Weekend wrap-up

Thanks to all who voiced their concern about my stupid hand injury. I am, fortunately, pretty functional now, though I just found out that using a mouse with a splinted hand is next to impossible. Oh well. With the combination of injury and attendant slowness, I was unable to join Dave for dinner or breakfast on his brief swing through Cambridge.

On to other challenges. I neglected to write about my first two rehearsals with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus last week; suffice it to say, I was more than a little rusty for the first practice, but things got better with the second. This makes sense, I think; prior to last week, it had been something like seven years since I sang with a symphonic choir (the Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC). It’s going to take some time for me to get my vocal chops back. Fortunately, the Mahler is helping in that direction. It really only has two dynamics: mezzo-piano in about four or five measures, and fortissimo everywhere else. Since dynamic control is one of the hardest things to do in a symphonic chorus, where you are lucky to be heard above the orchestra even at your loudest volume, Mahler’s dynamics help tremendously.

So with no rehearsals this week, my mission is a little different: get a white dinner jacket (standard dress for Tanglewood performers). The chorus recommended Keezer’s, so I guess I’ll be checking out a Cambridge institution. Notes TK.