I got my wake-up call slightly earlier this morning, as today's "Classical Orchestra" session was on the other side of Sidcup at Hurst Place and I wanted to be there in plenty of time as I noticed last year that parking was at a premium. I arrived this morning with ten minutes to spare and there were still plenty of parking spaces, so setting out a little earlier was worth while:-)
We started out with a Mozart overture and one of the Haydn symphonies, and then Margaret and I migrated to the front of the orchestra and we played the Vanhal double concerto. It was not a flawless performance, but then the orchestra had never seen the music before, and our soloist rehearsals had been curtailed due to Margaret's husband being taken ill. It was really good to be able to play along with a whole orchestra, though, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of some of the easier bits.
After the Vanhal, we stopped for a refreshment break, and then we played one of the Schubert symphonies. Margaret was doing first and I was doing second today, but she decided that her lip was giving out, so we swapped parts in the interests of more uniform lip wear:-)
Many people went on to a barbecue at Jerry and Mary's place, but I came home. Stephen popped up today to pick up some more decorating supplies, and we lunched on burgers and chips from the back freezer. I think there's still enough food in there to feed us for another week, but it's gradually being reduced. It will be good to get it defrosted, and it won't hurt to have a clean sweep through both freezers and to start out afresh.
This evening the Marlowe agenda was "Party Pieces" at Joyce's place. The wind group from last night duly performed the pieces we rehearsed, albeit doctored a little to make up for the third clarinettist living too far away for it to be worth her while to come along to play only a couple of pages of music. The important notes got redistributed around the group and the end result, while not exactly what the composer had intended, was nevertheless acceptable:-)
The other highlight of the evening for me was somebody getting up to sing a song about a hippopotamus in which the chorus was the well-known "Mud, mud, glorious mud":-) Imagine a room full of people whose average age is probably well above sixty rendering this childhood classic!
Tomorrow morning's chamber music session turns out to be flexible and it's up to individual players to arrange it for themselves. As I didn't realise that until 10pm this evening, I'm going to have a lie-in instead:-)
Helen
Last Revised: 9th August, 2002.