I feel very priveliged to have had the opportunity to perform in our final concert in the Alte B\u00f6rse, the Old Stock Exchange, Leipzig\u2019s oldest baroque building. In the concert, I played in several ensemble Bach pieces including Contrapunctus No.5 from Die Kunst der Fuge (alongside Vito, Maurice, and Tendekai), \u201cVivace\u201d from Konzert f\u00fcr zwie Violinen (alongside Noah), and of course our two cantatas \u2014 \u201cJesus bleibet meine Freunde\u201d from BWV 147 and \u201cO gro\u00dfe Lieb\u201d from Johannes-Passion. I also had the wonderful opportunity to play \u201cAndante\u201d from Clara Schumann\u2019s Piano Trio!
It was really fun to play the Bach double alongside Noah. It is a piece I have had in my repertoire for many years, but haven\u2019t had the opportunity to perform. It was enjoyable to come back to the piece and focus on our interpretative choices, both already comfortable with the notes: when preparing, we practiced in several different tempos, having listened to different interpretations of the pieces. We also worked on pencilling in dynamic markings, including sections that would be softer or more assertive \u2014 but what was nice was that in the concert, we ended up listening to each other so carefully that our interpretation felt relatively spontaneous!
I also had a lot of playing Clara Schumann\u2019s Piano Trio – she is a composer I have long admired but up until this point had never played. In our rehearsals, Ruth, James, and I worked on coming together as an ensemble, listening to each other, and matching each others\u2019 sound. In my own practice, I worked on bow distribution (in order to make as rich a sound as possible), and on my tuning and rubato in the solo sections. I thought it came together nicely in the concert, as we were all listening to each other appropriately and had a balanced, rich sound. As we played, I thought about Clara Schumann\u2019s own embellished performances and tried to channel her playing (shoutout to the Goethe House in Weimar, where I learnt that Clara Schumann used to perform for Goethe!).
The piece I had initially felt most challenged by was The Art of the Fugue. When we had initially read through, the piece hadn\u2019t always felt like it was coming together (tempo, balance, and style-wise). I was also a little daunted by leading the ending section. After listening to the piece a few times, following along with the score, I felt more comfortable with the tempo, and started listening more to the others, which helped massively with our balance. In our rehearsals, we talked a lot about our interpretive choices, discussing vibrato and balance. In the end, we settled on including some vibrato, but not too much, and as we practiced, we gradually became better at listening to each other and understanding the balance! In the end, despite a few hiccups, we performed pretty successfully, listening to each other and making sure that we were matching each others\u2019 sound and tempo.
It was also fun to work on the ensemble pieces. I don\u2019t have a lot of experience working with singers, so it was fun to work on balance. I especially enjoyed \u201cJesu bleibet meine Freunde.\u201d
Also, it was fun to perform my solo on Tuesday! Even though playing in a concert is never as good as in individual practice, it was nice to play some solo violin Bach in the city in which he himself lived, and share what I have been practicing with others. It also gave me a nice opportunity to get back into practicing solo works even though I hadn\u2019t taken solo lessons over the past year.
In all, this concert was a fabulous experience, and has inspired me to keep practicing and expanding as a musician over the Summer and into next year!<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I feel very priveliged to have had the opportunity to perform in our final concert in the Alte B\u00f6rse, the Old Stock Exchange, Leipzig\u2019s oldest baroque building. In the concert, I played in several ensemble Bach pieces including Contrapunctus No.5 from Die Kunst der Fuge (alongside Vito, Maurice, and Tendekai), \u201cVivace\u201d from Konzert f\u00fcr zwie<\/p>\n