Cooper Wright Reeds | blog - Post recital withdrawal and future plans.

Post recital withdrawal and future plans.

Tuesday May 27 2008

Rachel once wrote about life after recital, and I have to agree. Some come up to you and ask “How do you feel?” while others talk about how much more relaxing life must be. Still, the majority are still asking me, “So, when is your recital again?” Oops.

It’s hard to believe that the whole thing is done with, and it’s been even harder to motivate myself to practice. But I found a way. IDRS… accepted me to play on a masterclass, and I chose the David Weiss orchestral excerpts masterclass (well, actually my professor kind of pointed me in that direction.) Prof. Schuring is teaching a masterclass on Baroque music, but I think my professor still wants to push me beyond my comfort level, and so she basically told me to sign up for that one.

So I’m doing Le Tombeau, Don Juan, and Mendelssohn 3rd symphony for my excerpts. Scary stuff, and to think that it will be video recorded, and then streamed on the IDRS… convention website means that whatever I do, however I do it, it will be available for all to see and hear. GULP…! That’s enough motivation right there to get my rear end back into the practice room FAST….

Le Tombeau is such a toughy for me. That little run on the bottom of the 2nd page in the 1st movement freaks me out. Do people hold down the left hand Eb throughout most of that passage (on the forked Fs) or do you actually release the Eb for each forked F? Wouldn’t it just be easier to play left hand F?

I read in the Tabuteau book this evening that the Tabuteau model of oboe is one that has no F resonance, but does have a left F. He thought forked F was “the most beautiful note on the oboe” and had color advantages when decrescendoing, which the latter I would agree with if it didn’t have a F resonance. This was one of the reasons I had it blocked off on my Royal, but now I’m playing on the C series so there’s no way to close it off. Perhaps I’ll try to attach a screw to do this when I begin work with Mr. Weber.

In any event, I have two months to get these excerpts up REALLY… good before IDRS….

I’m still planning on leaving for Arizona in late June, going through SF, down through Santa Barbara, and through LA before cutting over to Phoenix. Anyone along that route care to meet up? I’d like to take my time and meet other oboists along the way.

Cooper left these words on Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 10:42 AM
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Jillian
May 27, 2008

A former teacher of mine once told me to play that 1st mvt. passage with no forked Fs, something I tried to do but gave up once I no longer had to play for that teacher! (Shh, don’t tell anyone.) Personally, I only use forked F for the first two Fs in the second measure before “9”.

That’s awesome about the masterclass! I wish I could go to the conference this year! We’re driving to Calgary a couple weeks later, and if we didn’t have the little one, I’d definitely make it a longer trip and take a detour.
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