First things first about the Hot Springs Music Festival. What is it and what is it like? What you are looking at above is the most typical rehearsal, an orchestra rehearsal, in the most used venue at the festival, the "fieldhouse", at a former high school, once the high school where Bill Clinton attended. Yes, it looks like a gymnasium...it is pretty much a gymnasium. Amazing though, the recording team knows just how to record in there, and all the recordings they make sound quite excellent. The fieldhouse is well air-conditioned, so it is comfortable, and pitch problems aren't a distraction from the music making.
Most days, there is an rehearsal in the morning and one in the afternoon, and a concert in the evening. About 60% of the events are orchestral, and 40% chamber music. This year was a great year for clarinet, Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony, Beethoven's fourth symphony, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe Suite no. 2, Mozart Gran Partita, Mendelssohn's Walpurgis Night, Beethoven Septet, and an early, chamber music version of DeFalla's Three-Cornered Hat ballet. There were six clarinet apprentices, and each one got some opportunities to play principal clarinet.
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