Bedford, PA

The first concert of Tour 2008 was before a small but enthusiastic crowd in the Bedford, PA high school auditorium. Nestled in the Allegheny Mountains, Bedford is a delightful town, filled with lovely old homes and ancient trees. Stepping off the bus, the air was crisp and cool; an instant shift to autumn weather.

Tonight’s program was the “C” Program. We open with Sousa’s “National Game” before moving right into Don’s new transcription of Festive Overture. Don has produced some wonderful arrangements for the Band, and he’s done a fine job with this one, as a whole. Don already knows, though, that I don’t care for the key. It shifts the piccolo into an awkward range, forcing some of the best lines into the middle octave. I miss the flash and sparkle of the old part.

I tacet on the horn solo; Hilary’s piece went well in the Tour rehearsals, so I was looking forward to the first performance. The lack of a backstage area, though, meant we hovered in an adjacent hallway, unable to hear much through the doors. Back on stage for the Dello Joio Variants on a Mediaeval Tune, I realized pitch would be interesting every C program at this point in the concert – I have to pull out quite a bit for the Shostakovich, so I have to take an educated guess as to where my piccolo will be after the tacet.

Semper Fi went well – two Band newbies in the brass section, and our rehearsal at home had an unexpected stinger. No stingers tonight!

The second half started with Liberty Fanfare, on of the many John Williams’ tunes we performed this summer. I belatedly realized my earplugs were in the dressing room – normally a big mistake for this piece. Fortunately, the lack of risers meant the trumpets were blowing into the sound shields in front of them instead of the back of my head.

The next piece is one of those pieces for which I have mixed emotions; the suite from The Perfect Fool, by Holst. On the one hand, it has a series of nice piccolo vignettes, mostly in the low register where it sounds the woodiest (a very under-used timbre for the piccolo); on the other hand, it has the single scariest moment (for me) of the entire tour. The piece ends with a very long, soft, sustained high d (!!!) in the piccolo and Eb clarinet while the other instruments peep and plop here and there. The note is usually quite high on the Eb and pretty flat on the piccolo. Fortunately, Michelle has some flexibility with covering tone holes, and I lucked out and found a magic fingering – it’s so sharp I have to lip it down to meet her pitch.

I tacet for the vocal solo, and I am hoping to hear it better at the next performance. I love listening to Sara; she has a great repertoire for this tour.

The best part about tonight’s concert was the enthusiastic fellow in the audience. Immediately following the final note of Festive Overture, he jumped to his feet, yelling out “Oh, Yeah!!” before the rest of the audience even began to applaud. Every piece he enjoyed was followed by an enthusiastic “Oh, Yeah!” all the way to the end of the concert.