Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 19 November [2 December] 1918

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360

text excerpt

Researsal at ten o'clock. We went straight into Ala and Lolli. I was a little uneasy, because I was not sure how I was going to be able to explain what I wanted to the orchestra in English. But most of the terminology is Italian, the international lingua franca, and in any case by now I am able to speak English reasonably freely and without embarrassment. There were just a few basic words I did not know, like 'bar', 'woodwind', and so on, but a Russian violinist sitting in the first desk put me right in a whisper. I started with the second movement, as I had done in Petrograd, and this straight away produces a good impression on the orchestra because it contains difficult passages that do not immediately work naturally, so the musicians, not wishing to disgrace themselves, get annoyed with themselves, and so our collaborative work starts to cook nicely. After an hour and a half I was dog-tired and handed over the remainder of the rehearsal to De Lamarter, who soothed the players with a Haydn symphony.

excerpt from 'Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 19 November [2 December] 1918' pp. 360 (181 words)

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