This is a page for APO players to view rehearsal notes or advice to be inserted into parts, from Andrew, prior to the next rehearsal.
Franck
There’s a lot of pushing and pulling throughout, so the following list is not exhaustive:
1st movement
- Both entries from the Lento into the Allegro non troppo – I played around with this at the rehearsal, trying to conduct it a couple of different ways. The way I’ve decided to do it is not to bring everyone off, but for the strings to do what they need to do to play the first note of the allegro, which is probably to come off the last crotchet a little earlier (when the upbeat starts). Everyone else who doesn’t play in the next bar can hold on to the bar line, but be careful not to bleed over it – coming off before the downbeat lands.
- Letter B – everyone sit on the crotchets. The natural tendency is to push through them because they’re short, but we need to set up for the molto rall. in the next bar, which will be in four – so plenty of time and cellos watch for the last couple of beats so we can take the time over that resolution off the tie.
- Probably a little hold up into G and a bit of a calmer tempo.
- Pauses between G and H – watch out if you’re one of the instruments who holds onto the note after everyone off is brought off – first pause that’s first horn, second pause is oboe, third and fourth pauses everyone holds on anyway.
- Four before H the tempo picks up straight away. Don’t be caught out!
- Eight before I and bar before I, pairs of glasses in parts as we’ll just hold back those bars to make the cadence each time.
- At I we’ll just be poco meno mosso so we can make the phrasing with the scales epic, picking the tempo up again at 9th of I with the trumpet fanfare-ish stuff.
- Calming down into M, starting 15 before M with the molto dim. but not pulling it back too much. We want to be at a really calm, lovely place for the flute solo 3 before M. Staying meno mosso at M, then with each two bar phrase from 10 before N, starting to pick it up again, with a real push forward at N with the sempre cresc.
- The return of the Lento after N may not have a strict relationship to the previous beat (in most recordings the crotchet beat is effectively a bar (two minim beats) in the previous allegro). I might go slower; I might not. You’ll have to watch!
- Four before O, poco meno mosso to go with the pp. Maybe pushing slightly forward towards O, but milking it for all it’s worth in the last bar!
- T will be under tempo, with momentum building.
- Last Lento will be molto milko. 4th and 5th bars from the end we’ll make the upbeat quavers really heavy.
2nd movement
- Pauses after F vary slightly. First is just on the first beat, so pause instruments come off on second beat in tempo and first violins have an upbeat for their third beat entry in tempo. All the other pauses in this bit have parts resolving the chord on the second beat, so I’ll bring them off and effectively give a bonus second beat in time for the entries that follow on the third beat.
- Three before Q, only the bass clarinet holds on when I bring off the rest of you playing on the pause.
- 10th of Q, I’m going to add a tasteless rall. into a meno mosso (the seconds and violas will love me cos it gives loads of time for their triplets), though we (I) need to be careful it doesn’t grind to a halt before the final poco rall, which will be much more like a big molto rall.
Third movement
- 5th bar of C will be poco meno mosso and we’ll use the descending arpeggios in the couple of bars before to ease into this.
- A further slight pulling back into E
- As we build through the layers of crescendos after H, we’ll start to pick the speed back up.
- Big pair of glasses at I as we’ll hold the tempo back to make it extra accenty and epic.
- We may do a bit of a squiggle into the 7th of N, then release snappily back into the original movement tempo. Keep ’em peeled.
- Upbeat to two before P will be held back for epicness. Pairs of glasses please. Sorry seconds and violas – it has to be done. Then snap back into tempo from the second beat of the bar before P (so those with three-quaver upbeats these need to flow back into the original tempo).
- From the a tempo at 5th of Q, I’d like to push and pull quite a lot. Calm for the four bar phrases when the harp is accompanying the wind chords for two bars and the first movement three-note theme is in the second two bars, then pushing forward in the corresponding third movement four bar phrase, with the molto crescendo of the second and third bars, then settling in the last bar. Keep ’em peeled and you can’t go wrong.
- Then pushing forward with each phrase from 7th of R, so that we have a nice (but not mad) original movement tempo at S.
- I’d like everyone to stick a crotchet rest before the last chord, so that we create a gap and place it, without the gap being as big as a minim upbeat.