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The Intermezzo may be for tone quality, expression in simple passages. The list is very similar to those used by the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera. As for preparing, not only must one know all of this thoroughly, you should be prepared to sight-read anything in the rest of those operas, and the entire opera literature as my teacher used to say. Opera is rather a specialty, as is ballet as well. At least they didn’t ask for Wozzeck.
The septet is hard to find, it may only be in the complete works of Glinka here, and hard to get that kind of ensemble together. Please designate more clearly which version one is discussing. The copy that I most recently found has the dates 1822-1827 on it.
The fingers should complete their movement independently of what the hand is doing. Perhaps you mean that the hand moves away after you finish playing? If you are pulling your hand instead of your fingers, you will end up having to correct that habit someday, I would think.
I related this before, but Zabaleta was doing a recital in Carnegie Hall, and he stopped after the first piece and said something inaudible. He stopped midway through the second piece, got up from the harp, went to the front of the stage, and started yelling at someone to get out. It turns out an older man had fallen asleep and was snoring. He wouldn’t leave, but he managed to stay awake, apparently. Unfortunately, as we couldn’t hear the problem, it made Zabaleta look temperamental.
My Minnesota experience was that it is the veneer that will crack along the center strip the first time you take it out in below-zero weather. Back then, in the 1970s, my teacher said it was okay, unavoidable, and it would actually loosen up the wood so the sound would start to develop sooner.
The simple answer would seem to be to reproduce Wurlitzer harps, as they are as near to the best as you can get.
It’s very tricky rhythmically, as you don’t play the downbeats. If you can memorize it, it will help. The page turns are murder.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Have fun with those excerpts, especially the Berg! How much time is left to prepare?
This thread also begs the question of why no one is simply reproducing the Wurlitzer harps, if they were copies of Lyon & Healy, but are in the public domain, and if they were indeed so good. I think they are heavy sounding, but good workmanship, to be sure.
The word “clunk” reminds me of a harp I diagnosed. It was clunking between pedal changes. It was perhaps a “thunk.” It wasn’t metal against metal. I finally figured out, after the three top guys from Lyon & Healy looked at it and gave up, that it was only happening when you moved, I think it was going from G-sharp to A-sharp. I therefore deduced that the rod or all the rods were moving at that point and hitting the inside of the column or something like that. Could it have been loose rivets? Perhaps, only it never stopped functioning entirely. This was a Salvi Electra. As far as I know it has never been fixed.
Yes, when I was in school, they spent a tremendous amount of time and energy in the first few grades teaching us to be quiet, and re-teaching us in junior high. If the schoolteachers are lax, then everyone will suffer. I spent many hours in second grade standing in the corner for talking in class, or writing on the blackboard hundreds of times, “I will not talk in class.” It simply has to be taught and drummed in over and over again. Unfortunately, electronic/digital devices simply empower people to be rude and create a sense of entitlement. It’s a colossal battle. Ushers are not always allowed to police the interior or expected to. It is a house management issue, but there are not always ushers and house managers. However, I cannot forget the ushers at the Broadway Theaters and New York State theater. They were either, alumni of the roller derby, mafia matrons, or just the meanest, nastiest older women they could find, but they sure were effective!
