{"id":677,"date":"2008-09-16T16:17:54","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T16:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2008\/09\/16\/janaceking-in-the-big-apple\/"},"modified":"2008-09-16T16:17:54","modified_gmt":"2008-09-16T16:17:54","slug":"janaceking-in-the-big-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2008\/09\/16\/janaceking-in-the-big-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Janaceking in the Big Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday again offers only a short window of rehearsal, shortened by New York traffic to less than two hours. We try to work quickly though the problem spots we\u2019d been unable to touch the day before in Philly, but we\u2019re racing the clock- Yonah has another engagement later that afternoon. With time running out, we decide to run the piece. We run the first movement, which mostly goes well but which triggers a brief discussion, killing priceless minutes. After the 2nd<\/sup> movement, Yonah asks me the time- I look at my phone. He has to leave at four PM. The phone shows 4 PM exactly. I do a terrible thing, but one I hope he\u2019ll forgive me for later- \u201cthree fifty-six,\u201d I say \u201cwe should hurry up.\u201d \u00a0Bless him, we finish the last two movements- evening I was telling the truth, he\u2019d be leaving five minutes late, as it is, it\u2019s ten.\u00a0 However, in spite of the mad rush, we’re starting to sound like a string quartet- not a “real” quartet, but a quartet.<\/p>\n

Our hours in New York fly by all too fast, and soon it is time to make our way to our first performance, at a house concert near Columbia University. Our audience is mostly neuro-scientists.David Yang and I make our way there on the hottest subway train I\u2019ve every boarded, and meet Yonah and David Ehrlich. Happily, Yonah has made it to and from his gig. Our hosts are legends for their hospitality and love of music, and the house is welcoming and cluttered with the happy reminders of a vibrant life of the mind- books, programs and music are everywhere. In the chaotic moments before the friends and neighbors arrive, we\u2019re trying to fix as many intonation issues as we can.<\/p>\n

Tonight we\u2019re just doing the Janacek, with some narration and introduction written by David Yang. The narration feels a little stilted in a living room- none of us can quite transition into a stage voice with the audience only a few feet away, but I feel like the structure of what David has written is very strong in spite of our inability to bring it off.<\/p>\n

The performance, however, is pretty good- Janecek\u2019s four movements and 80 tempos are starting to feel like a single utterance, and our audience seems blown away by the piece over wine and nibbles afterwards.<\/p>\n

After letting Janacek kick our collective butts for a few days, we\u2019re all feeling pretty good. Sunday, we\u2019ll meet for a 2 hour dress rehearsal at the hall, have a leisurely lunch then perform. With a nice chunk of rehearsal time awaiting us, we\u2019re feeling confident and excited- after all, what can go wrong?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n