Day 2b (reporting late)

Excellent rehearsal yesterday evening with Olivia Kieffer and Scott Wesley Hawley, both of whom I met for the very first time.  Both of them fine and hard-working colleagues, and a pleasure to collaborate with.  First we three worked on "the new Mirage," and it was discovered that (in recreating the score in Sibelius) I had failed to give Olivia the rehearsal letters (Scott and I both read from score and clarinet part, respectively, from the original Finale edition).  The discovery went on the lines of:

Karl:  What if we pick it up afresh at the pick-up to D?
Olivia:  What are you talking about?  What is D?
Scott:  (patiently scritches behind the cat's ear while Karl sorts his error out)

Given that Scott was playing a MIDI (upright) piano — which was convenient, as he was able easily to wheel it around so that we could improve sight-lines among us three — and the vibraphone at Olivia's would have been perfectly at home in Hooterville, if Oliver Wendell Douglas had had a bandmaster for a neighbor ("I could have found a better vibraphone at a rummage sale") conditions were not ideal for the overall piece;  but Tuesday's performance will be lovely, both because Olivia & Scott are so attuned to the music, and because the instruments and space will be impeccable and lovely.

Olivia and I then repaired to another part of the house to hunker down with just what everyone was expecting.  This is one of my high-energy, interlocking parts, not much relent, really, pieces;  and (as stated earlier) this was the first occasion she and I have had to play together.  So we took it passage by passage, a bit under tempo, and that is how one conquers in the big way.  After a substantial, excellent session, we reached the point where we can pretty much play two-thirds of the piece, straight from the beginning, at our rehearsal tempo.

We resume work at eleven of this morning's clock, and I expect leaps and bounds (and, perhaps, pastoral dances).