When we were kids, travelling along the M4 in the back of the Triumph 2000, my brother and I would always crane our necks so that we could say we were the first one to see the Severn Bridge. Shortly after crossing, I always used to feel a tingle of excitement as we passed the...
If you are reading this in England, you might want to go and check your email for a moment and come back in five minutes. We left a very wet Stansted Airport at 9am this morning, and landed 3 hours later at Palermo airport. If you are enjoying the English summer of rain, I...
The hall in Cologne has a lovely acoustic but also the steepest stairs I think I've ever seen. That bit of time at the start of a concert before the oboe sounds the A, you know, the bit where you stare at us waiting to start and we stare back at you. It often reminds me of those...
Since we last spoke, the LSO has been busy with Gergiev doing Mahler, Strauss and Mozart with Haitink, and Mozart and Brahms with Previn. It has been non stop, with a whistlestop trip to Paris that was so brief, I didn't have time to tell you about it. We now have 3 weeks left...
I suppose that this technically isn't a tour blog, as I'm actually writing this sitting in my kitchen. We returned to Stansted airport this morning, mercifully before the end of half term rush. I also feel a little guilty, as a large proportion of the orchestra had a few hours...
In case any of you were feeling a little envious about our globe trotting exploits, especially now the figures about commuting have been shown to be false, I am happy to tell you that it is raining cats and dogs, and bulls, probably. Bulls, in case you were wondering, because we...
With all the flying visits the LSO makes, often playing in a different city every night, it was somewhat of a relief for the players to be performing two concerts in the same venue on consecutive nights! This was however slightly tempered with the knowledge that the repertoire...
Coming soon... Look out for the next blog, written by Principal Flautist Gareth Davies, in October 2007. The LSO will be arriving in New York on 15 October, playing three concerts at the Lincoln Center with Sir Colin Davis, and then moving on to Chicago on 22 October for one...
So I'm in the lobby of the hotel waiting for the coach to the airport! We've all had a fantastic trip here and really hope it all works out to return in 2009!!!! The staff and volunteers of the Florida International Festival have been looking after us and everything has...
Mozart!I thought that Robert and I did a great job of trying to persuade the audience that they would much rather hear Zemlinsky or Shostakovich-Alistair must have bribed them on the way in...To be honest I was quite happy to play any of the three quartets but the Zemlinsky...
