This Friday’s concert with the Northwest Indiana Symphony is a real treat – some intensely romantic music for Valentine’s Day. We are playing the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite, and the Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto. It is hard music, requires tremendous flexibility and skill from the performers, and has huge payoffs, both for us and the audience. I am so pleased that for a change our Valentine’s Day concert is not just show tunes, or duets from the most fame italian operas. No, this repertoire is orchestral in the extreme, difficult to perform, and very satisfying to do well.
I’m so enjoying playing for Kirk Muspratt again – I love how high his standards are and how prepared he is on this repertoire.