On the 4th of July I arrived in Pavia to play the next project with the MCO. This was particularly exciting for two reasons, Pavia was a new city for us and we were playing Dvorak’s seventh symphony, a larger symphony and great fun for the brass section. It is always a great pleasure to get to know a new city and the usual work of identifying the best local restaurants and bars started immediately. We braved the torrential rain and set off into the beautiful old town and had the first of many typically delicious meals.
The next day the weather was greatly improved: a glorious fresh sunny day. I live on Gran Canaria so sun is a part of daily life but the fresh cool sunny weather of Pavia is something I never experience at home. We got started on the task of preparing the program and once again I felt the familiar thrill of playing with the MCO. I have been in the orchestra since the very beginning and have had the privilege of seeing the ensemble develop and grow. There really is a special sound and character to the orchestra and things soon settled as we quickly found each other again.
One of the most interesting aspects of this trip was the great contrast between the two venues we were going to perform in. In Pavia we rehearsed and performed in a beautiful old Italian opera theatre, perhaps not the most yielding of acoustics but rich in atmosphere and history nonetheless. After the concert in Pavia we drove a couple of hours to Turin, here we were booked to play the same program in the magnificent Lingotto concert hall. This is a truly stunning complex, the old Fiat Lingotto factory which now houses a concert hall, shopping centre and two hotels. A special treat for keen runners such as myself is the roof top running track converted from the old test circuit for Fiat’s new cars. This was also quite a challenge musically as the acoustic of the concert hall is very different to the one in Pavia. A large modern concert hall with rather more reverberation and much more clarity and ultimately extremely rewarding.
As luck would have it we were invited to a meal after the concert on the last night. This was very kindly organised by Francesca Camerana whose birthday, by happy coincidence, fell on the same day. We had a wonderful time, the perfect way to round off another successful project with the MCO. We had an opportunity to discuss the concert and look forward to the next time we would play together and there is nothing better than the first gulp of a cold beer after a good night’s work!
