I started off my Palm Sunday job in a very unique way this year. I was only playing on the hymns for the early service and I had arranged with the piano player to spend a few minute prior to the service to try something for Easter Sunday.
I got to Church early and did a relaxed warm-up outdoors as the Choir rehearsed, so I had about 30 minutes to just ease into my sound. When they had finished, I asked our director to listen to my “solo” to see what she thought for Easter Sunday. There were about 50 people in the sanctuary while I played and this was most certainly a performance. I have the new
Vincent Cichowicz orchestral excerpts with piano accompaniment book and I played the Post Horn solo from Mahler 3. Wow! I’ve worked this up for auditions in the past, but this was the real deal (sharing my musical message with an audience). Everybody loved it! But we opted to use it for another Sunday (my director wanted something more festive for Easter Sunday).
This is extremely exposed, delicate playing and the emotional satisfaction that I received after playing this piece was very profound. I had just read Lenau’s poem Der Postillion that was posted in the
Orchestral forum on Saturday night and knowing the inspiration for this solo made the experience even more powerful for me.
I think when I do it for an actual service I am going to play it from the side room (just next to the piano – “offstage”) to give the appropriate “in the distance” quality that this music calls for.
My Palm Sunday definitely took on a special quality after that. I can see this being extremely powerful for a Good Friday service.
I just wanted to share this very interesting experience.