Well done everyone, we’re almost at the concert now and it’s sounding great! The Elgar is sounding magnificent, and there’s so much life to the Beethoven. Little things now, and it’ll be a smashing concert in less than 2 weeks time.
What we did on Monday 6th March:
We started with The Wild Bears, touching up some small moments and refining tiny details. Overall, the ensemble in this is great, and the only thing we really need to work on is making everything over the top – anything staccato, make sure it’s very short, for example!
We then worked on the 1st movement of the Beethoven, starting the piece and ensuring the chords are placed and supportive to the solo lines, before keeping the semiquavers together in the Strings. A little bit of ensemble work at Letter A and B tidied up the rhythms and blend. We got into the Vivace brilliantly, just make sure we all breathe together to help the ensemble work. Lots of good things in this section to make sure we don’t overshadow the melody, and when we have the middle or background parts they are supportive but not in the way. We did some work on the entries before letter E in the woodwinds, and solidified the rhythm in bar 171 onwards. Excellent work on the Development (177 onwards), just make sure it’s all got direction! We made sure not to get in the way of the melodic lines in bars 309-318, and ended the movement with a bang making sure to build to the end and not get carried away too early.
After the break we played movement 4, with the opening being excellent – keep the energy and excitement all the way through this, as it’s the climax of the concert. From Letter G onwards it was clear we didn’t know this quite as well as we’d thought, so please practice that at home this week, and we’ll solidify it all next week!
We finished with the 2nd movement of the Karelia Suite, doing 10 minutes of ensemble, blend, and character in the music. A beautiful sound, just keep it all nice and accurate and listen to one another.
Great rehearsal!
What we’ll do on Monday 13th March:
As above, we’ll work on the 4th movement of the Beethoven, especially from Letter G onwards as this was the most rocky section, and lock this in before Saturday. I then want to do a bit of movement 3 & 2 of the Beethoven (after which the Trombones can go), before top and tailing Serenade and Moths and Butterflies from the Elgar suites.
Concert information
As with the last notes, below is hopefully all the information you’ll need for the concert day. Do drop me or Phil an email or chat to us at a rehearsal if there’s anything you’re unclear of.
Timings:
– 1pm set up in the church.
– 1:30pm-4:30pm rehearsal.
– 7:30pm-9:30pm concert.
Location: St Michael’s Church, Madeley, TF7 5BN.
Concert Dress: All Black – it may be cold, so make sure you’re wearing appropriate layers. All open-collar, so no ties.
Concert Running Order:
Karelia Suite – Sibelius
Movements from The Wand of Youth Suites 1 & 2 – Elgar
Suite 1: I. Overture
Suite 1: II. Serenade
Suite 2: I. March
Suite 2: III. Moths and Butterflies
Suite 2: V. The Tame Bear
Suite 2: VI. The Wild Bears
Interval of 25 minutes
Symphony No. 7 – Beethoven
Poster
You can see the wonderful poster for the concert, created by our very own Bec, below. Share it far and wide – we deserve a great audience for this one!
Spotify Playlist
The Spotify Playlist for the term is HERE. Do please give it a listen, or find the pieces on YouTube – listening to them regularly will help ingrain the tricky bits.
See you all on Monday 13th.
– Ben
