Milestone

As of Friday, the Bach A minor violin concerto--the first and third movements, anyway--is in the books. Ms. L had me play the third movement all the way through, and it went pretty well. I maintained a pretty consistent tempo (84 or so), and, she said, played with a nice tone. 

Both of those were mild successes in the big scheme of things, but represented significant improvement over where the piece has been at various times. And no one says that it was an earth-shattering musical interpretation, but learning it to the level that I did has given me a deep sense of accomplishment.

It's quite humbling to realize that I've been working on the Bach since February--nine months for two movements! That's not too impressive, but I have to remind myself that:

• These two movements of this concerto were the first piece(s) that I have learned from scratch since college (i.e., since 1993, for those keeping score at home). 
• In the process of working on this concerto, I (and Ms. L) remade my bow hold and developed some new approaches in other areas of technique (e.g., shifting) that will serve me well for a long time.* 
• Double stops! When I started working on the Bach, I could barely play double stops at all anymore. I just was not in shape for it. I had to be careful not to hurt myself in practicing them. By this past Friday, if I do say myself, I was owning me some double stops.
• In those nine months I also bought a house, moved, hung in there through the annual crazy-making time at work, and navigated a big (unbloggable) transition at work.

It was weird to do my practicing this weekend and not play that third movement. So: one last listen, with a few comments:

• If I could turn back the clock, I would spend more time woodshedding the part from 1:05-1:22 earlier in the process of learning the movement. It didn't intimidate me like some of the rest of the movement did, and I kept thinking it would take care of itself over time. It didn't. It was an area where I always had to slow down. I had to go back and hash it out over these last couple of weeks.
• The part from 1:57-2:17 is still my favorite. I had to do my share of work on it to get it in tune and to make the shifts reasonably smooth, but it was always the part of the third movement that I played the best.
• The part from 2:18-2:26 kicked my butt for months. I had no idea when I listened to the recording how many notes were actually hiding in that part. When reality set in, I doubted I would ever learn it. But: I did. 
• Ditto the part from 2:55-3:12. (And I love what's happening in the orchestra through there. At one low point in my work on this, I comforted myself with the thought that no one should be listening to the soloist there, anyway.)

  Video posted to YouTube by Cleopatra11

* In fact, I have invested enough time and effort into the bow hold, shifting, etc. that I sure as hell will not quit this violin thing again any time soon!