Symphony Silicon Valley and Opera San José plays oboe. And she knits.
Am I missing something? I don’t knit. Hmmm.
—–
I plan my life in a systematic way, and I waited until the age of 50 to start playing the 32 Beethoven sonatas. … Beethoven is not for children. Maybe the notes are not a problem, but the content is, so I wanted to wait for that. I now understand a lot of things I had no idea about 20 years ago.
-Andras Schiff (explaining why he waited until he was older to play Beethoven)
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… and gut, and soul, and …
This Mahler work is one of my favorites. As is this singer (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau).
What a nice way to wake up, really.
And yes, it begins with English horn and of course I love that too. We played the Rückert Lieder years ago—with a mezzo that I now can’t remember and Denis de Coteau (RIP) at the podium with the San Jose Symphony (RIP)— and, wouldn’t you know, I struggled with the first note, as I was dealing with a leaky English horn. Sigh. I should shut up about my first note struggles … perhaps I’m the only double reed player who deals with this, eh? Well, except I did see the NY Phil do the Mahler some years ago and the English hornist there missed a few of the first note attacks as well. I was actually encouraged by that. Hmm. Is that sick?
I think I’ll have to stay home from church today; the headache is worse, and I should probably just rest up for our final concert. I’d really like to avoid coughing fits!
Last night’s concert was certainly better than Thursday’s, and maybe today will be better than Saturday’s. It can happen. The review of Thursday’s concert was harsh. It was probably the harshest review I’ve ever read. I’ve met the reviewer, and he doesn’t easily bash things. I’m guessing it wasn’t easy for him to write what he did. Because I had nothing important I wasn’t hurt, as I am when I’m panned personally.
Reviews are tough. I know reviewers aren’t all evil people trying to kill us with words. I also know that sometimes they are spot on and sometimes it’s as if they went to something other than the concert they reviewed. I read reviews to see what that listener thought, but I don’t take them as gospel truth. Including the good reviews. If I don’t always agree with a negative review it just seems wrong to then take the good ones and say they are always accurate! But bad reviews do stab me hard sometimes. I might cry when I get butchered, wouldn’t you know? I do use the good reviews; we all need them for other jobs and for bios. It’s just the way the biz works.
In any case, it’s back under warm blankets for me. One more batch of low notes and I’m done with Dvorak for a while. I have to say, though, so as not to give the wrong impression, that I do love Dvorak. It can be beautiful stuff!
Although give me “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” any old time over Dvoark. Really.
