Mozart performance

Well here we go. This was at a recital, with piano, for an audience of other bassoonists.

  Mozart Bassoon Bash 2011-05-14 by TFox17

A recital

M had a recital this afternoon -- Dutilleux, Saint-Saens, and the premier of a brand new sonata, written by the piano player. It was a nice show, for a small but appreciative audience heavy in the bassoon players in town. I quite liked the sonata -- it had very vocal parts at times, with a nice sound from the bassoon. The Dutilleux is not a piece that I'm familiar with, though I knew he'd been working on it (especially the high F, which is probably easier on the French bassoon it'd been written for). The Saint-Saens is a lovely piece, and he took the 2nd movement crazy fast. All in all a lot of fun, and good conversations at the reception afterward. The third orchestra in town is playing a piece that requires four bassoons, and they only have two, so I might have scored a gig later. That'll be fun if it happens.

The magic flute

Tonight we played at an old-folks home. We set up in what must usually be the cafeteria area, because there was a drink island right where the woodwinds should've been. It was a very ringy room, with cathedral-like dimensions, and all hard surfaces, from the polished industrial flooring to the five stories of windows. The Haydn we played has a couple parts where he writes a complete bar of tutti rest. In this hall, these just rung, with the room filling the space with a memory of the note we'd just played. I thought it was cool, but chatting with the conductor afterward, he called it wet, and made a face. Probably thought it made everything muddy, which no doubt was also true.

My kids were there, since my wife is out of town. Rather than hang out with the geriatric residents, they selected seats near the back of the orchestra, a few feet from me, more or less in the horn section. They had a good time. On the way home, my daughter sang something, and asked if we'd played it. I didn't recognize it, but when we got home, we played the Magic Flute on her iPod. We'd performed the overture, which she didn't recognize as the Magic Flute since, well, there wasn't any singing or talking. She had a version with kids chattering, play within a play, nicely done... and she'd been singing some aria or something. I offered her her flute, in case she wanted to make some noise to charm the dragon too, but no luck, she wasn't going to be tricked into practicing. We ended up listening to a lot of Mozart, while doing the dishes. Including the Overture to the Magic Flute, just a little faster and a little better.