Tuning Up: Present and Future

We are at the symphony, our first such outing since Covid. Friends gave us their tickets when they couldn't attend. I'm still not sure how I feel about being here in this (small) crowd. All the seats are by no means filled, but at least half the audience is unmasked. Apparently masking is now offered as "a suggestion." They do check vax cards at the door, and auditorium staff and most of the orchestra itself are masked. Horns are the exception; although I know special masks exist for these folks, no one in that section has them.

The bass player closest to us has his music on an iPad, which may or may not be controlled by a foot pedal, although sometimes he swipes the screen by hand. I then become interested in the other music stands, and it seems that most folks never turn the pages. I am close enough to see all this. How could all those notes fit on the two open sheets of paper? Are they only suggestions, like the masks? The young guest violist for the Bartok concerto clearly has that complex piece by heart, but surely not everyone is that amazing.  At home, Mr S has committed a few bars of Tchaikovsky's Symphony Pathétique to memory for the piano, whereas I seem incapable of ever seeing the patterns, and look at the page brand new every single time. Please, people who play in orchestras, explain how it all works. Thank you.

Is that enough of a digression? It was quite moving and powerful to be in a live venue again. There is nothing like an orchestra, especially from thirty feet away. We are so lucky to have this venue, and this fine group of musicians. Would I do it again? Jury's still out.