WMV Music Web Log

A whole program of Libby Larsen's music! That would have struck me as a great idea last year, but without a clue how to produce it. Luckily, we have the privilege to do just that at the Cosmos Club next week, thanks to Libby Larsen, with Libby herself introducing each piece. Unfortunately, it is not open to the public, just members and their guests. If you are not a member (who are these people? and how do I get them on my mailing list?), you can hear the various pieces on our other programs, just not all together like this, unless I find another excuse to do it. Rhonda Buckley and I worked pretty hard on "Holy Roller" yesterday, and we are getting comfortable with it, a tall order, since this work is fiendishly difficult for both of us. Our recording of it is pretty good ("Rhonda Buckley, Live at Washington Musica Viva" on the WMV label, available from WMV, Levine School, or the Sitar Center for the Arts), but a recording is like a stepping stone - by studying our own recording we can figure out how to get to a new level. And we have already performed Holy Roller twice, so we kind of know what to expect in the heat of battle. I am optimistic!

It was a wonderful experience to rehearse with David Teie and Mahoko Eguchi for the March 2 concert - we programmed simply the best of the old trio masterpieces, the best Mozart Trio (if you don't include the Kegelstatt, which is arguably as good as the E major), Schubert's great Bb Trio (OK, the Eb is probably just as good, but we'll save it for another time), and Brahms' most concentrated romantic expression, his product of youth, revised lovingly and without cynicism in his maturity, the B major Trio op. 8. We all know these pieces so well, rehearsing was like sitting down to a good supper. We played, we sighed, and we left feeling good. Life should be like that for musicians!
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