{"id":712,"date":"2008-11-19T01:35:05","date_gmt":"2008-11-19T01:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2008\/11\/19\/a-bit-strung-out\/"},"modified":"2012-04-16T16:34:52","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T15:34:52","slug":"a-bit-strung-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2008\/11\/19\/a-bit-strung-out\/","title":{"rendered":"A bit strung out…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve moved a few miles up the East Coast, from Newark, Delaware to Boston, and from chamber music to a bit of concerto playing: Brahms Double with Suzanne. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite a paradigm shift, especially at an early rehearsal. A wise teacher once told me that one shouldn\u2019t follow the orchestra too much at the first rehearsal, or you never get your way. \u201cLead in the rehearsals, even if you risk a train wreck, but follow in the concert and don\u2019t impose any risks on the performance.\u201d It’s good advice, especially if you have a few rehearsals to work with.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The upshot is that you have to take an almost opposite mindset when soloing from when you play chamber music. Of course, you still want to make music and interact with the orchestral musicians, that\u2019s what makes it fun, but you also have to make sure, more than anything, that you are communicating your point of view to the conductor and the players. If you can\u2019t project that, their job becomes infinitely harder because there is no profile for them to latch on to. After a week of trying to blend and match and anticipate, now it is more a matter of laying down the law, in the nicest possible way. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There are people who tend to be very good about keeping track of things like bow re-hairs and instrument maintenance. I am not one of them- I tend to wait until something breaks or until the re-hair situation reaches crisis point. Okay, I don\u2019t \u201ctend\u201d to wait until something breaks, I actually \u201cwait\u201d until something breaks. There has been one exception in the last 15 years- this summer I took the cello to Colin Irving, one of the few real geniuses I\u2019ve ever met, his hands are blessed by holy powers, for a check up and tune up. When he restored the instrument 6 years ago, he told me to bring it in every 6 months, so right on schedule, half a decade late, I brought it in.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A more typical case in point is the status of my strings. It would be scandalous to admit how long this last set of strings has been on my cello, because people have actually paid to hear concerts on them. I used to break strings all the time, even c-strings, so it never occurred to me just to take a string off because it was worn out. These were on there so long I had forgotten how long they were on there, if that makes any sense. When I got back from <\/span>Biloxi<\/span> it really hit me, especially as the A-string, which had seemed nearly indestructible was starting to sound nasty and raspy. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, between stomach flu and family commitments, I completely failed to get new strings before coming to <\/span>America<\/span>, and once in <\/span>Delaware<\/span>, couldn\u2019t quite make my way up to <\/span>Wilmington<\/span>, location of the nearest violin shop. Once here, the shops were closed until today, Tuesday, so I had to go through the first rehearsal on Monday on the old strings. Finally, today brought SUCCESS! It took calls to 5 places in town to find all the right kit (I probably would have been out of luck in <\/span>Wilmington<\/span>), but at <\/span>3:18 PM<\/span>, I had my first new set of strings since\u2026\u2026\u2026.. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re on there, and, believe it or not, the damn cello sounds better. Why did it take so long, and why do I have the same issues with dry cleaning? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, I always find the first rehearsal with orchestra quite a relief (unless I play like an ass)- a lot of things one stresses about in the practice studio (especially in a piece with 2 soloists), just aren\u2019t an issue in front of 70 other players. Usually the 2nd<\/sup> rehearsal is where you start to realize what is harder with the orchestra, so I\u2019m bracing myself, but at least I\u2019ve got my new magic strings. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There was a Facebook thread running the other day among some of my cello geek friends that was basically a survey of \u201cwhat strings do you use?\u201d I managed to stay off that one, but what I had on the cello was <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Larsen A and D (strong) <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Larsen G (medium) <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Spirocore Tungsten C (stark) <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The new set up is <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Larsen A and D solo edition (strong) <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bel Canto Gold C and G (tungsten medium) <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bel Cantos are even more insanely expensive, but have a more gut-ish sound than the Spirocores\u2026\u2026 The Larsen G always used to lose pitch if I played loudly (which I tend to do a lot). I’ve used Spirocore G’s a lot, but they take forever to break in. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0think that makes this officially the dorkiest blog post ever.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n