This past Sunday was a special day for me musically. The
concert band that both my husband and I play in had its last concert of the
year and our daughter, who also plays horn, and I were featured on a solo.
The road to this solo performance was winding and full of
roadblocks.
Every fall, any band member who is interested can audition
for a chance to play a solo with the band. Generally two or three players are
chosen. The first couple of years it was all woodwind players and I thought the
brass really needed to be represented. However, I didn't want to play a solo by
myself. So, I asked one of the other horn players if he wanted to audition with
me on a concerto for two horns. I picked this piece because it is one of a small handful of pieces for two solo horns with band. My horn player friend said sure. He also felt that we needed to
give the woodwind players some friendly competition. We planned to work on it
over the summer. Well, it seemed we were never in town at the same time. Fall
came and he said he just didn't have time to learn the part, which was quite
challenging. End of story, I thought.
I was telling my daughter Jamie what happened and she said,
"I could do it with you." Well, she's not a member of the band. She's
a busy graduate student. She doesn't live with us, making rehearsing more
difficult. But she already knew one of the parts. So I said I would ask the
conductor if we could audition even though she isn't in the band. Much to my
surprise he said yes. She had filled in at one concert, so he said that was
close enough.
The next challenge for me was that the part Jamie already
knew was the part that I had planned to play. So I needed to learn the other
part, which is very high. Both of us are really low horn players. Like training
for a marathon, learning this part required a lot of practice time to build up
the endurance.
The piece in question is a "double concerto" for
two horns was written by Antonio Rosetti, a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart. Rosetti was German, despite his name, which he changed, probably
because Italian musicians were paid more than Germans in the 18th century. He
was a court musician in one of the many small courts in what is now Germany. He
had two outstanding horn players in his orchestra, for whom he wrote at least
17 concertos, plus 6 double concertos. His music is rarely played today.
We auditioned last September and were one of three soloists
chosen. Our concert date was in May.
Next roadblock: The Band music is rental only. The school
district that sponsors our band ordered the music. Through some
miscommunication somewhere, the wrong concerto arrived. It was only 4 weeks
before the concert. The conductor told me he thought it was not possible to
return the parts and get the correct music in time to prepare it for the
concert. End of story, I thought.
But no, my husband was determined that we would play. He
called the rental company the next day and explained the problem so
persuasively that the correct music arrived at our house two days later! We had
two rehearsals with the band and then it was concert time.
People are surprised that I get nervous when performing, but
it's true. This time, though, it was such a joy to play this charming little
piece with Jamie that my mind was only on the music and the pleasure of
playing. A perfect performance? No, but I think we communicated the spirit of
the piece. And we had fun!
Seize the moment! So many roadblocks along the way and this
may very well be the only time that Jamie and I solo together in public. It's a
great memory to have.
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| Antonio Rosetti
A version of this post appears on my blog The Game's Afoot!
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