So we finished up the Symphony Silicon Valley set a bit before 5:00 today. Not in the mood to make dinner, and Dan being sick, I decided to head to Whole Foods and pick up a variety of salads and cheeses, along with a baguette. And a bottle of wine to go with it. Yum.
Now we are watching the recorded Paris Nice bike race, since we couldn’t watch it during the day. Those guys are pretty darn incredible. But can any of them make an oboe reed?
This past set I played only Assistant Principal on the Schubert symphony (#9, “The Great”). It’s a curious position, really. It’s entirely devoid of stress. Unless something happens to the principal oboist. Then I’m suddenly in the hot seat. But of course that rarely happens. (And didn’t this week; our principal, Pam Hakl, did a wonderful job.) So I sit a lot, play a lot of the loud sections, and try to keep an eye on the principal in case she suddenly needs to swab her instrument and needs me to jump in. It feels insignificant, and yet I know it does really help out the principal. (For our first review, go here and see what Richard Scheinin has to say.)
I enjoyed Paul Haas. You can read about him here. I’d like to do another concert, where I actually have more to do, and maybe even something important to play. I wonder if we’ll see him back. I’d be fine with that.
So where do I go from here? This week is a couple of “kiddie concerts” on which I play second oboe. The next week it’s English horn, playing Roman Carnival Overture and Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Some good solos in those! And nothing else. That’s right, the only notes the English horn plays are solo notes, really. (A few in the overture aren’t heard all that well, but I consider it all solo work.) I’m looking forward to the pieces, as I do love them. And I’m trying very hard not to be scared. We’ll see.
From there we move on to Carmen, where I sit principal. As you can see, I move around a lot … talk about musical chairs!
