Ian Crisp:

>The "Bolero" part is exhausting mentally as well as physically.

This snare drum ostinato would seem to be a thankless job that someone has
to do, but I attended a performance where the drummer was richly rewarded
for his efforts, first by being placed where a visiting soloist would stand
on the platform, so that all eyes were on him, and, afterwards, by getting
a strong hand from the audience for demonstrating that the real challenge
of this part--as with the work as a whole-- is not so much maintaining the
rhythm, as carefully building a crescendo over a quarter of an hour or so
from a whisper (if a drum can do that) to a roar.  The softer parts of
this spectrum must be the hardest for a drummer and that is where he was
impressive; I'm not sure the drummer didn't do more than the conductor to
control the dynamics of the ensemble.  With drumming like that, who needs
a conductor?

Jim Tobin