Hi Steemit!
It’s the second week of Openmic for me now and I’d like to thank those who gave me an upvote and commented last week!
This week I’m back again with more classical excerpts, this week from Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks). Technically this piece isn’t classical, but instead post-romantic/modern.
I’m performing these excerpts as part of an audition in a couple weeks so I thought it’d be good to play them here first. Playing excerpts makes me nervous like no other performance, mostly because they’re always played in auditions, which means there’s a lot riding on the result and also because the parts, when played alone, are so exposed.
Just like last week’s submission this piece also happens to be a tone poem (you can read about them here). This tone poem is based on the German folktale of Till Eulenspiegel, a chronic prankster who challenges the establishment and disregards convention and criticism. This is a very virtuosic piece for orchestra. Strauss wrote hard parts in the expectation that eventually players would manage them cleanly. During rehearsal of his later composition, Don Juan, which is equally difficult, he stated: “…although it’s dreadfully difficult. I felt really sorry for the poor horns and trumpets. They blew till they were blue in the face, it’s such a strenuous business for them.”
So here is my performance for week 53!! (Sorry about the poor view…)
Also that last note...haha