Sound Preparation Far in Advance Paid Off
Posted By kerryturner on September 1, 2005
Well once again, I have another bit of proof that sound preparation way in advance for an important event is always good advice. Kristina and I decided to spend three weeks in New York (in the heart of Chelsea actually) with my two boys. Our apartment was tiny by any standards, and the possibility to practice there was somewhat limited. Anticipating this problem, we ran our program over and over, already starting this past May for the concerts to be played at the 2nd Hungarian Horn Festival in Mor, Hungary, which took place August 25-27. On the first concert we performed a new work in our repertoire: Vivaldi`s Concerto for Two Violins and Cello “L`Estro Armonico” Op. 3 No. 11, which was arranged by and sent to us by the organizer of the festival, Mr. Zsoltan Varga. Difficult piece, but well worth the effort. We plan to include it on our upcoming CD recording. The next evening we were scheduled to play the Haydn Concerto for Two Horns and my set of four Duos on the first half of the program, and then join the other guest artists on Take 9 Fanfare and Farewell to Red Castle at the end of the program. Unfortunately, one of the players fell ill that day and couldn`t perform. Since I “kind of know it”, I agreed to play 2nd horn on Quartet Nr. 2 “Americana”. Needless to say, I was ready for the scheduled visit to the wine cellar following the concert. Both concerts were very successful. There was a good crowd and a good time was had by all. We finished up the festival by performing our own rendition of “All The Things You Are” with the students accompanying us. With all the flying and hotels and limited practice posibilities at our New York apartment, I was quite surprised how well we both played and, above all, how much strength we seemed to have. I give credit to our disciplined practice before we left Luxembourg back in July. We were both hitting the horns hard, and it put us in great shape. We were also able to work out all technical and musical details of the programs. In New York, we made ourselves sit down and play “something-anything” for at least 20 minuutes, often with our mutes in and with terrible jet lag. But it appears the effort has indeed paid off.
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