After finishing our run of performances of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande on Saturday night, the very next day I played a concert with the MOSA String Quartet.
On the program were two pieces I commissioned 19 years apart from Miguel del Aguila.
Malambo is a one-movement piece I will be performing with orchestra at the International Double Reed Society Conference on June 20th in Appleton, Wisconsin. This will be my third performance of the work. In April, I performed the bassoon and piano version at the University of Arkansas, at the beginning of the month (mentioned above) I performed the version for bassoon and string quartet, and at the Conference, I'll perform the version with orchestra. I will have played all three versions over a two month span!
Nostalgica is a piece I commissioned in 1998. I recorded it, along with two other works and Miguel's Sunset Song on this CD. Play a clip by going here (Scroll to the bottom and click on the arrow in the CD art cover to play the "Blues" movement.)
Extremes:
The extremes were to be found that week on my bassoon and in my reed case.
Reed case:
On one side I had two soft low reeds, on the other were my solo reeds. These reeds had a full sound, with lots of color possibilities. It took many hours at the reed desk in the month prior to come up with viable candidates for both categories!
Bassoon:
During the week before my performances, I went back and forth between two different configurations of bocals, lefreQues, and pad heights on my bassoon depending upon what I was playing that hour. My solo #1cc prewar Heckel bocal, lefreQues and open pad for del Aguila, my #2cc prewar Heckel bocal, no lefreQues and lowered E pad height for Debussy.
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