String quartet

Mozart K458
Borodin Quart No. 2 in D (which seemed like it was mostly in A?)

It’s been a few months since we played. We chose the Mozart as a “warm-up”, and finished the last movement after, oh, a little more than an hour, I think. We even did the math and played the lovely Adagio, full of 32nd notes , triplets,  dotted rhythms, and bizarre rest patterns.  The fugal development in the last movement was especially fun.

I had my doubts about Borodin, but thought it came off remarkably well. It’s always nerve-wracking when the first bar of the first movement is annotated “Solo”. That also took awhile, as there was lots of regrouping to work out unexpected rhythms and interdigitations. Didn’t do the whole last movement, as after 2 1/2 hours fingers were raw and shoulders were aching.

This is a really congenial group. Nothing to prepare, as we just read something new each time. Reasonably consistent ability, excellent counting all around, and no one gets exercised if someone needs an extra pass (or two) to get their part to work out. And we don’t really have to stop that often, as all of us are usually able to come back in based on what we hear around us when we get completely derailed.

Looking forward to next month.

Flute Trio

The past two rehearsals have been spent reading through volumes 1 and 5 of the Music For Three arrangements, with the goal of choosing an hour’s worth of programming for our upcoming nursing home gig. I think today we settled on:

• Haydn flute trio in D (3 movements)
• Three pieces by Fritz Kreisler: Liebesfreud, Liebeslied, and Schoen Rosmarin
• Three Stephen Foster songs arranged by our pianist: Beautiful Dreamer, Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, and Oh Susannah
• Three dances by Lully: Air Tendre, Courante, and Sarabande

I think they will provide a nice atmosphere for Tea, and are a manageable amount of work. All good!

Flute Trio

First rehearsal in over a month. We are all finally over our colds, and today we are off to a fresh start. D- has redecorated, moving his music room upstairs in order to accommodate his new (baby) grand piano. That means a much better-sounding piano, plus lots of natural light – much easier for these old eyes to see in.

I was also playing a new cello today, the first time out for my English replacement cello in a chamber music setting. I was playing with the “whippy” bow I have out on trial. Cello was warm, bow was comfortable (though underpowered), strings are definitely too high, but most problems could be attributed to operator error. I haven’t practiced this music in too long.

C- did not have a new flute, being quite satisfied with the one she has. I learned that the parts of the flute are called the head joint, body, and foot joint. She has a “Japanese hybrid” flute, with a Yamaha body and a different Japanese brand (I can’t remember) head joint that she bought later. How discouraging to discover that a decent flute can be had for a quarter of the price of a good cello bow.

Today we played:

• Haydn Trio in D – all three movements. This was the piece we played together in the Fall chamber music weekend. A little rusty, but the 3d movement went better than it ever has.
• Martinu Trio – 3d movement. Lots of timing issues in the A section and recap. B section is a little slower, lower, and more manageable. I need to finger my part and practice the timing with the score and a recording (IOW – practice!)
• Beethoven Op 11 – 1st movement. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I have read through this. I kept moving through it, but a very little work on the fast runs would make this so much better. And well worth the effort, as I know I will have many opportunities to play it.

Next rehearsal: 3/26

String Quartet

I had a first meeting with a new quartet today. That’s an awful lot like a first date, and in this case, a blind one. I was invited by the violist, who plays in my orchestra, but knew nothing about the violinists.

Fortunately, we read sight-readable stuff, though I had some initial qualms when we started off with a Puccini Romance (Puccini wrote quartet’s?) with which I was totally unfamiliar, and in the cello-unfriendly key of E major. It continues to mystify me that I have spent a year and a half concentrating on the E major scale, and it does not translate in the least bit into being able to play music written in that key.

It all worked out in the end, I had a great time, and I’ve been invited back next month. This is a group of friends who gets together monthly to read. Minimal practicing required, but good sight-reading a must. Anyone can bring music, and whatever strikes the fancy of the majority gets played. Perfect.

So, because we are likely to read through lots of stuff (and I don’t have much quartet experience), I’m going to list what we play here.

Puccini – one Romance and three Minuets. I didn’t see an opus no., and wonder if these were arrangements from something else. Very pleasant, evocative of sunny days and green grass, a lovely image in contrast to the black snow outside. Excellent wedding gig music.

Mozart – k157 and k168. The former I’ve played with our “string orchestra.” The latter was completely unfamiliar, but lots of minor, more complex rhythms and interplay than I would have expected. Quite fun, especially the fugue.

Grieg – op 27, a new purchase by V2, so unfamiliar to all of us. Very, very dramatic, even thrilling, even when no one knows what they are playing yet. We kept stopping to say “Wow! This is really familiar!”, but it wasn’t, exactly. We read about 2/3 of the first mvmt. when we had to stop for time, and realized that the motif on our lips was actually Brahms. It would be interesting to sort this out some day.