“This is the music that made me be a musician. I could have been a vet but THIS music pulled me into music.”
“This is too pretty to play piano.”
“It’s just one of the most beautiful pieces. Ridiculously beautiful.”
These are actual comments – from before and during our rehearsal – by my actual colleagues. Grown up, professional, working musicians who have been around the block a few times and don’t lightly get starry-eyed about just any South Bend Symphony concert.
We are playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a piece which is incredibly popular and beloved, for the reason that it is great, great music. This will be probably my fourth or fifth time performing this work. Still, when I pulled my music out to prepare, I got excited. It’s so dramatic, and so beautiful, and so perfectly and effectively written for the instruments so we don’t have to strain to be heard and everything just fits. It’s a rare treat.
We’re playing the Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn, which is just sheer perfect loveliness from start to finish. I’ve never actually performed it before, and it’s even more fun than I expected it to be.
AND there’s a Bach Orchestral Suite as the concerto, featuring our own principal flutist, Leslie Short.
As you know I like a little edge to my classical music. I’d rather play 20th century masterworks than 19th century ones in general, and I love a world premiere. But if you are going to present a totally standard program of beloved familiar standard works, by all means let it be THIS program, in which every bar of every piece is WONDERFUL.
If you live here and you have not heard the South Bend Symphony perform, this Saturday night would be a great entry point. Details HERE.