It’s always an interesting moment seeing the CPO programme list for the next year.There will always be some pieces I like balanced by some I’d rather not have to bother with.This year was no different, and scanning the e-mail I took an involuntarily sharp intake of breath when I saw ‘Tchaikovsky Symphony #5’. What a treat – fantastic.I won’t say which pieces prompted a groan!
Tchaikovsky symphonies are packed full of delights and challenges for your average first violinist (and I am a very average first violinist). Lovely tunes, fast passages, grunty bits for effect, subtleties that need a great deal of skill and refinement, and sections which, quite frankly, it doesn’t matter what you play because you’re being drowned out by the brass anyway. They like doing that.
Sitting waiting to start playing there won’t be much going through my mind, but the sense of anticipation will be powerful, boosted by doubts about all the personal little tricky corners which, in rehearsals, I haven’t quite managed to get to the bottom of. At least this time we don’t play at the start – I can sit and compose myself a bit more until we join in with the rest of the strings.
Once we get going the audience fades from my consciousness, and it’s just the music. It sounds clichéd but it’s true. There is so much to concentrate on that awareness of anything else would be wasteful. Am I playing exactly with everyone else ? Are the notes right ? Am I counting the rests properly? Will I get that high note right this time? Am I playing loudly enough – am I playing too loudly? Is my bow going in the right direction? And they’re just the basic technical details. Am I managing to deliver what passes for music, let alone Michael’s interpretation of it? That’s the key question, and the one that time after time, brings us all back for more.
We move through the music, pumping adrenalin just as much in the really quiet bits as in the loud fast sections. We get to relax and swing with the tunes. Some sections are more difficult than others and need more focus and wide-eyed, unblinking concentration. My favourite part ? The horn solo in the second movement. From my vantage point in a large section of violins I always think it must be a high-pressure moment for the horn player, and am silently urging him to relax, do his best, and enjoy it.
After all the false summits of the last movement, and past the bit where the brass drowns out the strings, we reach the end flourish. The baton stops. A short pause. Then, we hope, the applause. The audience’s appreciation is the icing on the cake. If you’ve enjoyed it half as much as me, you’ll have had a great evening.
great