Grey-tinted specs
Traditionally, at some point everybody gets a mid-tour lull. Long journeys, short sleeps and always being in a large group gets a bit much and energies dip. Mine occurred in Hangzhou – a strange place. To be honest, I hadn't even heard of Hangzhou before I read the tour schedule; the population here is 6.4 million, almost twice as many people as in Berlin – does my Sino-ignorance know no bounds?
The city itself was pretty dreary, smog-ridden and humid but all of a sudden the 8-lane roads and honking cars cease and you're faced with an enormous lake. Not just any lake, this is the lake, the West Lake, a must-see tourist spot. It was curiously devoid of westerners but absolutely crammed with locals out for a Sunday afternoon stroll. It's a real beauty - think willow trees and distant pagodas. I enjoyed spending most of today there (no rehearsal until 5pm – bonus); a boat ride, a glass of green tea and a good soaking in the rain. The hall in Hangzhou was impressively quirky on the outside but bizarre inside (and by inside, I mean backstage). I wasn't alone in sensing an odd atmosphere there, the long (mostly dark) corridors made it feel like an abandoned school and the whole place had a very foosty smell (can you tell that I've been in Glasgow for over a year now?!). The hotel was an odd one too, some rooms were great, others pretty grim and the 3rd floor was basically a brothel masquerading as a karaoke bar. Perhaps it's just that I've seen Hangzhou through the grey-tinted specs of my mid-tour lull.
Here's the hall:
And the lake, just before it tipped it down:
I can't believe I'm about to say this.....tonight I really enjoyed playing Tchaikovsky 5. Normally I find it really shallow and bombastic but from the opening clarinet melody, tonight's performance took risks and it paid off. The score is littered with f, ff, fff and even ffff, so pacing the climaxes is a hard job. Christoph did this brilliantly tonight, finding space where it often sounds stodgy and curbing the temptation to peak at every fortissimo. By the end, I'd forgotten all about that lull.
Quote of the Day:
A 2nd violinist, yesterday – "have we played Tchaik 5 recently?" *
*bearing in mind a) they weren't joking, b) we rehearsed it last week and c) it's been in the pads for 2 weeks now!
David Chadwick
