The saxophone/chamber orchestra piece on Sunday night (7pm - 11pm)started out dicey and difficult but ended up happy and hellacious. Jim did a great job; so did Kirk Trevor, the conductor, who kept his cool and kept a firm rein on things. Everyone showed a lot of patience, even the composer, amazingly enough. Hubert and Emil, the engineer and producer, now have the task of taking the 80+ edit points and numerous takes and patching it all into a complete recording that will fool you into thinking we played the thing all the way through in one take.
Jim Dejoie had a very happy birthday last night at what has become our favorite restaurant in Bratislava; a Spanish-themed tapa place with outrageous hummus.
I got a phone call from the woman who had been hamstersitting Wooly. Sad news. At least the little guy passed away in his sleep overnight. He was happy and active right up to the end. Would that we could all make our exit that way.
Alaina and I went to visit the Bratislava Esperanto club, which meets on a cool boat hotel ("botel") on the Danube River, and a good time was had by all. You know when you can make people laugh in Esperanto that the diplomatic barriers don't exist anymore. Take that, Condoleezza Rice.
The guy who recorded my euphonium and piano piece last night is scary. What a sound (he's the principal trombonist for the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra up in Prague). They used the same hall as for the orchestral piece. He filled the place up. Afterwards he asked me to write, at Kirk Trevor's suggestion, a concerto for trombone & euphonium and orchestra (euphonium on the slow movement) for the anniversary of the conservatory at which he teaches up in the Czech Republic. This is in September 2009. Far out.
I'm trying to upload a video clip so you can get a glimpse of this town. If YouTube and this computer will cooperate, that is......
UPDATE: the security settings on this PC and YouTube are definitely not getting along. No video clips 'til Rockville, sadly, unless the Prague hotel is different.....
