Concert

OK, really and truly no time to write anything this week-end - nor, probably, next.  Next concert is next Saturday the 18th, and I am struggling.  I have written before about my lip's being numb after the accident.  It is still numb, but that doesn't appear to affect my playing significantly.  What does definitely do so is that I have lost endurance.

Brass players will know what I mean - and other wind instrument players may, too, for all I know.  Playing a brass instrument is an intensely physical activity.  The muscles involved are principally in the face - though the diaphragm can get very fatigued as well.  But it is the face - the embouchure that is doing the work.  And it is the lips that are the heavy lifters.  And my lower lip gets exhausted easily.  I cannot carry on, particularly playing high notes, for as long as I used, and cannot as reliably hit high notes any longer.

Nevertheless, I think it will be all right.  As I said, no time to write much now, but the pieces we are playing are:

• The Moldau - Smetana
• L’Après-Midi d’Un Faune - Debussy
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Dukas
• Dvorak's Cello Concerto

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is well-known from Disney's masterpiece Fantasia.  It is almost the most difficult one for us to play - though the others are no slouch.  Only The Moldau is straightforward music - and it is the lip-killer :-)