The Ars Viva program had a few unfamiliar works on it – the Diamond and the Schuman, although during the first rehearsal, when we got to the slow movement of the Schuman I realized I had played it before – at the 1975 Congress of Strings in Seattle. Why the slow movement triggered such a distant memory, I have no idea.

Anyhow, between the Diamond, Schumann and Bartok it was the kind of concert where every piece is faster, more aggressive and thornier than the one before. The Diamond was mostly counting. Here are a couple passages from the Schuman.

1st movement theme

Finale opening

The Bartok is better known, I think. This passage always gets me

The above passage got a bit frantic at the concerts. By the time the basses entered the tempo heading off the scale – probably around 120 to the dotted quarter note, way too fast!