The cello class at the music school is having a recital tonight. My teacher encouraged me to participate, so I said okay. Sometimes it’s good to do something you rather wouldn’t just for a little variety.
I plan to play a piece by some French composer, a duet for piano and cello.
I had exactly one practice with the woman who’ll be playing the piano – she’s a teacher at the school and often accompanies students when they play, and is good at covering up their mistakes, adapting to their accidental changes in tempo, etc. I asked her how my intonation was, and she said “fine, and it’s a dissonant piece anyway.” So I guess if I make any mistakes, it could possibly sound as if they were intentional. Half the time when I play it, I do fine. So there’s a 50:50 chance it will go well, and even if it doesn’t, there’s a 50:50 chance no one will notice.
She does, however, play the piece twice as fast as I am used to playing it. Over the weekend I practiced with a metronome set pretty fast, and did okay, so I’ll probably be fine.
This is my first recital in 38 years, I think. Last time was Mrs. Baird’s (or whatever her name was – she was about 100 years old at the time, if I remember, so that’d make her 138 now, probably still patiently teaching kids their scales in her little house in town with the blue hydrangeas around the porch).
A year or two ago I accompanied a recorder ensemble at their recital. It was uncomfortable. I developed a sort of tunnel vision so narrow I could barely see my notes, and when we were finished all I wanted was to get the hell out of there.