School's out for summer

It’s Tuesday. It’s almost 7:30pm, and I’m at home, starting to type this. Term has ended for the orchestra, and summer is upon us. I’m bored.

I know that I may not go back, I may not want to go back, but I get a buzz from just being there. I had never played in any sort of ensemble when, at 45 years old, I took my seat that Sunday in November 2007. I was scared; no, more than scared, I was paralysed with fear. My anxious fears had not been bid/bade subside when we started for real in January 2008, and when term finished around ten weeks later, I was disappointed to find myself, as one of its plentiful supply of clarinets, rotated out until after the summer. Luckily, I was able to play in our first concert in December of 2008, and have played in all six subsequent musical extravaganzas, the most recent of which took place last Saturday.

It’s been a tough few months. Some complicated, but interesting pieces were jettisoned, leaving us with only four (equally complicated, but interesting) works to play in the concert (plus a surprise encore). If any of the grannies in the audience had indulged in a sweet sherry or tawny port prior to taking their seats, they’d have been reaching for their heart pills by the final cymbal crash of our opener, the utterly bonkers ‘Colas Breugnon’ by Kabalevsky. Luckily for them, the orchestra had a rest for about half an hour while some of its members who had formed into small ensembles played the pieces they had been working on.

The orchestra returned after this long interlude to play (I think) the longest piece we’ve ever played; the Fourth Movement of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. In the hands a professional orchestra, this would last just over fifteen minutes. I’ve no idea how long it took us to get through it, but I was relieved when we had, and headed for the toilet.

The second half followed the same format; orchestra, ensembles, orchestra. We got through Holst’s 'Somerset Rhapsody’ without major incident. I’d be surprised if anyone in the audience would know it, anyway, so we’d have got away with it. One of the ensembles, the entire percussion section, performed a delightful piece written by one of their number, and this set us up nicely for our finale, ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ from ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ by Mussorgsky (arranged by Ravel). When it was over, there was a hint of a ‘whoop’ from someone in the audience, but before they could get carried away, we hit them between the eyes with Sousa’s ‘Washington Post’.

That was that, and this is, well, this. I’ve got lots of thinking to do over the summer, and decisions have to be made, and that’s before I have to try to get back in. When I think of what the orchestra has given me, you’d think it would be easy to say yes, but it’s complicated.