Less than a week to go… my goodness it was sounding great last night! Not only a really high-quality sound, but a truly exciting performance. Final push towards what will be a night to remember!
What we did on Monday 7th November:
A general run of the programme, though I knew we wouldn’t get through everything due to the amount of music there is. A good rehearsal with lots of playing, but efficient and accurate rehearsing.
We started off with Colonel Bogey to warm up – a reminder of NO REPEATS IN THE DA CAPO (2nd time around) and going to the FINE. After this we played through James Bond Medley, doing spots of work at the start of each section. Then we played through Pirates of Penzance Overture, which went very well, and we just needed to spot-check this, especially thinking about balance and accuracy of rhythms. To end the first half we ran the Allegretto, again just doing minor work on the sections, and encouraging sections to bring out certain sections. Strings at Letters E & F – don’t rush!
In the second half we played through Movements I, II, III, and V of Star Wars Suite, focusing especially on the tight rhythms – Trombones and Percussion at 98… I won’t break eye contact with you there… we won’t rush ahead. Loads of good work, so we just need to ensure tempo changes are solid on Saturday. We ended by playing through half of Pirates of the Caribbean which, naturally, was great; just watch those opening rhythms, Flutes.
What we’ll do on Saturday 12th November:
Concert Day!
*A reminder that the rehearsal is at St Michael’s Church, TF7 5BN *
In the afternoon rehearsal, we’ll begin with West Side Story and Pirates of the Caribbean, covering the bits we missed on Monday. We’ll then just clarify Star Wars movements V & I, before looking at movement IV. Then it’ll be spot checking the other pieces from the first half. I promise to take the whole rehearsal easy, so everyone can feel rested and relaxed about the concert in the evening – brass and wind save your lips, strings save your arms! We won’t do anything too loudly or intensly.
Timings:
Rehearsal
13:00 – Set up at St Michael’s Church.
13:15 – Latest time to arrive to set up the church.
13:30 – Rehearsal starts.
*plenty of breaks in the rehearsal.
16:30 – Rehearsal ends and we pack down the church and set up the Anstice.
It’ll be all hands on deck to help clear up the church and to set up at the Anstice. Staging needs to go up, percussion needs moving to the stage, and chairs need to be placed. If we could have as many people helping as possible we can make light work of it all!
Concert
19:10 – Back in the Anstice to warm up and prepare.
19:25 – Head on stage (keep tootling so the room doesn’t fall silent)
19:28 – Tuning.
19:30 – Concert begins.
Post Concert
21:20 – Approximate end time for concert.
21:30 – All music back in folders and handed in. Percussion to be helped moved down, and staging taken apart. Please do help pack down at the end too… we don’t want 3 or 4 people doing everything…
Running order for the concert:
James Bond Medley – Misc.
Pirates of Penzance – Sullivan
Allegretto – Beethoven
Colonel Bogey – Alford
– Interval of around 30 minutes – Bar open and raffle will run
Star Wars Suite – Williams
West Side Story – Bernstein
Pirates of the Caribbean – Badelt
Concert Dress:
All black with a poppy (red, white, purple). Please make sure to wear black socks and black shoes… it’ll be really obvious if you don’t wear all black…
Playlist
Final chance to make use of the Spotify Playlist HERE. It contains everything except the James Bond Medley which you can hear if you click HERE.
Monday 14th November:
We will be having a rehearsal, but it’ll be a gentle play-through of something different and exciting. I’m thinking either Brahms 1 or Borodin 2… do come along for a fun play!
I think that’s everything. Thank you so much for all of your hard work this term, it’s been such an exciting journey, and the orchestra sounds truly transformed. I’m really looking forward to Saturday, so see you all around 13:00 at St Michael’s.
– Ben
