I dreeamed that Trisdee and I were conducting the Snfonietta at the cultural center, but we had the wrong day; this concert had appeared on our calendar without warning. I was getting dressed and Trisdee was already out on stage, but there was no music to play. He phoned me from the stage - I picked up, it was one of the old phones with an actual receiver and mouthpiece, cream colored. While the audeince waited breathlessly, I had a long conversation with him. He asked me what we are playing. He said, Pod Moderndog is coming onto the stage. Just play one of the songs you played with him before, any one, I said. They started to perform and I was still in my dressing room. I desperately looked around for music, when my eye alighted on a string orchestra piece by Gustav Holst, the scpre upright on a shelf. I knew I had just seen Jonathan Mann conduct the piece somewhere. But deep down I knew that they had Tchaikovsky 4 on their stands, and had rehearsed it only once. Pods song ended and another call came. What should I play now? said Trisdee. And another thing, I cant explain it, but the hall should be packed, and theres hardly anyone here. I was dumbstruck. Suddenly I realized that I had confused today with December 28, our annual New Year concert which is three weeks away. I realized there was no audience because todays audience had never even been advertised. It was amazing there was anyone there at all. In fact, they were rapidly fleeing the fall because Trisdee and I were talking on the phone and there was no music happening. Finally I said to myself, We will just go on stage and I will conduct Tchaikovsky 4 with no rehearsal. I went through the music in my head, especially the clanging, complex piano part (actually there is no piano in this symphony but thats what I dreamed. I said Its okay. I will give a funny speech about how they are going to hear this orchestra play a symphony sight unseen..... I noticed suddenly that although I was wearing denim tails, I had not yet put on my trousers and was wearing turquoise silk boxers with chinese calligraphy on them. Great, I said. I will a funny speech about the conductor has been caught with his pants down, the audience will love it and I will get away with this version of Tchaikovsk 4. I tell them to wheel in the piano as I walk past the huge backstage grand, but when the huge carved oak upstage doors open for me to enter the auditorium I see there is already a piano on stage, on the far downstage right. Maybe Ill skip the first movement, I am saying to myself. I realize that most of the strings werent there when we practiced the pizzicato third movement. Ill skip that one too, I said. As I walked through the orchestra, I realized I was only go to play the finale, and by the time I reached the podium, I had decided to cut that too. Then I woke up.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 04:51:06 +0000
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