RP: Apollo Center Concert (Ben, everyone) Who: Ben, Department Heads, anyone else Where: The Apollo Centre When: 1 January, 2025 (afternoon) Rating/Warnings: Summary: The Annual New Year's Day Concert
The New Year's Day concert at the Apollo Centre had a very long and lustrous history. The music always included pieces from the Strauss family, with additional pieces from other composers including Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., Josef Lanner, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. This year there would be a dozen pieces played, with a half hour pause at the half. The compositions included waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and marches. The complete duration of the event, including pauses, would around two and a half hours. The orchestra would be joined by pairs of ballet dancers in selected pieces during the second part of the programme.
The concert would end with three encores. The first encore was a fast polka, to set the mood. The second encore was Johann Strauss II's Blue Danube Waltz, whose introduction was likely to be interrupted by applause of recognition from the audience. Ben had been surprised at how predictible the concert was, but he'd been told it had always been this way and would always be this way. The musicians would then collectively wish the audience a happy new year, play The Blue Danube and close with Johann Strauss, Sr.'s Radetzky March. During the last festive piece, the audience would participate with the traditional clap-along, and the conductor would turn to the audience in time to conduct them instead of the orchestra. It was almost soothing to know that everyone knew the proper protocol, and it was one less thing for Ben to worry about.
It had been a hectic few days preparing for the concert. Ben had been expected to just jump right in, with no real time to prepare. Luckily, he'd grown up playing several of these compositions, and it was easy enough to fall back into the complicated runs of Strauss, Mozart and Schubert. He didn't have as much experience with the Hellmesberger selection, but he was a professional. Or trying to be, anyway. There wasn't time to think about anything else, but doing his best.
By the time the concert rolled around he was a nervous wreck. Ronan hadn't even been home by the time he'd had to leave, but he knew that if something was wrong there would have been an owl. He wasn't expecting his lover to be able to make it to the concert, but had left him in a not just in case. He didn't want to hope, but if Ronan was able to make it, it would be a very happy surprise.
As soon as he'd stepped foot into the Apollo Centre, though, he'd forced his mind clear and focused on nothing but the music. The directors were taking a great risk having him play this concert as his first, even if there would be a dozen other musicians to cover for him if anything went wrong. He didn't plan for anything to go wrong, though, and he was determined to make this a spectacular debut.