Playing bass with an orchestra??

Last night I played the Vanhal Double Bass Concerto in C major with my school orchestra, the Glenbrook Symphony Orchestra (I did it in orchestra tuning so that I could use my extension for the latter part of the program, Beethoven 6. For those of you who don't know what I mean by orchestral tuning, maybe that's a post for later). I've performed with an orchestra on two other occasions. The first was when I was in 3rd or 4th grade (can't remember) when I played Little Bear's Bassetto with my old teacher, Steve Reinfranck. I don't even remember any details about that concert, so there's no use in trying to squeeze something out. Then this past October, I played the first two movements of the Bottesini concerto #2 in b minor with a small, select group of strings from my orchestra. I was asked to do this by my orchestra director, and it seemed like a good idea to clear my head before I began college auditions and devoted every breath to the same music for around 6 months.
The Vanhal was much different than these past experiences in that I played it with the orchestra because I won my school competition, along with a violinist, Antonio, playing Saint-Saens #3 and a violist, Dan, playing Hoffmeister. This definitely implied a lot more pressure because there were bound to be more people at a GSO concert than a Freshman strings/ Sinfonietta concert. Also, having played in the orchestra for the past 4 years, I know that all of the soloists have been great. I think all of them were going into music and those that definitely were were getting into schools like Juilliard, Indiana, and Northwestern.
I'd chosen the Vanhal because it has a really light feel to it. I'm not much of a fan of classical period music, but this was definitely an exception. It's difficult, yet fairly sweet, and it really showcases both ends of the bass well. I go from playing on the lowest fingered 'g' to a harmonic 'd' barely over the length of the fingerboard. That, and being from the classical period, it's definitely out of my comfort zone, something I definitely needed to explore.
So we've been rehearsing the concertos for around a month. Something inconvenient about this is the variation in the quality of a runthrough. I've played it very satisfyingly (in my opinion) and also pretty poorly. I know that there are things to do in order to improve the quality of all runthroughs, but mistakes are inevitable. Something I'm learning to deal with is to accept that you can't play it well every time. Heck, one time is even something to be proud of. As a musician, I'm always striving for perfection, but at the same time I have to realize that it's never going to happen.
Come the performance night, there's a lot of things to be worried about. It's natural to want to practice the entire piece, but over practicing is a death sentence (I've done it before...it sucks). So my goal was just to stay warmed up the entire time. I came home and worked on some potential trouble spots, and then just packed the bass away. I've always had a problem with nerves, and not only do I get butterflies in my stomach, but my hands also get exceptionally cold, anywhere from the day before to the moment I draw my bow across the string. Right before I went on stage, I tried to clear my head of everything. I tried some deep breathing excercises, but those didn't really work so I basically just stared at the floor while making sure my right hand was having the blood circulated through it properly.
As for the performance itself, it kind of flew by. There's something about being the focus of everyone's attention that Saint-Saens boy described very well. He said "It's very surreal." It went fairly well. To tell you the truth, I'm happy I got through it because under that amount of pressure, there's no telling what's going to happen. Will I rush? Have I tuned correctly? Will I do something to confuse the orchestra? I know it wasn't the best I've ever played it, but I had fun with it. I'm glad I got yet another opportunity to play it on front of more people because this is what I'll be devoting my life to.