PIANO and ORCHESTRA - two ways to play

Spring is here, and I love how the days are getting longer.

Recently I got to play Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances with Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, and quite a few people asked me if this was a concerto performance.

What an interesting question!

For pianists, there are two very different ways of playing with orchestra, as a concerto soloist IN FRONT of a symphony orchestra, or with the instrumentalists IN the orchestra, which is what I just did in the Symphonic Dances.

Let’s take a closer look at playing in an orchestra:

Here you see how I am part of the orchestra, playing between the harp and the percussion section. The piano blends beautifully into the orchestral sound.

Many orchestra musicians will play from a ‘part’ showing only what the individual instrument plays. The segments where the instrument does not play are indicated by rests, sometimes lots of them. There is a true art to counting those rests, and I did not want to chance getting lost, so I opted for the score where every line for all players is shown, and where I could follow along.

Here is a page from the part and from the score with the same excerpt of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. The start of the solo is circled in red.

The notes in the part are bigger (which is nice), and you can see the rests on the top.

Reading the score took some practice, since there is a lot going on in a large orchestra piece like this, but it was so worth it, because I got to know the piece really well.

The experience of playing in the orchestra was amazing. I got a glimpse into what it’s like to be an orchestral player. For me, it was a rare and fun experience, and I enjoyed the camaraderie of the players, and the excitement of it all. It also helped me prepare for my upcoming performance as a soloist in front of the orchestra next month.