oboeinsight

This site is rather costly. I pay an annual fee. For a long time that was worth it: I was posting daily. I had a schedule for various postings (ACappellaTuesday, BachTrac, MozartMusicMatters and more) that meant the site was constantly changing.

But that’s changed, as the few readers left surely have noticed.

These days I primarily post Sunday music and the very rare blogpost. I seem to have lost the drive to keep it going. Part of that is due to my obsession these days with my photography: the photo site gets much more attention. Oboeinsight hasn’t fully died, but it’s certainly fading away.

Pondering has gone on for quite some time. I don’t want to delete the site completely, but I also don’t want to pay what I’ve been paying to keep it going. So soon I will be moving it. I may lose a lot of posts this way: I really don’t know what to expect. But so it goes.

When I began this blog it was the only one I knew of that was oboe related. Believe it or not I set it up on January 17, 2003. Since then others started to blog. Some have done great sites, others were here and then disappeared. (It takes a good amount of time to keep a blog active!) My readership grew tremendously during my more active blogging years. Since I’ve reduced activity things have dwindled significantly. I’m okay with that. It’s time to move on.

I’m not saying goodbye quite yet, but I’m thinking my oboe blogging days were great fun and it’s time to admit I’m not doing a good enough job to call this an active blog any longer.

I am studying up on flute music at the moment, due to several flute auditions that will be occurring soon (one is for symphony and one for opera, so I have my studying work cut out for me!). I’m on the panel and I want to be absolutely certain I know the music well.

As is typical, included are not only orchestral excerpts, but a concerto (or two).

The latest video of a work for flute and orchestra that I listened focussed on the soloist in the video, but behind her is a flutist in the orchestra, seen for the entire work. I’m betting that flutist had no idea how clearly she is seen, and how it is pretty darn obvious she isn’t impressed with the soloist. At the end of the work the orchestra musicians are applauding … except that orchestra flutist, along with the principal oboist. They just sat there.

This is a good lesson for me. We can be seen. Even if we aren’t totally impressed with the soloist, looking like we can’t stand the playing is unnecessary, and not applauding just looks rude. At least to me.

Some time ago now a musician posted some very negative things about a concert s/he was involved in. The person was primarily saying how awful the music was.

I would caution people about this.

Yes, sometimes we play music we don’t like. But to tell our audience that is unnecessary and could even be harmful. Some might love the music and think it’s the best thing ever. Others might skip buying tickets because of what they read from a performer. And, honestly, it just isn’t necessary.

I even try to be quiet about a performance as I’m walking to my car if there are things I want to complain about. (Mind you, I don’t always succeed!) I don’t want to tell an audience member about the mistakes; most of the time they haven’t a clue that something went wrong, and if they do they usually understand that that kind of thing happens. (Ah the joy of live music!)