Well, first of all, to memorize music has become a second nature to me, since I am doing it from the very beginning on, so it is not so challenging by itself. Just when it becomes too much, I start feeling overwhelmed. But I survived, nothing bad happened…

Thanks, Charles, for this really very insightful comment of yours! I completely agree – I love silence more than anything, and as much as I enjoyed playing the concerts in the past few days (at the St.Magnus-Festival, Orkney-Islands, great venues, wonderful audience), I absolutely need the break from music. I will somehow get through the next weeks, hopefully undamaged, but then I am looking forward to playing only one single concert between July 17 and September 3! In between I will go sailing in Sweden, visit my parents summerhouse, and then, three weeks of pure holidays in Mauritius, no cello, just wife and kid, lots of diving, surfing, snorcheling, tennis, reading, and most of all, just being lazy!

Your comments about multi-tasking are very good, I will write about this in the next blog, thanks for the cue!
Best wishes,

Alban

That said, imagine if Bach had gone gaga over some young cellist and wrote 66 suites for the cellist instead of his six? And your concerting situation asked you to focus on their performance? I imagine then, what would be needed, would be to ballance the 66 out with some more mordern, edgy pieces, a small amount, for the audience’s sake as well.

Or… in your present situation, you as the cellist could play, practice or listen to music (in your time off) which ballances the type of music you are repeatedly playing, in your example the Saint-Saens.

It has been suggested by the writer-teacher Stuart Wilde, that we are best when we listen to 80% soothing, uplifting music and 20% negative or astringent music. All the more so for someone immersed in the playing of the music.

Here’s where it gets interesting… Mr. Wilde adds in that in our modern day of demanding workloads and travel (hey, that’s you), there’s already so much negative astringency in the everyday that we need more soothing influences to ballance our selves.

Also interesting is the way we become addicted to astringency, to a coffeed up lifestyle. To slow down feels unnatural and boring. Yes, it’s fun. Al Gore is talking on the phone(s) while engrosed in reading three (very large) computers with three pages on each and watching the news on the tele. My pre-teen son is either playing two games simultaniously, computer and wii or xbox (often with unrealted music playing on) or he’s playing a game and researching on the computer or he’s into a computer game and aural lesssons both on computer. It’s dizzy-ing just to READ that sentence. Oh, yes, and the while he’s also on the phone, about half the time, talking a mile a minute. I can go on about myself, my wife… but you get the point. We are thrilled to be thrilled. We want to fit in 20 concerts next month, we want to do more, more, more.

And as our lives become more stimulating and challenging, we need a break even more than we need alternative, soothing music to be refreshed. Perhaps what is needed is not to find a way to play the Saint-Saens in a fresh way, but to realize that one is compressing too much Saint-Saens and compatriots into one’s little weeks.

Everyone says they like music. You can find two people who don’t like chocolate, but everyone will tell you they like music. I like music. I know because I like silence. The constant buzz of muzak assaults when one is out and about in my city.

Two days ago, I took my son to his cello lesson in Brooklyn and treated him at an upscale cookie/gellato shop afterwards. The silence there was very nice. Then the waitress (who happens to be a cellist and, if I may indulge in the sin of name-dropping this once in my life, a realtive of Pierre Fournier) appologied for having to ipod-and-speakers on Billly Joel rather than the Bach or Mahler she assumed I prefered like her. (The owner had asked her to dj less classical stuff.) What I missed was the silence.

Music is an expression of our inner self. When we allow our selfs to be overly demanded upon, we are changed. We become overscheduled, overburdened individuals. Our music will then reflect this even if we don’t notice or the coffeed up audience notice. But something will be missing.

I agree that music seems more “free” when the performer has it memorized – whether the sheet music is present or not, having the music in one’s head makes it easier to concentrate on the interpretation, not just the notes. Kudos to you for sticking with it even when things are piling on all at once.

Sam

I found it quite difficult to memorize only 35 minutes of non-solo music – especially since it had to be PERFECT since I would be playing right next to members of the audience, and there would be no hiding behind the sound of the rest of the orchestra should I forget any notes, or play some incorrectly.

I commend you for your dedication to the memorization of your music. I remember it being one of the most impressive things about you when I saw you perform in San Diego.

I hope you can find your balance between too much repertoire and still performing many interesting concerts in many different places.

Best wishes,
Tonya – San Diego, CA – USA