In the past I've found examiners very sympathetic of the plight of the oboist in what they perceive as the "recalcitrant reed". It sounds to me as though you did pretty well and if you reckon a merit is on the cards, well we are always our own worst critics aren't we? So who knows eh?

You must be pleased it's out of the way. Time for a little drinky?

Hi flobiano... been thinking of you all week but yesterday was just "one of those days" so I didn't get to say good luck again. Here's hoping your results are better than you expect and your perception of your performance is just distorted by your perfectionism...

Hope the dentist is less traumatic...
...and that your teeth and head are now OK, Hardying!

I'm very envious of those who were able to attend the Double Reed Day. For now, oboe-related exercises are related to kerioboe's pencil exercise (holding a pencil straight in the mouth for as long as you can manage - great idea for keeping embouchure muscles in tone) and reading "Oboemotions" (also recommended by kerioboe). Just what I need to deal with those body tension issues and actually a great thing while "on a break" so I can be better prepared to break old habits when I go back.

Wonder how Andrew's glandular fever recovery is going - saw a post the other day on another thread, which was a relief. Hope you're doing well if you're reading this, Andrew.

Thanks all, it is hard to tell really as it is so easy to focus on the bits that weren't so good and I have no idea how I would compare to anyone else doing the exam. I can be very hard on myself so, rather than dwelling on the problem bits, I will try to focus on the minor miracle of not getting my fingers in a twist in Arethusa! On reflection, I would be very surprised if I haven't managed to pass and anything above that should be considered a bonus.

YES! I am going to put it behind me, it is definitely time for wine and chocolate now that dentist is also out of the way! Rest of this week to be spent working on orchestra bits for concert next Saturday! (in the same venue I've just done my exam funnily enough!). I've hidden all my aural books away out of sight and put together a nice pile of new music to take to my lesson on Wednesday.



Thanks. Dentist was fine...though she said my mouth was a very dry which apparently can be caused by stress so that will probably be back to normal tomorrow.

Glad to hear you are finding some oboe related exercises to do - I quite liked the oboemotions book too. Hope your recuperation is going well, how long till you can start playing again? Or is it hard to say?

Andrew - hope you are feeling better soon too.

Stephen Caplan's " Tree in your ear" is an intriguing CD. Bought purely so we could hear what the author of Oboemotions sounded like.

Embarrassed to say, I've never heard of it. What sort of music does he play?

[Embarrassed to say, I've never heard of it. What sort of music does he play?
[/quote]


Me either

[quote name='Hardying' date='Nov 15 2011, 10:05 PM' post='1105966']
[Embarrassed to say, I've never heard of it. What sort of music does he play?
[/quote]


Me either
[/quote]
Google is your friend
http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Your-Ear-Philip...n/dp/B00000243F

[quote name='pushpull' date='Nov 16 2011, 06:04 AM' post='1106074']
[quote name='Hardying' date='Nov 15 2011, 10:05 PM' post='1105966']
[Embarrassed to say, I've never heard of it. What sort of music does he play?
[/quote]


Me either
[/quote]
Google is your friend
http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Your-Ear-Philip...n/dp/B00000243F
[/quote]
Indeed. But I was being lazy and it?s interesting to hear what other Forumites think...

I could listen to that. Some of it sounds a bit twee but other pieces are quite interesting.

[I could listen to that. Some of it sounds a bit twee but other pieces are quite interesting.
[/quote]

Definitely interesting, but I think I'll stick with baroque & romantic music to listen to

Somewhat belatedly - I hope you got the mark you want.
And what are you playing now? (Since you said you were looking forward to playing something new).

On the subject of new things, does anyone know the Pixas Oboe Sonata? My teacher said he thought I might like that and I had to confess that I had never even heard of the composer I have found the 2nd (slow) movement on Youtube but am slightly wary of what the 1st and 3rd movements might be like as presumably they are fast.

Last week I lent him a CD of British oboe and flute music which has the Madeline Dring flute/oboe/piano trio on it and he came to this week's lesson saying that he had very much enjoyed the CD as a whole, that it had given him some ideas for his own chamber music playing and he thought I should look at all three movements of the Dring and not just the 2nd movement as I had initially envisaged.

Yesterday I went to my flautist partner's flute lesson and we played the 1st movement of the Telemann duet to her teacher. The result of that is that we are now playing it in a pupils' concert at the end of next week

Good luck with the concert!

Sounds like you may have your teacher's Xmas present sorted!
(That is, if you do Xmas presents for teachers there.)

Have to admit, I've never heard of Pixas, either...

By the way, my flautist friend is thrilled to bits with the duet suggestions. She's missed out on three end-of-term concerts because of the lack of accompanist, so now we're well set. In fact, looking for flute-oboe-cello/basso continuo options so we can play with her sister too.

(I'm going to be naughty and try 5 mins on the oboe on Friday - 4 weeks since operation and check-up with doc on Monday. My excuse is to know how it feels so I can tell him when I go for the check-up.)

That's reassuring
Although even in my lesson, I had sort of concluded that he was probably not that well known as I asked my teacher how his name was spelt (I don't always immediatly cotton-on to French pronunciation - in my early days of oboe learning I once failed to recognise Hayden when pronounced with a French accent) and my teacher said he couldn't remember.


There's lots of baroque music you can look at if you've got a cellist


Do be careful! Maybe you ought to just try the reed by itself. Or take the oboe with you to your check up.

I will. Actually, I was planning to take my oboe to the check-up anyway but I thought I'd give it a try first. I did one peep today (I was taking an extremely silly picture for the even sillier Forum Awards Ceremony thread - needed a bit of silliness to cheer up today). It didn't hurt so I think I might be safe with a quick blow tomorrow to see how it feels. I'll stop if I feel anything at all strange and will keep it to less than 5 mins. Good idea to start with the reed.

I think I will give the circular breathing thing a go, though I have the horrible suspicion that it might be the route to bad breathing habits. I've managed to do it without the oboe. I showed my flatmate the technique I had invented for myself and he was very impressed to find it really works. It's another thing with the reed/instrument in your mouth, though.

Have you spent your convalesence perfecting circular breathing?

On one of my summer courses people told me about the previous year when someone had asked the oboe teacher for a demonstration of circular breathing one evening. Apparently there was no water immediately to hand so he had demonstrated with an oboe reed in his glass of wine and then other people had wanted a go and there had been a whole group of people with oboe reeds all trying to do circular breathing in their glasses of wine

Now THAT definitely tops my technique!!!!

No, I haven't really done much on circular breathing. I've been very lazy and mostly reading, watching films --- and browsing the Forum. The first couple of weeks I didn't even feel like thinking much!!!

My technique is something like blowing a raspberry. Doesn't work well with a reed because I think I'm sort of making the raspberry sound still... But it gets you up the first big step, which is expelling air while breathing in and out. I think it helps to feel the change from actually blowing to something that feels more like spitting.

My flatmate confirmed what you implied in your first suggestion to circular breathe - that you don't need support for it. But I definitely feel as though I am still giving some abdominal support when I do the Eternal Raspberry Thing.

Can you circular breathe now? Or, after that experience, only when tipsy?

PS

Google hasn't heard of Pixas either.

That's because I posted it with a typing mistake
It was supposed to be Pixis. (I blame this on my teacher who suggested several alternate spellings in my lesson, none of which turned out to be right when I got home and started trying to look him up).

He was a 19th century German composer and this is a bit of his oboe sonata.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HOmJZ7B2_M

Pixis came up because we were talking about the dearth of 19th century oboe music. My teacher had started by saying that I might like to look at the Strauss concerto but since he could see that I was not being convinced by his argument that it would be "good" for my breathing he suggested Pixis instead.

And re the wine/circular breathing story, it happened the year before I went on the course so I didn't actually see it. I have now been three times and each year the story has been repeated but the tutor has always declined to give another demonstration

I rather liked that! You'd need a good tone and at least a shade of expressive vibrato, I should think, to make it sound nice. I thought Paul Dombrecht's "romantic oboe" (is that any different from a modern one?) sounded distinctly "violiny", especially at the beginning. Never ceases to amaze me how an oboe can sound like other instruments...

I couldn't find any sign on the internet of sheet music for this. Who publishes it and where did your teacher get a copy from, kerioboe?

EDIT: I found it! Published by Zimmerman. But no-one seems to stock a print copy...

I quite liked it too. Thanks for posting.

Katica - hope your check up goes OK. Good to hear you are on the verge of picking up the oboe again. Starting with the reed sounds like a good plan.



I had a great lesson on Wednesday - lots of technical work to come focussing on improving tone and vibrato and then working on articulation. In terms of music have gone back to the Reizenstein 3 Concert Pieces which I was looking at prior to exams and have started on Alan Richardson's French Suite. Mozart's oboe quartet on the list to look at next.

My sick leave got renewed today. For another month.

Cleared for swimming. And for travelling at Christmas (if I can afford it, which I doubt).

No cycling for another month. And "at least two more weeks" off the oboe.

Doc insisted again that the oboe was a contributing factor to health problems ( ) but that when repairs have healed I will be back to a "normal life", including oboe. ( )

Wondering whether to play in Xmas concerts or not. Rehearsals start a week on Tuesday but it won't matter if I miss the first one...

oh dear - hopefully the end is in sight now though...I am not sure how the oboe could be a contributing factor to health problems.. but hopefully you will be back to normal pretty soon.

I think if I was in your position I would probably pass on the Christmas concerts - it will probably take a while to get back into it and it is probably not a good idea to try to do too much too quickly....frustrating though it is you should give yourself time to get back up to full strength gradually. Or at least see when you can leave the decision till. It will feel an added bonus if you think you can't play, but then end up playing - but it would just add to general frustration to commit to it and then have to pull out because you can't do it, or struggle though it finding it a trial!

Take care of yourself.

So sorry to hear his Katica - but I agree with all that Flobiano says. Do take care & try to be patient & hope you'll soon be feeling so much better & able to play again.

Patience now ought to pay dividends later.


Could you perhaps play a percussion instrument of some sort (triangle, tambourine...) in the Christmas concert? That way you could be part of it but without running the risk of doing yourself any damage.

I've just got back from playing the 1st movement of a Telemann Sonata for two flutes with an adult flautist in a pupils' concert at the music school. We managed to get the time wrong by 15 minutes so didn't have time to warm up beforehand (our respective teachers hadn't realised that the "traditional" time for these mixed instrument concerts had changed) but apart from that I am quite pleased with how it went. Slightly shaking fingers meant I inadvertantly started one phrase with a left-hand D# trill and there were a few bars when we were not quite together but on the whole I think it was OK (neither of our teachers was there so we don't have an expert's opinion, only my daughter who said it was good and her daughter (who doesn't play an instrument) who thought it was too loud). I really appreciated playing with another adult, instead of being the only adult in a group of children

My teacher is (I think - he didn't tell me yesterday but my daughter came home from her lesson today and told me) organising his own concert on December 15th so I expect we can give it another airing. It also means I have to decide how much of the Molique Concertino I think I am capable of playing in public

Glad it went well

Thanks for your good wishes - also to kerioboe and Hardying. While I could explain how the oboe (along with terrible cough) exacerbated my "health problem" I am pretty sure that putting the gory details in public on here would raise a few eyebrows...!


Now there's an idea!!! Actually, I am not a big fan of badly played, sentimental Christmas music anyway. But if you have to hear it it's much more fun to play it. I'll check in with the Director and see what he thinks. If I'm in shape for it I could probably play the oboe off the cuff on the day but it would be a bit "non U" for me to propose that to him - I'll leave it to him to make a suggestion... Last year it was such chaos that when we got to the pieces that the combined orchestras/bands and choirs were to play, there was one (Adeste Fideles i.e. Come All Ye Faithful in the common parlance) which our orchestra hadn't rehearsed and for which I had no music. I had to squint over at the piano part to check the key and wing it by ear. It wasn't too hard but if any notes were out the general din was so awful, and I got shoved right to the back for that bit of the concert, that I don't suppose anyone noticed at all.

Congratulations on the concert, kerioboe! And dare I say it, WELL DONE for coming over as "too loud"!

I hope the Molique goes well. By coincidence, my flatmate is studying it too but he hasn't been around this week so I haven't heard him play it yet. Actually, I don't hear him very often as he prefers to leave his oboe at the Sinf?nica as it's bit of a risk lugging it around on the buses, so he mainly practises there.

In orchestra last night, we oboes were told to pipe down. Apparently we were loud enough for a wind band

Can anyone think of a showy-sounding oboe piece with an easy piano accompaniment that I could learn in two weeks?

My plans to play some of the Molique concertino in my teacher's concert have come across a slight hitch...
The music school accompanist (who is not always very good because she doesn't practise accompaniments) was on sick leave and had been replaced by someone else who is a very good pianist (and whose brother is a professional oboist so she is familiar with most oboe pieces already). This week the normal pianist came back and my teacher has serious doubts about whether she will bother to learn the Molique in two weeks.

He said he had a quick look through his music at home for something with an easy piano part but then thought it was a bit much asking me to learn something and perform it in two weeks simply because the pianist isn't up to it and wondered if I had something at home that I'd played for more own enjoyment that would fit the bill. He wants something "showy" because he hasn't got any other advanced pupils and he wants it to finish the concert.

He also wants me to demonstrate the cor-anglais (This is pay back for having told Katica she should buy an English cor-anglais so no one else could play it in Costa Rica ) The music school has apparently decided to have "educational" concerts this year in which the teacher presents the instrument and since he sold his cor anglais and he can't play mine because it's the wrong system, he is going to do the talking and I'm going to do the demonstrating (He said he would tell me next week what exactly that involves).

On a brighter note, I had a longer lesson today so he could look at some reeds I had made and help me fine tune them. He didn't like any of them much (but said it was the cane which was not particularly good, rather than poor scraping) and gave me two very nice ones of his own instead And because we spent more time on reeds than he had intended, and he has a pupil who is away tomorrow, he asked me if I wanted to come back tomorrow for another lesson

Good job on the oboes, pushpull!!!
How many in your orchestra?

Lucky you with extra teaching time, kerioboe. I am missing my teacher SO much!

I have to confess I don't really notice how difficult piano accompaniments are for the pianist. I ought to pay more attention because it's often so difficult to get an accompanist here too. I know that things like the Schumann and Nielsen Romances are more challenging but then they're more duets than mere accompaniment. For the Stalybridge concert earlier this year flobiano opted for Piazzolla over Schumann (which I was very happy about) because the Piazzolla is easier. It would be rather a simple piece for you to play, though. But quite possible to jazz up a bit to make it sound more impressive and it's the kind of thing that goes down well with unsophisticated audiences.


How long a piece would you have to play? What do you think you'll play?

I'm going to make a bit confession here. I know the Swan of Tuonela is often considered the "piece de resistance" on the cor anglais but I don't find it terribly inspiring. Does anyone else feel that way?
(I hope our resident Sibelius fan doesn't come down too hard on me! )
Maybe I'll feel different when (if) I actually get to play it...

Here "didactic concerts" are often part of the menu too. The symphony orchestra does "didactic concerts" on their tours round the country and junior bands/orchestras/ensembles quite often do them for local communities too. This is different from doing a more specialist presentation, though. Our band did our first educational concert a while back - for the local volleyball teams, goodness knows why!!! Basically, the concert consists of a few basic pieces from our repertoire interspersed by spiel from the principal of each section on their instrument (sometimes padded out by the conductor) and a short demo.

Oh it varies from 2 to 4 depending who turns up. On this particular occasion there were 3.

Well I think it's probably overrated as a showpiece though in the context of the piece as a whole it's OK. I too have a confusion to make. I'm not exactly bowled over by the cor. I far prefer the oboe.

When's your next doctor's appointment to see if you've got the "all clear" for going back to the oboe?


I usually play through the piano parts to get an idea of what they sound like and how the oboe fits with them. If I can "bash" my way through at more or less the correct speed the first time I play them, I class them as "easy". The first two pages of the Molique are easy enough but unfortunately what would be the slow movement if it was a proper concerto doesn't end with a cadence, it moves straight into the fast movement. I had decided I would play the 1st page and a half of the fast movement as well in order to end on with a cadence but this is considerably harder to play at speed (even though my "speed" is not that fast). More problematic is that at one point the oboe has triplets while the piano has quavers and I have already had an unfortunate experience of this with the pianist, which I would rather not repeat


I don't know the Piazzolla (and haven't got a copy of it) and I'm not sure that his music is really "me".


No idea! He told me this as I was walking out the door. I'm going to suggest a duet with him but if he really wants something with the cor anglais by itself then probably something out of Rothwell's "Difficult Passages for Bach" book (whichever one I can remember best).


I feel a bit the same and in fact haven't ever felt any desire to play it despite having a cor
The piece I really want to be able to play well is Bozza's aria (which I have on a CD played by Lajos Lecences).


Maybe they were hoping to convert them into musicians when they are too old for volleyball

If the audience is the volleyball team, I would guess at not a huge level of musical sophistication.

In that case, playing "live" the best known piece of music for the cor would probably showcase the instrument best. That would have to be the passage from Dvorak New World Symphony, which they will recognise as the Hovis advert.

Possibly not in Costa Rica

My French husband and I were talking about music which gets used in advertisements and he said, of course something like Dvorak's New World Symphony could never get used to advertise any old thing because it is so clearly telling its own story He didn't believe that it was used to advertise bread and was trying to convince me that I had mis-identified a childhood memory.

To listen to, I prefer the oboe too - the cor sounds a bit nasal for my taste. I prefer the oboe d'amore. I've only "tasted" a cor i.e. a few seconds playing but it felt nice to play.


I have an appointment on 19 Dec. But the doc said at the last appointment to wait "at least two weeks" before going back to the oboe, which is well before the appointment. To be on the safe side I may just stick to the reed at first, as you suggested before.

Music school has now broken up, except for the Christmas concerts. I was hoping to see my teacher for a reedmaking session but it hasn't happened. I've been a bit under the weather anyway. Lessons don't start again until February and I may not even be able to start right away as I have to go to a Conference in Canada in early Feb (Winnipeg. Ugh. ). Practically FOUR MONTHS without lessons!!!

At least there's the prospect of the music camp the second week of January.

My teacher came up with a new reed exercise to get the air-stream and embouchure functioning correctly and help with vibrato (it might be a bit violent for abdominal muscles so I suggest you don't try it too soon); put the reed into your mouth so that your lips close round the cork (hold it in place with your lip muscles, not your hand). 1. Blow "ha, ha, ha" as if you are croaking it (no tongue). 2) Blow a continous air-stream and at the same time with your fingers gradually remove the reed from your mouth back to its "normal" position while keeping the air-stream constant and your lips rounded. 3) Put the reed in the oboe and do the same thing while fingering an A. It sounds ghastly when you have the whole reed in your mouth but when you remove it to just the right place, the tone is lovely. (And it has enabled me to discover that I wasn't putting quite enough reed in my mouth).


How awful
Is there any chance of visiting your sister in New Zealand? I'm fairly sure that the New Zealand double reed association (I can't remember exactly what they're called) has an oboe course during their summer break.

I am quite bowled over by the cor. I would love to have one. I still marginally prefer the sound of the oboe but it is a close run thing.

The programme for our next orchestra programme has some cor bits in it, including a solo. One of the other oboists has a cor but is a bit worried about managing the part. She suggested that she could lend her cor to me so I could play it....I am a bit worried that if she does then I won't want to give it back.

I've just bought a CD of cor music (called Cor!) which has whet my appetite. I am thinking it would be a good thank you/ Christmas present for my oboe teacher.

Hope you find a piece to play Kerioboe, the only one I could suggest is the one I played at Staleybridge - the Arioso by Fiocco. The oboe plays semis while the piano is generally crotchets so reasonably straightforward, there are probably other similar baroque pieces though. Hope your concert goes well.
Edit: what about the Marcello Concerto?

Hope you manage to get back to the oboe soon Katica.

Thanks for this I have just ordered one.


In the end, I've decided that I will play some of the Molique. We have cut the Tutti sections right back and stopped the fast movement about a third of the way through before it gets to the hard piano part. There are two lines and two bars which are a bit tricky but not impossible, so I'm hoping the accompanist will have looked at in advance and practised them (or if she hasn't done so before the rehearsal that she will in the week between the rehearsal and the concert). I'll report back next Thursday

And now I have to decide what I want to play on the cor. My teacher unhelpfully said "anything you like" but cor by itself (ie not a duet with him) so people can hear what it sounds like. I can't decide whether to play an extract from the New World Symphony because it is supposed to be part of an "educational" talk and this is a famous cor solo, with the risk that some people in the audience will know what it is supposed to sound like when played by a professional . Or something out of Rothwell's Bach book which may be less familiar.

Is that the one on Oboe Classics? A bit expensive to get sent here, unfortunately...

Glad to hear you found a solution with the Molique, kerioboe. I'm sure it will feel better to play something you've been working hard on rather than cobbling something together at the last minute. I hope your accompanist is up to it!

Yes. Could you ask one of your parents to buy it for you as a Christmas present?


Having insisted that I wanted to play the Molique, I know have to hope I do it justice There are a few slightly shaky bars still.

One good thing about looking through my music was that I realised I have improved. I played through the 1st movement of the Saint-Saens on Friday morning as I knew the accompanist had already played it to accompany my teacher (albeit several years ago) and discovered that the "hard" parts of it were not that hard after all

Oh OK that looks pretty good. I will admit I have 2 recordings of Snake already, I enjoyed Celia Craig playing cor (Tiles of the Alhambra) and David Walter playing oboe, amore and cor in his arrangements of Albeniz (or was it Granados?) at IDRS 2009.

I'm probably just trying to avoid wanting one.

quote "I'm going to make a bit confession here. I know the Swan of Tuonela is often considered the "piece de resistance" on the cor anglais but I don't find it terribly inspiring. Does anyone else feel that way?
(I hope our resident Sibelius fan doesn't come down too hard on"

No problem, as a fan of Thomas Hardy I'm used to having minority tastes!

I personally still think it's a fabuloys piece, and hearing it played with the orchestra providing the shimmering accompaniment, is a nerve tingling experience for me. It helps loving Finland & knowing about the Finnish legends from the Kalevala that much of Sibelius's work, including the Swan is based on.

[quote name='kerioboe' One good thing about looking through my music was that I realised I have improved. I played through the 1st movement of the Saint-Saens on Friday morning as I knew the accompanist had already played it to accompany my teacher (albeit several years ago) and discovered that the "hard" parts of it were not that hard after all
[/quote]


It's great & SO encouraging when that happens

I like both Hardy and Sibelius (usually). The Swan of Tuonela does need the strings and the context of the piece, as pushpull pointed out too. I think just a couple of time hearing it played very flatly by an amateur (it must be really hard to make those long notes sound beautiful) and with plodding piano background was enough to put me off.

flobiano, are you planning to acquire a cor?

I would like to. My original plan was to get one when I passed Grade 8, but then I decided to upgrade my oboe earlier this year. My revised plan is to get one in 2013 as a 40th birthday present to myself but I think I may succumb to temptation before then!

I have a confusion to make? Did I really write that or was it the pesky spell checker?

kerioboe - I've just been listening to the CD "Oboe Divas" and the William Tell bit for cor shows up. That could be quite a nice demo. It's on IMSLP too:
http://petrucci.mus.auth.gr/imglnks/usimg/...TellOv.Oboe.pdf

I had an awful rehearsal with the pianist tonight She hadn't even looked at the music and couldn't really play any of it properly. I couldn't sense her pulse but neither did she make any attempt to follow me - either with rubato or with dynamics. The slow movement wasn't brilliant and the fast movement was frankly awful . That was the in my lesson and I was then supposed to have another run through later on with all his other pupils but she managed to mess up even the simple pieces they younger children were playing and everything got so behind that I didn't get to play it again.

My teacher is going to see if he can arrange another rehearsal on Monday evening (not brilliant for me as I'll have been at work all day and I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that the train isn't late) and if she hasn't worked on it by then, he said I should give up any idea of playing it in the concert

The irony of this is that this is the first time I have actually wanted to play in the concert. (All the previous times I would have been glad of an excuse not to play).

How infuriating for you, Kerioboe.

An off-the-wall query, but would you be able to play with a recorded accompaniment?

How frustrating, and not fair at all on you (and other students) who have worked on their pieces.

Surely this situation can't be ignored if it is impacting so many students now. Are there any other accompanists available?

Unfortunately not.



It is a problem that has been going on for years (but has got worse over the last couple of years but I don't want to say why on a public forum even if it is in a different language) and all the teachers know there is a problem but for reasons which I don't fully understand (but are probably partly to do with local politics as it is a municipal music school) the head is reluctant to do anything about it. My teacher (who is not local) thinks she should be sacked for incompetence.

I did ask him if he would accompany me instead but he said he didn't want to out of principal because then the head would just say that he doesn't need an accompanist. I can see his point of view because it is considered normal in French music schools to have a resident accompanist and it is much more rewarding to have the teacher totally free to concentrate on the pupil's playing while someone else does the accompanying. On the other hand he also said he didn't think he could "sacrifice" me again (as he did 18 months ago by letting her ruin my performance) just to prove that she is not up to the job, which is what he did about eighteen months ago in an attempt to make the Head of the music school admit that there was a problem.

He has fixed another rehearsal with her for Monday evening and he is going to see if he can cut out the whole fast movement (but the problem is that because it is a concertino rather than a concerto the Adagio doesn't end with a cadence and sounds odd if you just stop at the end of it so he needs to come up with a way of making it sound finished).

He has fixed another rehearsal with her for Monday evening and he is going to see if he can cut out the whole fast movement (but the problem is that because it is a concertino rather than a concerto the Adagio doesn't end with a cadence and sounds odd if you just stop at the end of it so he needs to come up with a way of making it sound finished).
[/quote]

Sorry to hear this - having a good accompanist makes a world of difference.
Hope a miracle happens & the situation is satisfactorily solved.