The entire quintet met for the first time today, and we worked on the 1st movement and played through the rest of the Brahms Piano Quintet. Not too bad for a first meeting, though some parts were quite messy, but yes, Brahms - he's never an easy one to put together. As for me, the 1st movement is more or less under my fingers, and I've sort of learnt the 4th though playing it to tempo is really a different story. Should start on the 3rd some time soon, which promises to be a real headache - long stretches of martellato octaves - yikes! The 2nd is almost sightreadable so that shouldn't be too bad.

The biggest problem is that our first violinist is leaving for further studies in a couple of weeks and finding a replacement will be tough since our current one is really good and hardly ever gets lost. Ah well, if we can't find one, we'll have to play quartets or trios in the interim period.

Went back to RJ for some fun fair they had to get alumni together before they move at the end of the year. Met up the usual bunch of people there, but did manage to bump into a couple of people who I hadn't seen in years. Admittedly, the youthful vibrance of the entire place was quite overwhelming, and I was surprised to see everything cleared up so quickly and willingly at the end of the event. I can only imagine how long the process would have taken for our NSFs... As with most reunion events, I left the place reeling from the extended display of extroversion, making a beeline home for some peace and quiet.

Found out from the RJ music department that the Noteworthy concert is at 5pm - which means it doesn't coincide with the Yo Yo Ma concert! Contemplating what work to play now, and it seems that it'll have to be the Piazzolla Le Grande Tango with Ju Dee. I still remember the hell week I went through learning that work back in freshman year when I discovered how difficult it was only a couple of weeks from the concert and got screamed at by my Prof. Well now I have over a month, but I only get to play once a week. So we'll see how it goes.