Hello all, its me again!

anyway, I'll be starting school at the end of August, and have orchestra auditions coming up as well. I'm being required to play orchestral excerpts as my audition, and those I'm required to play are:

Barber of Seville (the bassoon solos)

Midsummer Night's Dream (the entire Scherzo)

Beethoven Symphony 9 (Measures 116-139)

Does anyone have any playing experience or advice on how these should be played? Any information you can give me to help me out is greatly appreciated. Thanks much!

Not a bassoon player but, first thing is to listen. Get recordings of the excerpts, or find some on YouTube*. Listen to hear what these should sound like.

If you can get the whole part practice the music before the excerpt and after the excerpt. You will be amazed at how differently you will look at the music in relation to what you play before and after. Remember that musicality is better than technical proficiency. Although they do want a certain level of technical ability, they do want to hear you play musically.

*Regarding Youtube - be careful of what you find. Big name orchestras are good. Be careful with john smith's version, he may not know enough about the style or period to play it correctly.

well, i've already done / am doing that. just wanted to know if anyone had any more specific pieces of advice they could give me. but thank you!

-aj

I'll give the pieces a look/listen tomorrow, and if I find anything noteworthy to share I'll let you know