|
|
Then the concert itself. We were afraid it would be cancelled, as it had been raining on and off throughout the afternoon. It slacked off in time so that we could play the concert, but it was still cold and wet. The acoustics were almost nil, and most of the time all I could hear were myself, a few people around me and maybe occasional passages from the winds. My instrument wasn't responding well to the cold, damp weather, my new E string started unwinding, and my fingers were numb from the cold, so I wasn't exactly playing at my best. I guess we weren't that bad, though, since the audience stayed through the intermission to hear the Dvorak.
When we left our hotel in concert dress the sky was clear, but as soon as we got off the bus it started pouring rain. The downpour graduated into a full blown thunderstorm. Rehearsal was cancelled as we were stuck at the restaurant hoping the weather would get better. Then our principal cellist hyperventilated and passed out; she and a couple of others ended up missing the first half of the concert. The percussionists had left some of their equipment in Prague and had to play with makeshift mallets. Add all that to the fact that we hadn't been properly rehearsed and warmed up. However, by some miracle we managed to pull together a successful performance as our last concert on tour. |
||||
 |
|||||
Definitely the most interesting
concert I've ever played. It's my first outdoor concert, and the
conditions were considerably different. During the first rehearsal
the evening before Ryan and I didn't even play half of the first run
through of the Gloria because we were too busy trying to keep the
music from blowing off the stand. The rehearsal the next morning was
a little better since I brought a few clothespins.
I could readily say this was the
best concert on tour. Probably the best concert I've played
anywhere, in fact. The Rudolfinum, a.k.a. Dvorak Hall, was not
only beautiful, it had great acoustics as well. You could still hear
the echoes of that thunderous note in the third movement of the
Firebird when the horns came in two measures later. This was
probably also the longest concert we played, about 2 hours 45
minutes, since we played the longest pieces on our program. The
audience loved us and we played all five of our encores as well.
After we had changed back into normal clothes after the concert, the
chaperones let us wander around Old Town Square for about an hour.
