OK - music post for a change...
I play in a 'rehearsal' orchestra on Thursday evenings - i.e. we meet to play for fun, we don't do concerts. The format is we play a set of pieces, which could be used to make a concert. So, this is usually a concert overture or similar, a symphony, and some other orchestral pieces / suite etc. We run the repertoire for about half a term / 7 weeks or so, then change to a different set.
It's a good way of being exposed to lots of stuff. It is also good for sight-reading - you just have to plough on no matter how tricky the music is.
The orchestra is small, but there's usually 3 celli... but principle is off on her holidays on a Carribean cruise at he moment and #2 has flu... so that left me to sight-read week #1 of new repertoire. OK. Mozart overture to Marriage of Figaro - yeah the one where the bassoons and celli feature prominently at the start... Then.... Gustav Mahler, Symphony #4... with the exception of the Richard Strauss Death and Transfirguration I stumbled through at summer school, is the hardets thing I've ever attempted to play. Like any late Romantic era work, it is full of time changes, key changes, accidentals, complex rhythms, and in the case of cello department, abundant use of three clefs (bass, tenor, and treble). Bearing in mind cello is a bass instrument, I encountered top Eb i.e. equivalent of palm keys 1&2...