Well after a dozen weeks or so of hard practice, the concert came together on the night. And it was good fun, and there was only really one movement of one piece in the end where I did just have sit back and mime along to. Suite française is just too blooming hard, and even the bits of it that I should be able to play, I can’t, because if (as always seems to be the case with this piece) I try and come in just a beat late, I can’t get in – the rhythm just doesn’t let me.
But like Gallimaufry – the name of the concert – suggests, it really was a hotch potch, and all the scraps of the larder, but it did kind of work. It was a nice choice of pieces and with perhaps the exception of just two pieces, they were all new to our repertoire (or at least new for a while). One of the criticisms under past conductors was that we repeated far too much of previous concerts in the next concert, and so lost audience through that. Quite rightly they would ask the question: have I heard this before? Yes? Well, I’m not coming then … and that even from our dearest beloveds and loved ones. Still, we seem to be turning the tide on that one, maybe next time I will be able to contribute some friends and family to the audience…??
