My first page-turning experience...

was, in a word, nerve-racking. As I mentioned briefly at the end of my last post, I had been asked to act as a page-turner for the pianist at a concert today. This wasn't just any concert, it was a concert put on by [apparently] one of Australia's best cellists, an extremely accomplished pianist, and a fantastic clarinettist - meaning that there was a huge amount of pressure on my shoulders to not stuff up anything. Unfortunately I had never done any amount of page-turning before - not even at home - so I was already feeling quite nervous. The rehearsal did absolutely nothing to help my nerves, especially with quite a large audience gathering 1 hour and 15 minutes before the concert! I hadn't felt so nervous since... well actually last time I performed, because I did this enormous stuff-up in which I totally forgot what to play and had to 'fudge it' (aka improvise) for about 15 bars... anyway, I was feeling extremely nervous. Enjoying the beautiful music only helped a little, because I had to pay such rigid attention to following the music so I wouldn't get lost. While it was a good experience and I was delighted to be able to help in some way, it wasn't exactly the sort of thing I would choose to do for fun. It is unbelievably easy to make a mistake that could ruin the performance, or even the whole concert.

On the bright side, I was given the privilege of meeting and getting to know David Pereira, which I'm very pleased about. I was also very happy to be able to do a favour for the pianist, who has done lots of things for me in the past.

The moral of the story is that I now have a proper appreciation for page-turners and what they have to go through. To anyone in the world who's ever done page-turning - thank you for making a difference by offering your services, and I can now empathise with you.

And now I shall go find a CD so I can hear what Beethoven's Clarinet Trio IV actually sounds like without the sound of a heart thumping 180 beats per minute...