This weekend was the 2 concerts of the chorus. Haydn’s “The Creation”. With soloists and orchestra. It was fun and I sang well and the event got a blurb in the local paper. The blurb doesn’t mention Christa Pfeiffer, the other soprano that sang the part of “Eve”. She was stunning. Very expressive both vocally and in her presence. Her duet with “Adam”, sung by the bass John Bischoff, was so sweet and delicious it got people in the audience wanting to applaud when it was over despite the usual tradition of waiting to applaud until the end of the entire piece.
Since long stretches of the music are when the soloists are singing, the choir sits down – on the risers – while they sing, and then gets on their feet again to sing the choral numbers. Rather clumsy looking, but hey. Sitting there, behind the orchestra, I get to watch the musicians in the orchestra. I was closest to the bassoon players. They constantly fiddle with the reeds on their instruments – soaking them, licking them, adjusting their position in the instrument, swapping them with others soaking in little vials of water clipped onto the music stand. Watching them play I see them dance, as well as possible while playing, when they do their parts. Shoulders move, heads bob slightly. The flutist is very good – she has a good sense of musical line and brings out the flavor of the music. The most bored-looking people were the trombone players. Not that I blame them. None of the brass get to play much except when the full chorus is singing, and even then they’re asked to keep it down. It doesn’t take many trumpets and trombones to outblast a 70-voice chorus. I guess being behind the wind section, I see all the slobber that gets dealt with as breath passes through instruments. Horns and their spit-valves with a splatter of spit on the floor beside each player. Little vials of water for all the players with reeds soaking and dripping. There was an english horn player who kept her cleaning rag on the floor (!). She’d pick it up off the floor and pull it through her instrument after each section of playing and then drop the rag on the floor again. (kinda ‘yuck’, if you ask me).
The end-of-spring picnic is tomorrow at the director’s house. Kathie & I will go. Maybe we’ll hear the barbershop quartet that the director is part of.