I am somewhat delayed writing this tour dairy entry.
Maybe it was the late nights or the early mornings, except that there seemed to be no early mornings,praise to MCO office planning. I guess I am just plain lazy. Sitting at Charles De Gaulle airport on my way home, only in the last dying hours of the tour am I bothered to pick up pen and paper.
If I sound tired then my writing is on the right track. After 27 days this has been for me one of the longest, most intensive MCO tours in the last 12 years, not least thanks to jaw dropping repertoire such as Wagners Tristan and Isolda, Stravinskys Sacre, Dvorak 9, Mendelssohn 5 and a lot more.
Some of the more unusual occurrences have been driving an Alfa Romeo full of viola players through the night from Perugia to Ferrara in north Italy, having glasses of alcohol put in my hand while walking off 3 concert stages and playing happy birthday to unsuspecting members of the audience during concerts.
My brief though is to cover only the first leg of this monster tour. So lets go back once upon a time to a place in north Italy, that seems very long long ago, but was actually the middle of last month. Ferrara!
Always beautiful, intimate, cultural and timeless. I never get tired of going there. The atmosphere in this quiet, medieval city has always been magical for preparing concert programs. A short morning walk through cobbled streets to the 19th century Teatro de Communale, stopping off for one of the best cappucinois anywhere and a quick read of the Herald Tribune. Feeling at home away from home does not get any better than this.
Over 12 years MCO has built such a rapport with Ferrara that our local restaurant owner ,beloved Norberto who runs Settimos, even decided to spontaneously visit the orchestra in Paris during the last 4 days of the tour.
For me, bringing my wife Anna and daughter Alice to Ferrara is a dream. I can have a leisurely breakfast with them, go off and play music with my friends in the best orchestra in the world and be back for lunch and dinner too! After putting Alice to bed I sit with a glass of Amarone and constitute that life is pretty damn good to me.
Our residence in Ferrara always seems to be developing and has traditionally been a testing ground for discovering new relationships with conductors. Both Emanuel Krivine and Ton Koopman had something different and interesting to say in their own way, but for me the eye opener that I am sure my colleges will find amusing was Mendelssohn’s 5th symphony "the reformation".
I should say there was some scepticism about this piece from people before rehearsals started. All the recordings I listened to were bloody awful and this can put a musician off who is new to a work. But as always Mendelssohn produced some of the noblest counterpoint and beautiful melodies one will ever hear and play. Go listen to the opening chorals of the first and last movements and you should understand why.
Talking of being noble, Emanual Krivine made a wonderful speech to the audience after the concert in Perugia. "If you enjoyed this wonderful music and this wonderful orchestra please write to your local politicians to do something about culture in Italy (huge applause)".
You may or may not know that Italy is at the moment going through a particularly rough time culturally. I love it when someone can say publically what others only have the chance to believe privately.
Apart from the music, I had time to go on a day trip to Venice with my family, and me and Anna, courtesy of my mother, got three whole evenings free to go out as a couple, something that has been unheard of since our daughter Alice arrived in our lives. I managed at least a couple of trips to the play ground with Alice and of course, as is totally necessary when coming to this region of Italy, we ate ice cream nearly every day.
Taking a deep breath, what more could one ask for!!
Tristan and Isolda act 2 conducted by Daniel Harding. Every time there is even a whiff of routine or tiredness in the relationship we have with Daniel, he comes along and totally blows your mind out interpreting a new piece of repertoire. In two days we had put together possibly the most important work in German romantic repertoire. A piece that basically influenced western music after its event. One and a half hours of music that longs for fulfilment and at the same time needs a crystal clear reading of literally thousands of textures. In a way it is up to the next tour diary entry to finish the Tristan story as the last performance on the Paris leg of this tour was again in another league.
Sitting in the airplane after just one hour sleep last night my body is telling me to sleep, but my mind is wide awake already asking like a small child " when is the next tour, when is the next tour."
