Revisiting Long-Time Friends!
What a great privilege it is to have been around the viola-chamber-music-block enough times through the years to have performed the iconic repertoire many times over. As I prepare for this summer’s concert programs at Kneisel Hall I find myself reveling AGAIN in what an honor it is to be able to perform and work on the Schubert Cello Quintet, the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, the Faure c minor Piano Quartet and the Beach Piano Quintet, all of which I’ve performed numerous times with my Audubon Quartet as well as at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival during the past 25 summers there. It’s SUCH a different feeling to learn these great works for the very first time from getting to revisit these amazing friends again for the 5th or even 10th time. It’s about already knowing what’s coming around the corner (very comforting) PLUS getting to discover things I never noticed before. I suppose it’s a bit like rereading your favorite books or looking at your favorite paintings again and again, and finding deeper meanings and more layers. But working on (practicing) a piece of music also includes the physical elements of trying and actively needing to figure out how to make these new-found discoveries actually work and sound better than before. I guess that’s one of the reasons we become musicians. Our work is never done. And if we feel it IS done then maybe it’s time to do something else. Without these tremendous challenges to always reach for a higher bar, what’s the point, right? 🙂
