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...
“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....
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,...
The concert last night was in Frankfurt. Because of the Book Fair there, the publishers and book sellers of the world were using every available hotel room and so at the end of our four hour bus trip from Luxembourg, we found ourselves in a brand new hotel in Darmstadt. You...
Pairing up the four symphonies of Szymanowski and Brahms has provoked some discussion within the band and the press. Why put these two composers together? Does the performance of the two composers bring anything to the other, is there some illumination provided by hearing the...
“Is there a park nearby?” I enquire in faultless French. “I want to go running.” “Yes of course, sir.” The man on the desk spins around and produces a map which he marks a series of lines, circles and arrows on. I study the map because that is what one does when...
Brussels. The centre of European bureaucracy and, if you read the right newspapers, the enemy of our proud British traditions. Leaving the Euro debate alone for the moment, Brussels has been accused at various points in the last decade of trying to force UHT milk on us, dilute...
If an alien life form were to land unannounced backstage at a concert in 2012, they would make some basic assumptions about human behaviour which I once would have thought unfounded. Now I'm not so sure. One of the many changes I have seen in my time on the world touring...
The cultural differences between nations are never more pronounced that when in transit. The British, being a nation of enthusiastic queuers, are left apoplectic with rage when confronted with a country full of people who do not understand this basic concept. I am told that...
