When I was about 12 years old my mother worked at a Catholic school, and one Easter our whole family was able to go on the trip to Rome. Even as a pre-teenager, the ancient splendour of the city impressed me and I have always wanted to go back. In actual fact, I have been back...
I have a window seat on the flight back from Cologne. I’m a creature of habit and whilst I don’t mind this seat on a short flight, on a long haul I always end up feeling rather trapped and stuck in my place. Looking out at the wing, which is obscuring my view as we descend...
“Turn the wobble box off gentlemen. You sound positively geriatric.” Sir John Eliot Gardiner, celebrating his 70th birthday is back. This is his way of asking the choir to sing with less vibrato. He may be at an age where most of us would be considering slowing down,...
In Japan, things aren’t always exactly what they seem. The cake at the bakery which reveals its secret red bean paste filling, the colourful appetisers with the unfamiliar texture or the chicken teriyaki which turns out to be a more adventurous part of the chicken’s anatomy....
It’s always the little things on tour that make the difference. The comfortable bed, the unexpected phone call from the family, the free wifi in the hotel, the bus leaving half an hour later in the morning. The list is endless. As we approached the end of the first week away...
It takes a while until I am absolutely sure. The volume is low and the aeroplane engines are beginning their pre flight whine; momentarily the rising pitch of the engine and music randomly coincide in Cagian cacophony. Rather than sitting en masse, the orchestra has been...
Somehow, it’s nearly Friday. Already. It was only Tuesday yesterday when I left home, but now it’s nearly Friday. And I’m in Seoul in Korea. Of course, it’s impossible to have been Tuesday yesterday as it’s nearly Friday because despite the good people of LSO Towers'...
As it’s nearly Christmas, you’ll forgive me if I jettison my normal dry academic precision for a little bit of end of term amusement. I am pleased to report that the LSC were staying in a different hotel from the orchestra in a another part of Paris which rendered my...
The Beast from the East has arrived from Russia and brought with it a chill wind blowing through LSO towers, although after the initial drop in temperature, it has now settled into a distinctly unseasonal, damp, grey blanket. The day before we were due to fly out to Luxembourg,...
At the moment, I am sitting in your seat. That is to say that I am watching the rehearsal of the Brahms Violin Concerto seated in the stalls of Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. I don’t often get to watch my own orchestra, in fact, I don’t often get to watch any orchestra...
