I know, I know.... I haven't blogged or podcasted in a long time. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Last weekend was the final Masterworks concert of the HSO 2007-2008 season. It's hard to believe that the year has flown by so fast.

The program was an insane one for an orchestra that does not play together regularly: Copland's Appalachian Spring, Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

As usual, the orchestra exceeded my high expectations. They were well-prepared, they worked hard and efficiently in rehearsal, and they performed with incredible abandon and energy. This was my first performance of the Stravinsky, and I was very proud of my efforts on this beast of a piece.

The Sunday performance also taught me a lesson that I have taught many times: mistakes are a part of performance, and generally are unimportant in the large scheme. We had a few big errors in the Stravinsky on Sunday, all simple lapses in concentration, but certainly conspicuous to anyone who knows the piece. One of these errors led to another, much more conspicuous one early on in the piece. No need to mention who the players were. Suffice it to say that they are all some of the most consistent, well-prepared, and talented members of the orchestra, who, other than these few isolated spots, performed magnificently throughout the weekend (and on crazily difficult parts). They simply made mistakes, as we all sometimes do.

I will not lie and say that the mistakes didn't bother me. Of course they did. In the moment, I felt peeved and a bit frantic (there was some in the moment damage control to be done).

What surprised me was that several audience members who attended both performances said that the Sunday performance had even more energy, and more powerful an overall impact, than the Saturday night performance. Fancy that.... all those things I've said a thousand times about mistakes not being important, turned out to be true.

Mistakes are a part of live performance. I have never done a mistake-free performance of any kind. One of the great benefits of conducting is that the mistakes are inaudible and usually rectified by the musicians. In chamber music I mess up all the time. Sometimes the audience just doesn't know it's happened. More frequently, they just don't care that much. Live performance is about so much more than just all the notes being perfectly played.

But we do come pretty close most of the time.....

Anyway, it's been an amazing season, with some very memorable performances. I'm happy to have some time this summer to recover and regroup, but I give myself only a few weeks before I start getting excited about starting up again in the fall.

I'm off to China this weekend - joining a small group of players from the Pittsburgh Symphony to be in residence at the Conservatory in Tianjin. I'll be conducting the student orchestra and playing some chamber music with my esteemed colleagues. It should be fun, and I'll write about the experience soon.