Concerts!!

I just finished two major concerts in one week! Now that I'm in both the Sanjo Symphonic Winds (two years now) and the Niigata Symphony Orchestra (since January '06), I've been busy and having a great time.

June 11th was the orchestra concert. The whole program was:
Magic Flute overture (Mozart)
Piano Concerto (Schumann)
Symphony #4 (Tchaikovsky)

I was originally slated to play only the Symphony, 3rd horn. However, about a month and a half before the concert, our section leader learned that he could not play the concert due to a work conflict, so he asked me to replace him on the Schumann, 1st horn. I attended every rehearsal, but they only rehearsed the Schumann twice between the time I learned I would be playing and the concert. It was a far cry from a flawless performance, but even so, many people were impressed that I was able to fill in so late.

June 18th was the band concert. The whole program was in three sections:
Section one: formal concert music
- Festive Overture (Shostakovich/Hunsberger arr.)
- Legendary Prelude (Yamauchi, Masahiro) This is our required piece for this year's competition
- La forme de chaque amour change comme le Kaleidoscope (Amano, Masamicz) This will be our free piece for this year's competition

Section two: pops
- South Rampart Street Parade (Baduc/Haggart; arr. Naohiro Iwai)
- Henry Manicini Medley (Arr. Toshio Mashima)
- I Need To Be In Love (Carpenter/Bettis/Hammond; arr. Kazuhiro Morita)
- Soran Funk (Arr.Takashi Hoshide)

Section three: A premiere performance of an original work for Taiko soloist and band by our conductor, Masaru Tanaka. In four movements or chapters, it begins subtly with sparse percussion (a single bell, rustling leaves, rain stick, etc.) moving toward the stage from the back of the audience, then formally opens with a piccolo solo that is probably supposed to resemble an ocarina, a type of ancient Asian flute.
The second movement is charaterized by irregular meter, the third movement has a challengingly high horn part (first horn peaks at high concert F) (which, I in fact, nailed during the performance :-), and the fourth movement has a lot of duple vs. triple rhythms. And then of course there is the drum soloist, with a couple of spectacular cadenzas. My description doesn't really do it justice.