Cutting Room Floor: Alternate Fingering

Posts tagged as Cutting Room Floor are where we put all the material relevant to our Inside the Classics concerts that we know we won't have time to get to in the actual shows. Some of it is serious, some of it is silly, and some of it is just extra information about the featured composer or piece of music that we didn't know what else to do with. Click the tag to see all this extra source material in one place...

On the heels of our Mendelssohn concerts this week, we've got one last bit of Octet-based fun for your enjoyment. As those of you who were at the show will remember, the finale of the Octet for Strings begins with a ridiculously fast growling melody line in the second cello part, played in our performances by MN Orch principal cello Tony Ross. (Why was Tony playing second cello, you ask? Because he wanted to, and we don't argue with Big Tony.)

Anyway, Tony has played this piece a lot, and one of the frustrations cellists have with it is that, no matter how accurate and nimble your fingers are with that opening lick, it winds up just sounding like a bunch of ultra-low rumbling until the violas come in with the same line an octave higher. So Tony, ever the enterprising soul, has come up with a unique way of playing that opening growl that saves a great deal of wear and tear on the fingers...

(Apologies for the poor video quality. I don't have a real video camera...)

He actually threatened to play it that way at the show this week. And if he had, I'm betting only a few people would have been able to hear the difference. Looks totally ridiculous, though...