"Their Russian's wonderful! What's all the fuss about?"

So, piano rehearsal for both Shostakovich symphonies tonight. I am so totally exhausted as a result of that (not helped by trauma at work, associated lack of sleep, and singing very loudly in a different rehearsal a couple of hours previously) that I wanted to sleep as soon as I got home, but annoyingly I still have lots of stuff whirling round in my head and can't sleep, so I thought I'd write this to offload at least a few thoughts (kind of like an online Pensieve...)

Mark (Elder) seemed impressed with the Russian (the title is a quote from him). He was less impressed at the singing behind the beat, but I was expecting that. Maybe one day everyone will watch all the time, but we're sadly not at that stage yet. Annoyingly, we're also not at the stage where everyone can be professional in rehearsals - I found it particularly difficult to concentrate tonight, as there was a LOT of chatter. Jamie pointed out at one stage: "If you don't talk, your voices will recover sooner..." which is of course true, but unfortunately some people were just determined to be rude. And it was infuriating when a few people started to mutter about the break being later than promised, seemingly oblivious to the fact that if they hadn't talked nonstop throughout the first half of the rehearsal, we would have got through everything on time! Oh well.

We also got our new folders and sashes tonight (the sashes are what's being referred to in the wind socks sign above....) As a public service, here is a photo of a sash pinned correctly:



There was a bit of alarm at the idea that we need to sew stuff before Thursday's concert despite having no time in which to do it, but when I went to investigate, I was told that it's not a problem, they can easily be pinned on, and Pat will bring pins on Thursday for this very purpose. Just as well, because I don't even have any pins, so I was planning to fix mine on with gaffer tape!

Mark was on good form tonight. He told us to watch the violinists' faces when they play the fast, high pizzicato stuff in the triple fugue of the 2nd symphony. (Apparently the violinists at the first performance said this was impossible to play, and begged the 21-year-old Shostakovich to change it to arco!) Mark was also quite taken with the English translation of a couple of lines: "Terrible was the name of our snares" and "Freedom out of oil-covered hands". But the highpoint was his story about having to go and present himself at the American Embassy in order to get permission to work there (apparently everyone has to do that now, and if we ever went on tour there with the choir and orchestra, every member of the choir and orchestra would have to visit the American Embassy first!) I can't tell the story as well as he did, so I will just summarise it as a memento for the people who heard it. 7.25 a.m., freezing cold, 2 other musicians in the queue (who recognised Mark), Mark eventually being interviewed by a 24-and-a half-year-old preppy type guy who found Shostakovich problematic and dissonant and preferred chamber music - Boccherini and Locatelli. "Geminiani's good," said Mark. "You're free to go now," was the response.

Trust me, it was a lot funnier when Mark told it :-)

Anyway, I'm going to try to sleep again now, but I must finish with the night's only significant Jamieism - he got very excited when lots of people sang a G instead of an F on the penultimate page of the 2nd symphony. "Brilliant! Wrong and committed! Thank you!"