From the comfort of the train speeding through the Spanish countryside, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is summer. The sun is high and the deep blue stretches far into the distance, the only clouds visible on the horizon look like chalk cliffs. But the thermometer...
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="75" caption="Kurt Weill"] I could find no glamour in running for a train at 5.45am and catching it by the skin of my teeth, arriving at Stansted at 7.30am, landing in Madrid and going straight to the hall to rehearse in the knowledge...
Regular readers of the blog will not be surprised to know that I am writing this having just watched Wales destroy Namibia in the Rugby World Cup. My Welsh father and a childhood involving many trips to Cwmllynfell to see my granny, cast my musical soul in red many years ago....
It's quite usual for me to arrive in a city, leave the hotel, which is different to the one we stayed on previous trips, and not recognise anything at all. There are times when I begin to doubt myself and think that maybe I'm mixing places up. The one constant is the concert...
The eagle eyed readers will have noticed that whilst a large proportion of the LSO is in Aix, almost all of those left behind performed...
The final day of the tour and we have a bit of a marathon to run, or hobble at any rate. Leaving the hotel at 6.45 am after a concert the night before in Lucerne, we get on a bus which takes us on a short journey to Zurich airport to arrive by 7am. Sunday mornings are never...
The orchestra sat in near silence on the train this morning. The tension rising with the outside temperature as we sped through the mountains. I haven't felt this much pressure on a train since Sue Mallet was on a trip and was looking for volunteers for something or other. She...
I am at the moment sitting in a...
Another year, another blog. Yes, I know its February but this is the first time I have managed to put virtual pen to...er...virtual paper. I was looking through some of the old blogs the other day which date back to 2007. The reason for this is that we are off to New York soon...
As an encore at the recital the other night, we played a little melancholy Welsh folk song. Simple but effective in its main aim of bringing a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. A member of the audience asked me at the reception afterwards if all Welsh folk songs were...
