DIANA DOHERTY: Hi.
I'm Diana.
I play with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the oboe, and we're
here today in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, and
we're going to talk about some excerpts for the audition
for the YouTube Symphony.
The excerpt I'm going to speak about now is the beautiful solo
from Don Juan by Richard Strauss.
A couple of points I'd like to make before I play it.
Firstly don't be too worried about this upbeat,
this octave upbeat.
It's a low D.
I find what really helps is to imagine the orchestra
playing before you come in.
It has this beautiful barcarole like, sort of roll to it,
and imagine yourself being swept along.
I think it helps you get your air ready.
Then in the fourth bar-- oh, it's actually seven
on the page-- there's a little grace note.
I like these ones on the beat.
It's kind of traditional to-- especially the first time-- to
kind of come back and really [HUMS NOTES], really m-m-m,
make it really like a little hug.
I think that's a really beautiful moment.
And actually, that scene comes three times in the course of
this except, so I want you to be aware, too, that each time
it comes, maybe you just show a slightly subtle
difference each time.
The next point I wanted to make was, in bar 28, you'll see
it's written crescendo.
This crescendo goes over like seven bars of something.
And it's already not quite clear exactly what dynamic
you have at the start of it.
So do yourself a favor and make sure that, on that G, you relax
the dynamic a bit, so that you can start the crescendo on the
B nice and softly so you've got lots of room to crescendo.
And even within that long crescendo, there are
opportunities to come back a little and crescendo more.
And this gives you the impression of building and
building and building, because the last thing you want is to
crescendo so much that you're forcing the sound.
It has to sing and be warm and resonant all the time.
Next spot I want to speak about is bar 44.
You come in with this lovely countermelody
to the clarinet solo.
Very important to note, not your solo here, clarinet solo.
So, if you can, again, at all times try to imagine the
orchestra around you playing the same music.
And this is a very good example of such a place.
And my last thing I wanted to say about this excerpt is
that it has to tell a story.
There has to be an element of narrative to it, I think.
And the beautiful thing about playing this solo is that you
can put just very subtle personal inflections
in that narrative.
And so it's a beautiful, beautiful solo to play.
I like a tempo of about a minimum is 50, but again, I
think rubato is allowed, just be sure that you're sense of
pulse is clear at all times.
Beautiful legato would be good.
Intonation's always a good idea.
Let's play Don Juan.
