Holland Blog 5
Today is Day 10 and boy does it feel like it. We're leaving Eindhoven in a while and travelling up to for the final concert of the tour. I'm looking forward to adding a few of my amateurish photos to these blogs once I get home (Tilburg's concrete paradise, the 'Red Bull', Pieter ironing his shirtsleeves etc.), and getting back to regular sized chairs in concert halls – the Dutch are tall!
Our stay in Eindhoven was pretty good – the place is awash with restaurants and bars (mostly opposite my hotel room it seems – noisy) and the hall was full for both concerts. Last night, Ilan pulled out something really special for the final Beethoven 6 of the tour, it was definitely one of those performances to remember. Such beautiful playing all round it'd be a crime to name names...though I will say that our woodwind principals really stole the show. The previous night it was Symphonie Fantastique and here I will launch into a mini-rant about coughing. Now, I'm grateful that on the whole, audiences manage to save their coughing for the breaks between movements. In Eindhoven, however, it was deafening. It sounded like a collective bout of temporary bronchitis (I am not exaggerating). Eventually, when the hacking showed no sign of a let up, Ilan just started the next movement anyway. Several audience members also managed to bark their way through James Horan's stunning cor anglais solo in the slow movement. All I can say is that the Dutch smoking ban (June) cannot come in too soon if this is anything to go by! Still, we should be grateful for small mercies – I didn't hear any sweet wrappers or mobile phones...over the coughing, that is.
Yesterday morning we played for a . What with a concert the night before, I wasn't all that excited about a 10.30am start. Funnily enough though, I really enjoyed the masterclass, there was a great vibe about it. Ilan was fantastic with all the conductors and it was a real eye-opener for me to the complexities of their craft. We were playing the two tour symphonies which obviously we know very well and which, by now, bear an imprint of Ilan's interpretation, so it must have been difficult for any of them to make an impression onto the music. Some really did though, including bass player who was especially popular with the band – remember that name. Incidentally, one of the conductors (Gerhart Drijvers) seemed to have read my blog about Tilburg. He was from Tilburg (oops). One last thing - I noticed that batons seem to have gone out of fashion (with mixed success), why is that?
Quote of the Day:
(an example of typical 2nd violin banter...about a squeaky chair)
"I think you need some WD-40 for your bottom"
"Well, if you're going to give me WD-40 for my bottom, I'll give you some superglue for your mouth"
David Chadwick
