Detail work.

I'm finally back at work after two weeks in Pennsylvania, and this morning's rehearsal was the first time I'd touched my viola since leaving town in a rush on the 17th. This kind of layoff is a huge deal for musicians, who are used to practicing at least a little bit more or less every day, even when the orchestra isn't in session - in fact, I thought about it, and decided that I haven't taken that long a break from playing since I was 9 years old. I'd be lying if I said I was totally comfortable, but I was surprised by how much easier it was to transition back to playing than I expected. Some things were trickier than usual, especially complicated bow technique, which is usually my forte, but other aspects of the job that I was expecting to struggle with for a few days until I regained my form (notably vibrato, never my strong suit) fell right into place. Of course, those sitting around me might have had a different perspective, but I felt like I didn't do any musical damage to myself or my section, so I'm calling the comeback a qualified success.

On another note, we're playing Beethoven's 7th symphony this week, which is one of my favorite pieces, and also significant because we'll be recording it in January for the final installment of our much-ballyhooed Beethoven cycle. I love everything about this symphony - the bouncing lilt of the first movement, the dark harmonies of the allegretto, right through to one of the greatest and most energetic finales ever written - but I'm always shocked by how much work it takes to put it together. Playing it under Osmo presents a special challenge, because (as usual,) he is not content to simply play the piece the way everyone else plays it, counting on the orchestra's drive and experience to pull off an exciting performance.

To be honest, the 7th is a symphony in which conductors are usually inclined simply to stay out of the orchestra's way. (Sarah may disagree with that statement, of course, but it's about time we had a good argument on this blog, so I'm throwing it out there.) We've all played it dozens of times, we know how it goes, and even if all you did was wind us up and let us go, we'd likely be able to pull off a fairly passable rendition. With works like that, the very familiarity the orchestra has with the piece can make tinkering very, very dangerous, especially with a limited rehearsal schedule. Poke around too much in the machinery, and you might break something you don't have the time to fix.

Osmo is not in the least fazed by this particular problem, and one of the things that critics around the world have cited in praising our Beethoven recordings has been the attention to detail, the very audible sense that every twist and turn of these massive works has been meticulously planned out, so clearly, our music director knows what he's doing. But it does make for some exhausting rehearsal situations in which he makes us repeat a few seconds of music over and over, when we all think we know how to play it already, because he's detected a flaw that will stand in the way of creating the right flow for the music. Today's example of this can, in fact, be broken down to a single rhythmic figure:

Looks innocent enough, doesn't it? But that little reverse snap runs more or less continuously, in one instrument or another, throughout nearly the entire first movement. And while playing it once in a fast tempo is no big deal, playing this...

...presents a number of challenges for strings, winds, and brass alike. Without going into boring specifics, let's just say that the rhythm can easily get flabby and start sounding like some sort of lazy jig, rather than the crisp angular line that Beethoven wanted. Osmo despises flabby rhythm, and nothing will get him on our backs faster than playing this figure incorrectly.

But it gets worse. Sometimes, you might not be asked to play the whole figure, but just a chunk of it, like this: Now, this is even harder to do correctly, because you're being asked, at a very high rate of speed, to snap that 16th note at exactly the right moment, after having counted out precisely five 16th rests. As I mentioned, most conductors are relatively lenient about this, and allow the strings a small cheat which makes the partial figure easier to play together without anyone crashing in early or late. If you were to write out the cheat in the score, it would look basically like this:

Osmo hates this cheat. Hates. And while we know this full well, and honestly try to avoid doing it when he's on the podium, years of having done it make it a very difficult habit to break, and even after slaving over it for an hour this morning, we still haven't quite got it back in the perfect rhythmical swing he wants for it. I have no doubt we'll get there by concert day, but there's probably some more blood, sweat, and tears ahead before we do...