In the cold winter month of December the MCO resides in Landshut for a concert in the local Rathausprunksaal. We do this since the MCO was founded, it is actually the first town where the founding members came together, then still under the name of Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. We had meetings in the hotel (the very friendly and nice Lindner Hotel Kaiserhof) about how to start a chamber orchestra. Nothing was fixed yet, and we then would not dare to dream where we are now as the MCO.
In Landshut lives a very special man called Peter Haarpaintner, the man who made it possible for us to play a concert there, thanks to his organisational talent and energy. It has for him become a tradition to invite the whole MCO to his gallery in the night to eat and drink, a very nice getting together, always good for the atmosphere, even on stage. Peter is faithful to the MCO; he comes to listen nearly everywhere we play in Europe: a real friend.
Now in the 21st century, the MCO is used to play in halls like Frankfurt, Cologne, Paris and Madrid but to come to Landshut, a small, cute Bavarian town, always feels like a homecoming. This time we played a Haydn program with Steven Isserlis. It was a pleasure to play with him, because he has a very natural musicality, which, in an authentic way, is very faithful to the composer without showing that he plays authentic. It is hard to explain but with some conductors one plays the 18th century music very much the way it should be, but too obvious. Isserlis lets go of this ideas and makes only music, without leaving the authentic taste.
The quite funny thing was that he sat with his beautiful cello on the conductors place, facing the orchestra in the symphonies and playing along with the cello group, only to keep control he wanted to play from the score so he needed somebody next to him to turn the pages. This honour was for our new intern from the office; Swantje! Hereby a big thanks to a quite unthankful job.
The concert was very successful, as was also the repeat concert in snowy Neumarkt, where we were again treated with a nice meal afterwards and some of us danced in a discotheque till dawn.
A great week, a perfect way to finish 2009. Peter, till next time!
23 February 2010 / 15:35 / comment by Stephan Brühl
The concerts in Landshut always are very special due to the marvellous hall and also because of the very familiar atmosphere. With Steven Isserlis it was a totally stimulating event and we enjoyed it a lot.
Inga & Stephan Brühl
Inga & Stephan Brühl