Title: Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony
Fandom: Sherlock (BBC)
Rating: G
Length: 663 words
Summary: Sally Donovan is the new guest conductor for the City Philharmonia

Sally Donovan entered the room where the City Philharmonia were waiting for her - their new guest conductor for the summer season.  She watched the faces of the players as she was introduced.  The reaction on the whole was fairly hostile.  It didn’t come as a great surprise, but nevertheless was disappointing.  A few smiled at her: John Watson, the clarinettist, who she’d worked with before, Molly Hooper, now principal flautist, and Martha Hudson, veteran cellist.

The leader shook hands with her, his face inscrutable.  Sherlock Holmes had a reputation for destroying conductors and she wouldn’t put it past the brass section to have laid bets on how long she’d last.  Holmes, unlike the rest of the orchestra, who were wearing jeans and t-shirts, was wearing a freshly ironed shirt and smart trousers.  Sally wondered whether she should have chosen a slightly less casual outfit.

Putting such thoughts to one side, she went to her music stand and opened the score.  At a sign from the leader the rest of the orchestra did the same.  Sally wasn’t sure whose suggestion it had been that they begin with the Mendelssohn, she suspected it had been Holmes, but if her preference would have been for something shorter to start with, this wasn’t a battle she was prepared to engage with at this stage.

She raised her baton and they began.  The notes swarmed across the pages as she turned them rapidly, and the notes which were played sang in her ears.  Slowly she became aware the music wasn’t sounding quite as she wanted to hear it and she came to a halt.  She tried not to show her nervousness as all eyes were on her.

The strings’ attitude was a copy of the leader’s, who was looking at her intently, a pencil in his hand.  But the brass were shifting in their seats, clearly annoyed at being stopped in the middle of a piece they knew very well. 

Then the principal bassoonist, Greg Lestrade, turned and growled, “Show some respect!”

Sally gave him a brief nod of thanks, before starting to explain her thoughts on the music.  She had expected her comments to cause some surprise, and she paused to allow those with particular queries to relay them to their section leaders. 

However, she wasn’t prepared when one of the trumpeters said loudly, “That’s ridiculous.  You don’t play it like that.”

Instantly, Sherlock Holmes was on his feet.  Sally’s heart sank, as she thought ‘This is it.  He’s going to pull apart everything about me.’

Instead, Holmes turned to the trumpeter and said, “It would be more truthful if you said, ‘I can’t play it like that’.”   There was a loud gasp at this.  Holmes turned to face the whole orchestra.  “Ms Donovan has written some extremely interesting articles on Mendelssohn’s chamber music, and in particular his String Quartets, which I, for one, am looking forward to playing.  I would suggest you carefully consider her words as we begin again.”

He sat down, then looked at Stella Hopkins to say, “It would be as well if we re-tune.  It will prevent anyone from playing notes off key.”

Stella played the ‘A’ on her oboe, the orchestra re-tuned, and Sally began again.  By the time they broke for lunch, although she was conscious there was more work to be done, she was happy with the progress which had been made.

As she was packing up, various members of the orchestra came over to congratulate her.  Sherlock Holmes didn’t, striding directly out of the rehearsal room, but John Watson, hurrying to catch him up, turned and grinned at her, saying “You’re doing well!”

She thought she was the last one to leave, but found Greg Lestrade waiting by the door.  “Are you coming to join us for lunch?  There’s a café round the corner which does excellent sandwiches.”

“Are you sure I’ll be welcome?”

“Definitely.  Molly’s saving us a couple of seats.”

“Then, thank you.  I will.”