Elgar, I start to like you!

I found lately that I'm so ignorant about Elgar or if you're a purist, here's the pompous name of this composer: "Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet"! I knew a couple of his pop pieces like his "Salut d'amour" or "Chansons de Matin et de Nuit" that recording companies over-recorded and concert soloists played often in "encores" stamping the music somewhere in your musical memory.

Playing some excerpts at the orchestra from his Enigma Variations and Pump & Circumstances made me start liking his music and most importantly appreciating this composer. "Nimrod" from his variations is such a great piece where a melodic line keeps developing in some kind of mini variation and a progression to a huge climax before a couple of bars where the piece ends in total calmness. Really great stuff here; a "must listen"!

Quiet Blog... Busy Violin... Tchaikovsky and the Others

I left my blog for a while! Now, I'm back to it. I actually was busy lately between orchestra rehearsals and some music lessons. You also need to be in some kind of state of mind to write and I don't always find the time nor the inspiration. The Philharmonia Mundi Orchestra program is coming well together and is really quiet interesting. Schubert Unfinished Symphony has something really special to it and the conductor was excellent in providing a clear image on what this piece is really about and how interpretation is so important. Now it's time to put this in practice.

The other big challenging piece is Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave that requires playing in higher positions. Luckily the piece has some shifting progression to it and the intention seems to be the effect the music creates than precision on itself. Luckily the flutes and little piccolo are there to give us a hand since we play at unison most of the time especially when the orchestra goes wild and you don't hear your own violin.

I'm enjoying more and more the first violin section mainly because it's a new challenge and secondly because you lead the melody most of the time so you have some kind of hint if you're in tune or if your totally off. The second violins section has its challenges too and the music is just not always easy to play.

You wonder sometimes what the composer was really thinking about when he put those notes there but all makes sense when the music is played.