I've written previously about a high school/college orchestra in which I played not putting as much effort into its chamber music rehearsals. This was evident one day in the bass section. One of us made a silly, easily avoidable intonation mistake. The conductor said to our section, "Concentration, very important." When we rehearsed that passage again, a different bass player made another silly, similar mistake. The conductor told our section, "Concentration, very bad today."
Fortunately, there were no other such mistakes for the rest of the rehearsal. Call it the curse of January, though. When you know it'll be a while before Christmas comes again, and you're faced with a couple of flat months before your mood brightens, an orchestral rehearsal sometimes feels like a rote, mundane exercise.
