Oops--that Shostakovich broadcast?

"The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley." (Robert Burns; the quote also made famous by Stienbeck's book Of Mice and Men.)

I'd announced here that at 3:00 PM ET today (Sunday) the DePauw Symphony concert, including me performing the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1, would be streamed live over the interent. But it didn't happen. Yesterday's DePauw football game was was rained out (severe thunderstorm down in Tennessee) and finally played today. Which preempted the DePauw Symphony live broadcast.

It turns out not to have been an altogether bad thing, since someone pushed a button too few or too many in the auditorium control booth and nothing was recorded until sometime during the third movement (the cadenza) of the second piece in the program, the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1. Had the broadcast gone out live, there would have been a lot of dead air.

Luckily, a successful recording was made at Friday's dress rehearsal. Orcenith Smith, our indefatigable conductor, spent the rest of the afternoon working with the radio station staff to edit together the the dress rehearsal and the what was recorded of the concert. The whole thing was then broadcast at 8:00 PM ET tonight. As soon as I get a copy of the assembled recording, I'll post MP3 files up of the Shostakovich concerto.

Everyone enjoyed the Luis and Clark carbon fiber cello; it projects like a monster. The orchestra was dressed in traditional concert black. I wore off-white shirt and slacks, so the black "bat cello" (as my students call it) looked quite striking.

And even I thought the performance went well--and usually I am very self-critical and disappointed in my playing.