The First Show

The first concert with the Austin Symphony this year was as a contracted orchestra for a touring show, "A Salute to Vienna." Since most of us can't make it to Vienna to hear the Vienna Philharmonic perform its iconic New Year's Eve extravaganza, this production brings the show to us, using local orchestras to accompany Viennese dancers and opera singers.

In the ASO we rarely perform anything by the Strauss family, outside of the tone poems of Richard Strauss who is actually not related in any way other than being a composer in Germany with the same last name 40 years later. Since this music really is foreign to the orchestra, it was a refreshing and fun experience. The conductor was helpful in pointing out useful stylistic changes, the dancers were excellent, and the singers sang beautifully.  It was a little bit of a schticky show, but that is the Viennese way on New Year's Eve. Many many brief waltzes, polkas, marches, and arias from Viennese opera in homage to the motherland.

The most interesting part to me was to hear the musical language that directly influenced Wagner, Mahler, and Richard Strauss. These composers took the witty and clever music from the J. Strausses and turned it into epic soundscapes and legendary tales. Mahler regularly takes marches, waltzes and polkas and shapes into large form symphonic movements. Richard Strauss brings in these elements as regular cameos in his tone poems and operas.

I was fortunate to play principal for a change, as Brenda took the show off. One of my frustrating issues in the orchestra is with cacking notes after a breath, or chipping one of a repeated series of eighth notes. The music for us was mainly boom-chick off beats, so I took the time to concentrate on keeping the embouchure set during the breath, and not allowing for jaw movement on repeated notes separated by rests. Everything should feel like a long tone after all.

With only two rehearsals, there was no time to really know the music, so we just read and followed the conductor.  Lapses in concentration would lead to mistakes, but fortunately the trombone parts were not often so important that mistakes would be noticeable, but that really is no excuse to be lazy.  Plus I know whether or not I was concentrating, and that is hopefully enough motivation to stay in the moment.  The orchestra did much better in the concert than in rehearsals.  I think after having a long run of Nutcrackers, we were still in a daze. But the adrenaline that comes with a live performance is usually enough to snap us out of it. When you work every weekend for two solid months, you often have to ration your mental energy. It seems pretty common to save it for the concert. Guilty as charged!