On 18 October 2010 14:52, Christopher Wilke <[email protected]> wrote: > I've never wanted to argue with a director. I've also been tempted to lay > back in rehearsals, then simply disregard orders and amp it up in performance
I trie two things in (first) rehearsals with conductors. They are slightly contradictory. 1. Be heard where he doesn't expect it early in the rehearsal, so he will take me into consideration when distributing the 'fun' continuo parts. That means e.g. be heard in the opening choir of the St. John when the choir enters 'Herr!". The rewards may be accompanying an extra aria or recit. 2. Stay out of his ears. A plucker close up can be really annoying (especially high pluckers like strumming baroque guitars!). He will only tell me to play less, when in reality I am playing in a realistic balance with the group. In practice this means I try to get a seat as far left or right of the conductor as possible, but front row of the orchestra. In front the orchestra and the conductor is best (is that called off-side in soccer? ;-) The worst place is in the back of the orchestra, dead centre, next to the cello and in front of the organ. There you have to play _so_ loud to be heard! Annoyingly loud and ugly to your neighbours and conductor, and still barely audible even for the solists in front of the orchestra. Alas, too often I end up there anyway. |-( David - has the guts -- ******************************* David van Ooijen [email protected] www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
