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 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'...
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...
Apologies for the lack of blogging on this centenary trip (there is a lot of material coming your way soon...). We are on our way to the airport as I type and glad to be coming home. I have to confess that this week, I have written and rewritten this blog four times and...
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...
