Show's over, sigh

And wow, hm. Lots of things went well. The articulated runs I was worried about, in the last movement of Haydn 101, were clean, or close to it by my standards. I guess the practicing worked. But a wide variety of other things happened that were entirely new. I feel worst about the opening of the Andante in Haydn, the clock movement in the clock symphony, and the bassoons are the ticking clock. I could have sworn I'd locked the conductor's tempo in before beginning, but when the downbeat came, it sure seemed like a totally unrelated tempo. Perhaps it was, without a video I can't know what really happened. Likely the conductor would blame himself if challenged -- he makes a point of always taking all blame, whether fairly or not. Things were pretty disorganized for a few bars, and I dropped out briefly to try to avoid further damage. We got back on track, but it was not an auspicious start.

The second half of the program was Christmas tunes, which are supposed to be easy, sightreading material almost. And some of it was great, but there were times when it seemed like half the orchestra was lost. That hasn't happened to me since junior high. I remember distinctly, playing some repetitive part, when the conductor called out a rehearsal number. Desperate measure, that. Of course, it was also not where I was, so I assumed that he was confused, but that he'd figure it out soon, and kept playing where I was. That sounded fine for awhile, and there were other people with me, but I ended up skipping ahead a bit later. My goodness.

At least I wasn't spending all my time worrying about being in tune.

My kids came. I think they enjoyed the show, and heard a bit of bassoon. I think it's good to be exposed to adults playing music for fun.