Enigma
22 years ago, in a former life, I recall sitting in the Corn exchange concert venue in my home town of Bedford; our youth orchestra played Elgar’s ‘enigma Variations’ and from memory it was a good performance. Last night I once again took my seat in the first violins to play Enigma in the Corn exchange, under the same baton of conductor Michael Rose, and with some of the same players: my desk-partner and life-long chum David Barlen, and the dynamic Morven Bryce who led the orchestra last night. It was a sentimental and somewhat surreal experience. For the past 6 weeks I have painstakingly memorised the 30-minute orchestral masterpiece (including the famous ‘Nimrod’ variation). Mercifully the brain-box did not let me down, and most of the notes came out of the violin at the right time. Never before have I listened so intently to guide my playing, with no conductor’s baton to follow. It was both tense and intense, nerve-wracking yet euphoric, all of life’s emotions contained in one concentrated half-hour of music making. And over so quickly, barely time for a drink afterwards and a reminisce with old chums; all of a sudden it was midnight and Cinderella had to leave the ball. Today a strange sort of hangover, some mental and a bit (quite a lot actually) of emotional exhaustion. So the violin goes away until the next time…the next time…when will that be I wonder…?
