Today, we’re going to be going through a few tips that I have picked up and figured out throughout my time playing in front of an orchestra. It also helps that I have been with someone for a long time who plays in an orchestra. As with performing recitals and auditions, the best and most effective way to learn how to be the best soloist you can be in front of an orchestra is by doing it over and over again. There simply is no better way. However, I hope some of these suggestions can help accelerate that process. If you have any other tips, please leave them in the comments!

Preparation

Get the Full Score

As you might gather from a previous post, I’m a big fan of having different sources for my information. Having the full score helps you be informed of what’s going on in the orchestra part, more so than having a piano reduction, though the latter might be easier to read. Not only does the full score allow you to see what instruments are playing what, it also allows you to double check the notes and dynamics in your reduced score. You can also work on your score reading!

Listen

This sounds simple and obvious, but listening to recordings helps! That way you know your entrances, and you know what the orchestral part sounds like, as opposed to only hearing a second piano reduction. This offers yet another way to check your notes. If you hear something funny or fishy, check your score – maybe the recording has a mistake, but more often than not, you might discover that you’ve misread some notes or rhythms.

Play Along

I like to play along with a recording of the concerto, preferably with headphones. Knowing not only how the orchestra part sounds, but also how it sounds like while you are playing your part is very helpful, since the difference in timbre between instruments can throw you off. For example, a certain melody might sound clear in the piano reduction, but when you listen to the recording (or show up to rehearsal) you realize that it’s actually not as easy to discern within the context of the rest of the orchestra. Or, some rhythms might be very disorienting (see the 5^th page of reduction for Rachmaninoff’s Third concerto – the offbeats in the winds are really confusing).

Conduct

Sometimes, it’s very useful to conduct yourself, away from the piano, or even with a recording. It gives you a good sense of timing, and you get to familiarize yourself and internalize any interesting meter changes. You don’t want leave any of your counting and synchronization solely to “I just feel it,” or “I just go by how it sounds.” Yes you should feel it, and know how it sounds, but we want no excuses!

Sing Along

I find it very, very helpful to sing certain important parts while playing through the concerto. For example, in the second iteration of the first theme of Rachmaninoff’s 3^rd (the third and fourth pages, if anyone is looking), the piano has accompanying figures, and I like to sing the main melody while playing through it. It allows you to get the entire picture in your ear, keeps yourself from rushing or slowing down, and makes sure you don’t get confused in phrases where the piano begins with a sixteenth-note rest. You can also figure out what sort of timing you might have to take when you are accompanying a solo wind melody or something similar.

I sang along a lot while learning Bartok’s second concerto – I needed to make sure I knew what to listen for, and not have anything catch me off-guard in terms of rhythm or number of repetitions of certain accompaniment figures.

Learn the patterns

This seems elementary, but all musicians should learn the different conducting patterns. You don’t want to look up from the piano, and not know what beat the conductor is on because you’re not familiar with the patterns.

Knowledge

There are certain infamous parts of pieces, where you must utilize all of the above techniques to make sure you have that section down pat. One of these is in the twenty-second variation of Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody, 7 before rehearsal marking 65 – this section has piano runs accompanying a melody in the strings. Jerry Lowenthal told me I had to learn the orchestra tune by heart here and how the piano part fits in, because just relying on feeling can be iffy and scary, especially on stage. I would also advocate conducting this passage to know which beats the phrases begin and end on, because they shift around each successive phrase. So, an example of the “facts” I would tell myself are:

1^st Phrase – starts after second beat, peaks on the downbeat of the next measure

2^nd Phrase – starts on the second beat, again peaks on the downbeat of the next measure, just like the first phrase, but the run goes on for a beat longer up to the second beat.

3^rd Phrase – starts right before the third beat, and peaks on the third beat of the following measure, and the run goes on for even longer, going up to the third beat

4^th Phrase – starts only one triplet-eighth after the previous phrase, peaks again on the 3^rd beat.

5^th Phrase – I would say this one is a “normal phrase” since it starts after the downbeat, and the phrase lasts exactly two bars.

*N.B. when I say “beat” here, I mean in terms of quarter notes. This variation is actually in alla breve.

This enumeration makes the passage even more solid in your head. Knowing these things can help you when you’re not quite clear, and especially when on stage things become a bit unclear and uncertain, either because of how it sounds on stage or because of your nerves.

Tips for the First Date

Wait a bit…

The first thing one learns about playing in front of the orchestra is that they are almost always behind the conductor. No, it’s not that they or the conductor are incorrect, it’s just how orchestras function. First, the plane of the beats is not at the bottom of the conducting motion, but somewhere in the middle after the rebound. Second, there is always a delay in reaction, and so most orchestras naturally have that built in so that people know where their colleagues are going to play.

So, as soloists, we have to account for that, very notably in something like the opening of the Grieg Concerto, or in any final chord of a piece. Furthermore, if we want to land on a chord together at a certain time, we sometimes compensate for that by possibly giving an earlier cue (sometimes that’s not possible), or just waiting a hair before getting to the arrival point.

…but don’t wait too much

At the same time, you have to trust the conductor to follow you, and just do your thing. It’s actually very easy to be too adjustable, and you end up getting slower and slower because you’re trying to accommodate being with the orchestra. (I find this is something that I need to tell myself quite frequently).

The Concertmaster is your best friend

No, not literally, unless of course he or she in fact is. What I mean is that the concertmaster is your window into the orchestra. Sure, you can watch the conductor, and you should. But oftentimes it can be a lot easier to line up with the group if you watch the concertmaster instead. This can include playing with pizzicati (seriously, try this next time) – if the conductor just conducts the group without worrying about you, and you just watch the concertmaster, I guarantee it will be more together than if the conductor tries to follow the soloist; or with any big chords.

Furthermore, the concertmaster is probably the musician in the orchestra that hears the soloist the best, and can see you out of the corner of his or her eye. That means that they are able to pick up on any subtle (or not-so-subtle) rhythmic nodding or accents (for stability of course), or if you are wanting to change the tempo. And the soloist hears the concertmaster quite clearly as well, so that’s another reference for being together with the group (assuming the rest of the group is with the concertmaster).

Adjust your dynamics

The reality of playing with orchestras and in halls that are big enough for an orchestra is that we as soloists need to project more (play louder) than we are used to by ourselves in the practice room. This is especially true when the orchestration is thick or in a register that covers the piano. Conversely, in solo passages, then we can utilize the full dynamic range of the piano, especially the softer parts. Just be aware of chamber-like passages where you might be prone to covering up the solo instruments.

Eye contact

It’s nice to occasionally look up at the conductor; eye contact allows you to synchronize rhythmically and musically. Furthermore, if there is a duet between the soloist and a solo part in the orchestra, having that direct connection can help with the ensemble and the expression.

Before, I talked about following the concertmaster for pizzes, but another useful tip is to watch the cello and bass players (if they’re in your line of sight) especially to sync up the left hand with them – many times you don’t have the time or luxury to look over at the concertmaster.

Respect the Protocol

I’ve really never heard this brought up except by my teacher Edward Francis, but the etiquette for entering and exiting the stage is important. On entrance, first shake the concertmaster’s hand, then take the bow (no pun intended). After the concert, shake the conductor’s hand (they might even give you a hug), the concertmaster’s, then take your bow.

Check with the orchestra people whether an encore is okay. Depending on the length of the concert and/or encore, they might not want you to play – if the orchestra is unionized, they could go into overtime, and then have to deal with financial issues. This could be a problem especially for smaller orchestras, so just be aware of that.

 

Hopefully all of these things can help make playing in front of an orchestra less stressful. Once you know what to expect, it’s not bad. In fact, playing in front of an orchestra is one of the most thrilling experiences I know of. I think it really is a unique experience to solo musicians; in no other field do you get to take part in such a collaboration and dialog to bring amazing masterpieces to life.