Concert week

Last piano rehearsal was today. Tomorrow and Thursday dress rehearsals, concerts Friday and Sunday. The piece is Ernest Bloch's Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh), which I've done before, but not for a very long time. I like the music better than I remember, but the experience of learning it has been more stressful than usual because our regular conductor is on sabbatical this year, and working with the guest conductor for the quarter has been tough. In part, it's because his style is very very different, and I think he would have been difficult to get used to regardless. But he didn't make the best first impression with most of the chorus, and I feel like most people didn't give him much of a chance to correct it. So it's set up a very poor feedback loop where he does or says something that rubs folks the wrong way, people react badly to it, and he gets defensive.

Fortunately, we're working with someone else in the Winter Quarter, and yet another person in the Spring. And the orchestra conductor, whom we've worked with before, is conducting this weekend's performances, and our two rehearsals with him have already gone much easier. So I think it will be fine. As long as my feet don't give out.