Concerto for Orchestra, Defeated!

I had the opportunity to play Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra this evening with the DuPage Symphony. Finally, I'm happy with a performance of the piece. Some notes I did take are as follows....

Play the first roll of the Introduzione on the "E" on the 23" drum. I was using Yamaha timpani and the 23" drum had decent ring...your mileage may vary. During the A/Eb passage, muffle the A as you strike the Eb. Everyone loves a tritone, but it collides with tonality a bit too much.

The second movement, Giuoco delle coppie, doesn't have much for the timpanist. However, stay steady on the eighth note "C" after the return of the main theme. The low strings are displaced in an interesting juxtaposition against the time signature and your entrance must be steady.

Be flexible in your tuning of the F#, C# and D# at the beginning of the Elegia. The basses may have a hard time getting a pitch as the last thing they heard was the sound of a snare drum w/o snares. Let the last C# of the Elegia ring.

The Intermezzo should be played relaxed. Keep both feet on your middle drums and count the eighth notes. Even if you know how it "feels", count it anyway. Start the chromatic passage with the drums tuned F, G, C, Eb. Most of the tuning will be done on the middle drums, with the high E -> Eb done on the top drum. I generated this block of positions, just for fun.

1.     2.       3.       4.       5.      6.       7.      8.
 G C   |  Bb X  |  Ab X  |  X Db  |  X X  |  X X   |  A D  |  G X  
F   Eb | X    X | X    X | X    X | X   E | X   Eb | X   X | X   X

Finally, be prepared to play the cymbal near mm. 112 if you're only using two players.

In the last movement, the timpanist has the "melody" which starts about three bars after the fermata. This phrase is basically a long rhythmic passage consisting of some intricate hemiola's Try and understand how they play against the strings, and how they coincide with the woodwinds. The first 3/4 measure is marked forte; I brought this down to mezzo-forte and then relaxed even further after that measure to make a crescendo to the end of the phrase. Count the rests throughout this movement especially. You'll be sorry if you don't! If you're playing the two players, be prepared to hit the last cymbal note too. A bit of advice: put mutes on the C to limit the ring while you muffle the cymbal.

Other than that, the most fun comes from hearing the rhythmic games Bartok establishes between groups of instruments, and solo instruments. Don't get wrapped up in the anxiety of the 4th movement, it's really not as difficult as you'd think if you count and understand which drum needs to be tuned, and when.

Then again, most music seems easier in retrospect!