I've considered making a website for numerous reasons over the years but it was this past weekend's bassoon audition -- followed by a week of "staycation" -- that finally motivated me to do it. I'm hopeful that this post will be helpful to bassoonists and others preparing orchestral auditions. I doubt I'm adding anything new to the conversation, but since the requests for comments have started coming in, this will give me a place to direct those inquiries, as well as an easy way to share if people find it useful.
Dear Wonderful Bassoonist:
Thank you for attending our audition. Every time I sit on a committee (I have done it at least 20 times in my 18 seasons in this orchestra, in every choir of the orchestra) I am humbled, inspired, frustrated, and immensely grateful that I somehow survived this process. We are sitting comfortably listening to dozens of people doing something extremely specialized that required many years of work and tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars -- at a level that most people will never achieve on any one skill -- and then sending most of them on their way after 5-10 minutes. It's not something any of us take lightly. We've all been on the other side of the screen and we've all discovered after the fact that we turned away friends, colleagues, or players who the next month went on to win a job in a bigger orchestra. The reason there is a committee is that people don't always hear things the same way. It's an imperfect process and decisions are rarely unanimous. I could do a whole other blog post on this.
As I prepared the rep list for this audition I tried to consider the perspective from both sides of the screen. I wanted to give the candidates their best shot at feeling comfortable, and I wanted to give the non-bassoonist committee members the easiest time distinguishing among the candidates. This meant emphasizing artistry over technique and not asking anything that could possibly be unfamiliar to any committee member. These days a whole lot of people can lay down a pretty clean Figaro, or a blur of a Beethoven 4 which is hard to judge in an empty hall (more on that later). But when I think of the people I truly love to listen to, or to play with, it's the ones who play with refinement, nuance, flexibility, and personality.
For the prelim round I wanted to start with something comfortable to give people a chance to blow some air through the horn, nothing super soft or loud, not too high or low, fast or slow. I chose the solo from the first movement of Tchaikovsky 4 (at E, or bar 104). My thinking was that this is both energetic and lyrical, on comfortable notes at a comfortable dynamic, has some big yummy intervals and a chance to lay down some good articulation to get a feel for your reed on the stage, as well as showing off a taper on one of the easier notes to taper (far easier than the F in the following movement, at least for me). Following this, the candidates would play the solo from the end of the second movement.
As it turns out, a lot of people sounded unconvincing on the first movement excerpt. The upbeat often sounded like a downbeat. The hemiola didn't have a good sense of direction. It was hard to imagine the back and forth with the clarinet (assuming they counted the rests correctly, which wasn't always the case). Another thing that we heard a lot was a second movement solo that was at the same, or even a higher, dynamic and energy level than the first movement solo. The first movement one is mezzoforte. Second movement: pianissimo! Regardless of how it might have felt the last time you played this in an orchestra, in an audition you aren't competing with a string section. It is an honor and responsibility to be able to close this beautiful movement in a touching, reflective manner. Show the committee your vulnerable side and you'll win more points than going balls to the wall.
Next up was Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, another one that many people played louder than the written dynamic. Keep it quiet, clean, buoyant, and come back after the crescendos and accents or you'll end up way too loud. The final bars are the time to let her rip, and if you're already at forte you can't do it, or you get too loud and buzzy which isn't nice to hear. Also remember, no ritard and hold the final note the proper length! The oboists await their entrance.
Beethoven Violin Concerto second movement was next, and in the interest of time I'd like to refer people to David McGill's excerpt CD (also available on YouTube). Many candidates didn't manage the dotted rhythm accurately, or show the appoggiatura, or make a beautiful release into the eighth note. And that's just the first bar! To me this is not an excerpt that requires individuality or imagination, but attention to detail and excellent control of the instrument.
Time for everyone's favorite, Figaro! As previously mentioned, a lot of people do this pretty well, at least the slurred notes. The double tonguing, well, not always so great, and often hard to keep track of where people were in the bar. Anyway here's the deal with this excerpt, and Beethoven 4. My advice, based on everything I learned back in the dark ages when I was studying, then taking 30-odd auditions, and now on this side of the screen: do not play this anywhere near 160. My go-to tempo was always 138 and I'm standing by that. 144 for Beethoven 4. If it's clean and elegant, the committee can infer that you are a thoughtful careful player and could probably notch it up if necessary. If it's fast and unclear and sounds frantic, they're likely to infer that you're not in control. More important than the speed is to give the impression that you'd be able to react to your colleagues or a conductor so the ensemble stays tight. We don't have time to ask everyone "can you try that a little slower..." and most people's tendency when nerves take over is to start too fast, and then rush. Also in an empty hall things tend to blur together.
The other thing about Figaro is that the actual solos occur in the middle of the overture. I really wanted to hear these and the transition to the recap so I had the candidates start at bar 101. A few people slurred into the C in bar 103 which is not what's written. Obviously cracking E's can be an issue. I'm not sure how evident either of these things were to the non-bassoonist committee members, but we all can tell if someone is playing with a light Mozartean character. It's important to shape these solos and show us your fun awesome bassoony articulation. Even in the loud parts. This is a charming little overture to an amazing opera. It's not a track event!
Bolero was the final excerpt and again, it was evident that most people have practiced this excerpt a lot and could execute it pretty well, with reasonably good control and rhythm. But the ones who stand out will be the ones who play it at the written dynamic (three guesses what it is) ... not make a giant crescendo... and generally play it with the appropriate nuance and energy level for its position in the work as a whole. In an actual performance it's intimidating how softly the flute and clarinet play their solos.
That's all for now and thanks for reading... I have no idea how to enable comments and I think you have to pay more to get an email link out of the page so if you want to ask questions or send me hate mail you can find me on Facebook. If you send a friend request and I don't know you I'll probably ignore it, but I do check the "other" messages box now and then so I'll find your notes.
Post script from a few days later: like every other serious musician on the planet, I struggle with imposter syndrome and wondered if people would read this post and say "pffft, what does she know..." But the feedback has been very positive and in the interest of putting my bassoon where my mouth is, here are a couple excerpt/coaching videos I made at New World Symphony a few years ago. However self conscious you feel listening to your playing recorded... imagine also hearing and SEEING yourself speaking, and wondering what you were thinking with that thrift shop shirt. But I think there's stuff in here that might help some people and I'm safely in a tenured job, so... here ya go. Take a look around their library -- lots of good stuff and don't just stick to the bassoon videos!
https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/beethoven-symphony-no-4-finale
https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/tchaikovsky-symphony-no-4-2nd-mvt--2