When the orchestra started the first movement of Vivaldi's Gloria I just lit up. The passage is fast, light, needs to be totally rhythmic, and it was all of that, out of the box. When Tom got the players to lighten more, emphasize certain beats, it moved even faster and I was honestly swept away in it.
It is for these moments, when I know what to do and I do it, when I am part of a larger entity, all of us passionate about one thing, about creating this one beautiful thing, that I know why I trudge to rehearsals every Monday night. Of course this is, I think,why anyone performs music.
I remember the feeling, when I was younger and playing the piano, of looking at the worn sheet music, loving the look and feel of it, the sense of what it meant. I don't get exactly that feeling from the music we use for chorale works because I am one part of such a much bigger machine, but instead I get that gratifying sense of one out of many.
