Scottish Chamber Orchestra on Tour

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New website with integrated blog

2009-11-16T11:52:00.003Z

The SCO blog is now integrated within the Orchestra's new website at www.sco.org.uk. The dynamic design and layout of the new site makes it much easier to navigate, so you can quickly find out what concerts and events are coming up, or catch up on all the latest news in the blog. Many concert listings now have related audio clips, where SCO recordings exist, letting you hear a snippet of a piece before you buy tickets or attend the concert. In the 'Experience the SCO' section you will also find video clips and interviews, as well as photos and biographies for all the Orchestra members, guest artists and conductors.

This blog site will remain live for now so you can look back at old posts - we recommend you read all the posts from the Orchestra's amazing tour of India. Click on posts from February and March 2009.

The ultimate fireworks music

2009-09-08T17:37:00.001+01:00

Handel would have been proud on Sunday; the SCO brought the Edinburgh International Festival to a close with a fabulously zingy performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, Zadok the Priest, the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and the Hallelujah Chorus.

The SCO Chorus were mick-ed up like pop stars although I'm sure proper pop stars don't normally wear as many layers of clothing, even for outdoor gigs! The Orchestra had their clothes pegs to hold their sheet music in place, in case the wind whisked it all away!

What a great night. Here's to the Edinburgh International Festival 2009 and long live the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert!

-- Lauren, SCO Marketing

Backstage at the Proms

2009-08-03T12:45:00.004+01:00

Have you ever wondered, as you sit out in the audience waiting for the performers to appear, what they are doing and how they are feeling? While you sit in your box, mentally preparing for the coming artistic and emotional experience, swilling down that last drop of champagne as you consider the programme notes, you imagine the musicians warming up - a few scales perhaps - just finishing their pre-performance meditation to calm the nerves, in time for that last-minute pep talk from the conductor. Perhaps even a group hug - who knows?
Not a chance that we are, at the 11th hour, still in the bar eating and drinking, photocopying page turns, frantically fixing a buzz that the instrument has developed at the very last minute, on the phone to the babysitter describing where the Mains is, and laddering one's only pair of tights at the same time. Don't be ridiculous. How would we be able to play so wonderfully if that were the case?

As we come down what is charmingly known, at the Albert Hall, as the Bull Run (by which they mean the corridors onto the stage, in front of the Arena), we are ready, not a hair out of place, to give our all to the live performance.

Biscuits and Orange backstage for interval energy boosts.

Read our reviews today online.

And a nice cup of tea for the violas.

Cadogan Hall

2009-07-31T12:34:00.007+01:00

The orchestra rehearsed yesterday in London's Cadogan Hall. You know you've made it to chelsea when the emergency signs read like this.

We were joined by our soloists for the rehearsal - Karen and Andy pictured below - Andy taking time out from his current role as Director of the Marriage of Figaro at Wilton's Music Hall to come along and do a turn in our Stravinsky.

Tonight, the Prom! Join us live on Radio 3 or BBC4 at 7.30pm, or of course, in the Albert Hall itself.

To London

2009-07-30T11:24:00.003+01:00

Just to prove how flexible a bunch we are, we've left behind the beaches of the Hebrides and the hills of the Highlands, and are on our way to London to play at the Proms. And, we are not only reunited with each other after our wind/strings schism of last week, we are augmented. We have for this concert 4 extra violins, 2 extra violas, cellos and basses, plus 3 trombones and a tuba. In case you're wondering, it's not organised this way on the off chance we suffer some losses at Terminal 5. It's the repertoire and the venue - the Albert Hall being a sizable place.

As you will see from the photo above, we are playing Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony. (Why didn't we do that in the Hebrides David?) Also Schumann's Piano Concerto (Nicholas Angelich on the piano) and the complete version of Stravinsky's Pulcinella (with Karen Cargill mezzo soprano, Andrew Staples tenor and Brindley Sherratt bass). You may also notice that the photo features the resting baton of conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who, presumably through his energy and brilliance, has bent it. (Images of Harry Potter now coming to mind.)

Photos - the Cellos; Su-a, Eric and Donnie stretch their legs, while the basses have a lie down.

Talk to me about the Music

2009-07-27T14:37:00.010+01:00

Perhaps it’s time I stopped talking about the beaches and the whisky on this Outer Hebridean String tour. (I notice ice cream seems to be featuring quite heavily on the Wind Tour.)
On our long ferry crossing from the tiny island of Barra back to the mainland, I spoke to David Watkin, our Director for this tour, about his role. First of all, I should clarify that this week we have been performing without a conductor. If you are surprised to hear this, remember that as a small performing group, we don’t really need one. You may well be familiar with the idea of someone directing from the violin, or from the keyboard (our recordings with pianist Piotr Andersweski and also with violinist Alexander Janiczek are examples of this), but directing from the cello, as David does, is a bit more unusual.

What does it mean to be directed rather than conducted? Well, in a sense, these figures all fulfil the same role - a director will choose the programme, ‘take’ the rehearsals, choose the tempi etc, just like as a conductor would. Like a conductor, it will be the director who starts the pieces, whom we watch to see how long the pause will be, and who will generally be in charge of determining the shape and direction of the live performance. Except of course that the director will have an instrument in their hand, rather than a baton. And because the director is, simultaneously, also one of the players, there will be more of a sense of collaboration, rather than the traditional and hierarchical dictation from the conductor’s podium. Ideally, it will produce a feeling akin to playing chamber music, where each player takes more individual responsibility for their own role.

The idea of directing the concert from the cello is closely linked to David’s choice of programme. When performing Baroque and Classical music, where, as David believes, the music is shaped more by the harmonic structure rather than the melodic line, it makes particular sense to direct it from the bass line. The 19th Century tradition of musical hierarchy - Composer, Conductor, Orchestra Leader, Section Principal, Tutti Player (in descending precedence) - is less relevant to repertoire like a Bach Cantata, where the violins don’t play at all half time. There are stories of Bach himself directing his Cantatas from the viola. (Whatever next!)

Of the 200 of Bach’s Cantatas that survive, very few of them are widely known. David wanted to play some of this very wonderful music, and to perform with the beautiful soprano Julia Doyle, and so he selected a few gems from several different Cantatas. Explaining to our audiences his decision to put movements from both secular and sacred works side by side in performance, (don’t forget that the Hebrides are famously Presbyterian, even if they do allow ferries on a Sunday these days) David felt sure that the great composer himself would not have disapproved - believing that all of his music, sacred or secular, was written for the glory of God; Soli deo gloria being inscribed at the bottom of all of Bach's completed manuscripts.

[With many thanks to David Watkin for taking time out from the CalMac Ferry quiz machines to answer some of my questions.]

Blue skies and ice-cream in Oban

2009-07-26T17:39:00.005+01:00

Yesterday's weather in Oban was all you could hope for in a seaside town - glorious blue sky, constant sunshine and a warm breeze. So you can imagine the 45 minutes we spent getting lost in a one-way system thanks to an incorrect map wasn't particularly enjoyable - looking at the glorious blue sky, constant hot sunshine pouring through the windows and a stuffy car rather than a warm breeze! Luckily, the people of Oban turned out to be a very kind bunch and led us (literally) to our destination - the beautiful St John's Cathedral.

St John's Cathedral

On a walk along the sea front, it's easy to see why the town is hailed a breathtaking destination. Even from sea-level, Mull can be seen clearly peeking over the top of the island of Kerrera, whilst McCaig's Tower watches over from the hill - itself a great spot for views. Oh, and the local ice-cream is great too (would have been rude not to give it a try...)!

Set a street back from the sea, the Cathedral sits in the centre of Oban amongst the ice-cream shops and bustling shopping area. No surprise, then, that we welcomed many tourists of various nationalities into the concert, all eager to see the Ensemble. As successful as Birnam, the number of compliments to the programme and players was wonderful - another great evening!

And if you're wondering what the weather was like this morning... here's Marketing Officer, Jen Owens, at McCaig's Tower, along with a 'view' from the top!

Winds and Brass on Tour

2009-07-25T17:15:00.002+01:00

So here we are, the Winds and Brass team, on the road to Oban after a hearty breakfast in Dunkeld, a quick coo over three cute black kittens playing in the hotel car park and a ridiculously hairy junction within the first five minutes of setting off this morning!

Last night's concert at Birnam Institute was a huge success. Set off the main road, the wooden-fronted Institute boasts a modern performance space, a cake friendly cafe and Beatrix Potter exhibition and shop.

A keen audience thoroughly enjoyed the concert with many commenting that while they love to see the orchestra in full, there was something rather special about seeing the Winds and Brass perform music specifically composed and arranged for this particular ensemble. Just the kind of feedback we like to hear!

The first half saw SCO Principal and 2nd trumpet players, Peter Franks and Shaun Harrold respectively, team up with percussionist, Caroline Garden on tenor drum, for a rousing performance of Two Renaissance Dances by Claude Gervaise (arranged by Peter). The rest of the Ensemble completed the first half with Arvo Part's Fratres and Jean Francaix's Nine Characteristic Pieces.

The second half began with a Wind arrangement of Gioachino Rossini's Operatic Overture to The Barber of Seville, followed by a captivating duet performance of excerpts of Mozart's The Magic Flute arranged for two flutes and performed by SCO Principal Flute Alison Mitchell and Janet Larsson. Krommer's Partita in E-flat major, Op 79 for winds completed the programme and all were received with thunderous applause.

Tonight will see us in picturesque Oban's St John's Cathedral and judging by the weather so far today, it should be a lovely warm summer evening - perfect for a Highland Tour!

From the sublime to the sublime

2009-07-24T19:07:00.013+01:00

Fresh from the recording studio in Glasgow, the SCO String tour of the Outer Hebrides is now well under way. Last night we performed in the Arts Centre (An Lanntair) in Stornoway to a packed concert hall. A very enthusiastic audience were so persistent in their demand for an encore that, despite the fact the orchestra had left the stage, instruments put away in the cases and a few people already in the dressing rooms about to change, we gave in and went back to play one more Handel Aria with soprano Julia Doyle.

In our quest to take live classical music to the furthest corners of Scotland, the SCO splits, once a year, into two groups - the strings and the winds - for two separate but simultaneous tours. Supported by the Highlands and Islands Council, we are able to perform in venues that are too small for the whole orchestra, and thus manage to reach communities which otherwise have little live classical music access. Within the last 3 years, the SCO has visited Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides, as well as regular visits to the Highlands and other Islands. For obvious reasons, these tours always take place in the summer.

And, we have a very nice time doing it! In the mornings, before rehearsal, people are able to go hiking, swim in the sea, cycle, eat freshly caught fish, sleep in after drinking lots of local whisky the night before…and so on.

Pictures show a Benbecula beach, some people planning their walks around the island while on the Ferry, others having to work hard to prepare the rehearsal parts, our famous truck on the high seas, and an impromptu game of Boule while waiting for the ferry

SCO hits the Islands

2009-07-23T23:40:00.003+01:00

SCO has arrived in the Outer Hebrides! Pictures show our lovely SCO van parked waiting to board the ferry to Stornoway this morning. And our director for the week, David Watkin, avoiding the glare of the paparazzi at dinner in the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool the night before...

Can you see our truck's Registration plate?!

Settling the Score

2009-07-16T13:41:00.005+01:00

One of the things that has made Sir Charles Mackerras the figure that he is in music today, is his meticulous attention to the composer’s written intentions. Sir Charles is not the kind of musician who will accept that what he sees in an Edited Score is necessarily the correct reading of the composer’s intentions. He prefers to verify it himself.
As a note of explanation, where the original autograph of, let’s say, a Mozart Symphony exists, there should be reliable later printed Editions, taken from that autograph. However, it may be that the early printed editions, no matter how closely they date to the original, contain errors. If later versions are taken from these editions rather than the autograph, (or if no autograph exists) then errors can be passed down, played and recorded, for generations of performance.
Hence, an entire profession of musical academics have a subject for their PhDs, and hence, as a performer, you will spend a lot of time worrying about whether to play a melody with or without a slur, with or without ‘staccato‘ dots above the notes, what do the dots really mean anyway, and are you sure that they weren‘t actually dashes written with a quill in a hurry to meet the patron‘s deadline?
In the end, you do have to make choices and interpretations, but Sir Charles insists on them being informed. He has made it his life’s work to inspect as many of Mozart’s originals as possible. This has taken him to library vaults all over the world, and the homes of collectors. We hear stories of an eccentric collector who wouldn’t allow anyone to see the autograph until she died and her collection was donated to the nation, of Sir Charles finding himself behind the Berlin Wall with access to all the collections held in Communist Europe, of discovering one of Mozart’s hairs stuck to an inserted correction made by the great genius himself.
So as a result, when Sir Charles insists that we play from his own collection of extensively corrected and constantly revised parts, we know why. [These parts were all bought by Sir Charles out of his salary from the East Berlin Staatsoper, when the East German Mark could not be spent in the West.]
And even yesterday, into his 85th year, when our viola player Brian Schiele presented Sir Charles with a score for Mozart’s 29th Symphony taken from an autograph that he hadn’t seen, Sir Charles was immediately ready to revise and correct his own parts, such is his great and lifelong passion for wanting to get as close as possible to the music.

Photo: Zoe warms up while Brian and Sir Charles discuss editions.

The Listening Break

2009-07-13T23:02:00.003+01:00

After the first Take of each movement, the orchestra principals retire to the Listening Room to hear how it sounds. Pictured here - Sir Charles discusses phrasing with Nick Bayley (Bass) and leader Chris George, under the watchful ear of producer James Mallinson. Meanwhile, the rest of the First Violin section play games on Zoe's iphone.

The perfect recording

2009-07-12T22:55:00.002+01:00

Recording is a strange and very different experience from live performance. Studio recordings aim to be ‘perfect’. By this I mean that the listener will be able to hear the piece of music free of all defects - no wrong notes, no coughing fits, nothing that is out of tune, no sections too fast, too slow, even no page turns. But they also aim, particularly when working with great artists, to be a ’record’ of interpretation and style. They need to be more than perfectly accurate therefore - they need to be meaningful. And they need to be exciting! They are not a dry textbook presentation of an ideal Mozart Symphony - they have got to try and convey the thrill of the music being alive, so that it is a joy to listen to the finished product.

Imagine then, that you are on your fifth take of the opening of the symphony; you want and need it to sound like the start of a concert, not the end of a 3 hour recording session. Tempo is settled now, but the Fsharp in bar 5 hasn’t been quite in tune on any take yet, and the producer says your entry sounds a bit late in bar 20. Play it again, perfectly, but with feeling! Then there’s the time pressure - 3 minutes left to the end of the session, and you have got to get it right. (Overtime is almost never allowed in orchestral rehearsals or recordings - it costs a fortune.) At last you play the top note of the phrase as beautifully as you had hoped, but, no good, someone hit their bow on the stand while turning a page and the microphones picked up the noise so that take is no use.

It’s a tricky business....Miss Su-a Lee takes a break from it all...

Into the Studio

2009-07-11T22:54:00.010+01:00

Although we are not, strictly speaking, ‘on tour’, we have decided that our current recording project might be of interest to our loyal blog-followers. After the runaway success of our recent disc of the last four Mozart Symphonies (Linn Records), the SCO is in the studio again with the great Sir Charles Mackerras and his ancient East-German-printed life’s-work-containing scores of Mozart’s Symphonies 29, 31, 32, 35 and 36. ‘Ah yes of course’, you say to yourself, ‘Paris, Haffner and Linz’. Quite right. So we will keep you posted...

Pitlochry debut

2009-06-30T12:42:00.003+01:00

Sunday night was the final night of our Highlands Tour, at Pitlochry Festival Theatre - a debut venue for the Orchestra. There's been a theatre on this site - nestled by the River Tummel - since the 1950s (originally a marquee) but the current theatre has been there in 1981.

(The talk of tents has reminded me that I meant to let you know that a few of our brass players had chosen to sleep under canvas on this tour - a good choice given the marvellously sunny weather!)

Anyway, back to Pitlochry... the theatre has an established programme of events, from musicals to plays, so it was great to be able to finally take the Orchestra there. The audience were not just from the local area - I spoke to several people who had travelled from as far as Edinburgh and Glasgow, many of them regular attenders at Pitlochry Festival Theatre events so it's obviously a popular venue. (It has a lovely gift shop by the way, and a cafe too, so worth stopping by if you're passing, even if there's nothing on to see!).

The band had a short rehearsal to familiarise themselves with the acoustic (on the dry side apparently) and then there was time to have a picnic dinner by the river, although the midges also joined us...!

We were delighted that representatives from the Misses Barrie Charitable Trust were able to attend the concert - they had helped fund the tour. At the interval, they were whisked out of the auditorium into the warren that is backstage and got the opportunity to meet the Maestro himself!

All in all, it's been a splendid tour and a lovely opportunity for everyone - players and audiences - to get to know Robin a little better before he returns as Principal Conductor for concerts in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St Andrews in December.

Meanwhile, plenty more blogging to follow over the coming weeks as the SCO records its second volume of Mozart Symphonies with Sir Charles Mackerras, tours to the Western Isles (Strings) and Birnam, Oban and Crear (Wind and Brass), and performs at the BBC Proms on 31 July with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. We do hope you can join us again then.

A dip in the sea

2009-06-28T09:49:00.001+01:00

We travelled from Strathpeffer to Findhorn on Saturday morning, about an hour's drive. Strathpeffer is home to a fabulous chocolate shop, where many SCO players could be found purchasing lovely chocolates! Soloist Alison and I indulged in a gooey hot chocolate mmm.

Later, on arrival in Findhorn village, we enjoyed lunch at the Kimberly Inn and conductor Robin took a dip in the rather refreshing Moray Firth. Pic below!

Here's a photo of Findhorn bay.

-- Lauren, SCO Marketing

Finding ourselves in Findhorn

2009-06-28T08:21:00.000+01:00

Last night we played in the Universal Hall at the Findhorn Foundation in Morayshire. The Findhorn Foundation is a spiritual community and ecovillage where they strive to create a positive and sustainable future. It's pretty relaxed and chilled out place!

The pentagon-shaped Universal Hall was built by volunteers visiting or living at the Findhorn Foundation Community in the ten years from 1974 to 1984. The auditorium seats 280 people comfortably and up to 400 on a 'get-well-aquainted' basis. We managed about 300 last night (the band taking up a fair bit of space of course).

The hall was designed by British architect George Ripley. It has a hand-carved stone exterior facing, a magnificent stained glass entrance and geodesic roof construction - five enormous wooden ring beams hold up the roof. Sitting at the edge of a sand dune/wilderness area, it really is quite a unique venue

The audience here are a bit more expressive, and less restrained, when it comes to responding to the music. There were a few people swaying along to the music!

Pre-concert, conductor Robin managed to get hold of an SCO branded t-shirt ("great for rehearsing in") so now he really is one of the gang!

-- Lauren, SCO Marketing

A dear place

2009-06-27T11:08:00.001+01:00

And so it was that Robin Ticciati conducted the Orchestra in Strathpeffer Pavilion, a year after he made his debut with the SCO in this lovely venue. It was a hot evening, so we left all the patio doors down the side of the hall wide open, allowing Faure, Haydn, Berlioz and Poulenc to drift out into the village.

Talking to the audience during the concert, Robin said that Strathpeffer is particularly dear to him, as it was his very first concert with the SCO, and how nice it is to be back again with the band.

We took the opportunity to do some filming during the rehearsal (pic below), filmed by our sponsors SATV, and also grabbed 5 minutes with Robin to ask him about what the future holds for the SCO - you'll be able to watch some of this footage on our new website (currently undergoing rebuild and redesign) from September.

-- Post From My iPhone

What kind of tree is this?

2009-06-26T17:59:00.001+01:00

This lovely tree is situated beside the Spa Pavilion, but we're not sure what kind it is - any takers?

-- Post From My iPhone

Sunny Strathpeffer

2009-06-26T16:05:00.001+01:00

Here we are in Strathpeffer, north west of Inverness. The Pavilion is a lovely building, as you can see. Tonight we're expecting an audience of about 300; in fact there's only about 20 tickets left so come early if you're planning on attending.

Ronnie and Eric our Roadie team are getting set up this afternoon, putting up lights and getting everything all laid out. And here's a photo too of the mega-solid box that the music travels in - no sheet music gets bashed about in this hard case!

Lauren, SCO Marketing
-- Post From My iPhone

A Highland Fling

2009-06-25T08:12:00.007+01:00

The last time Londoner Robin Ticciati accompanied the Orchestra on a Highland Tour, we all got a bit excited because he quickly established a wonderful rapport with the band. We don't usually rush into relationships; in fact we quite like to invite conductors back to the podium for a few more dates, just to get to know them a bit better, perhaps go for dinner even! But with Robin, the band just knew this was the 'real thing'. So our MD pursued Robin, and a few months after his first dates with us, he had agreed to be the SCO's Principal Conductor, starting September 2009.

Since then both Robin and the Orchestra have been so busy with work that we've not seen a lot of each other, you know how it is... But, as the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and so it is that we skip into rehearsals, knowing that some happy sparks are going to get set alight this week!

So here's the plan: bit more fine-tuning in rehearsals today in Edinburgh, and then tomorrow we all jump on the A9 to Strathpeffer Pavilion (8pm, Friday 26 June), the magical Universal Hall in Findhorn (8pm, Saturday 27 June) and an SCO premiere in Pitlochry Festival Theatre (8pm, Sunday 28 June). Oh and by the way, we're playing Fauré's Pelléas et Mélisande, Poulenc's Flute Sonata (arr. Berkeley), Berlioz's Overture, The Flight into Egypt, before finishing off in timely fashion with Haydn's Symphony No 101 'Clock'.

Education Tour 4

2009-06-16T10:15:00.007+01:00

Well we've wrapped up our Education Tour of the Western Isles, and it was a great success. It turned out to be quite a busy schedule, and we packed a lot in the 4 days we were visiting. It was lovely to have the group of pupils with their teacher coming up to join us in Lionacleit from Barra each day for the Composition Workshops, and they all worked super hard to have some quite inspired compositions ready by the end of the sessions. It was wonderful to visit such a beautiful part of the country, the beaches really are spectacular and comparable to the best in the world. It was great to meet the pupils and staff from all over the Western Isles ahead of our String Tour in July, and we hope to come back with more Workshops in the future!

Melissa Harris

SCO Education

Education Tour 3

2009-06-11T09:21:00.008+01:00

SCO Education had a great Day 3 in Benbecula. A keen group of pupils coming together at Sgoil Lionacleit from Benbecula and Barra greeted us, and everyone put in a good day's work on developing new compositional ideas. After dropping Donnie Gillan off at the bottom of a hill in the pouring rain for a hike, Alasdair and Lise were back at the school in the early evening for another Masterclass. Once again this proved very worthwhile and the pupils enjoyed the session. Just as we were heading off for the car a super keen pupil asked for a pile of manuscript as he was inspired to go straight home and work on his composition for the next day! So we're looking forward to our final day of workshops, and particularly to see the results of this enthusiastic pupil! Oh, and don't worry - we found Donnie safe and sound.

Education Tour 2

2009-06-10T09:22:00.007+01:00

Alasdair Nicolson, Lise Aferiat and Donnie Gillan are now half-way through our Education Tour of the Western Isles. Everyone arrived safely on Monday by air and ferry, and we arrived at The Nicolson Institute ready and rearing to go. Despite the security overload and the whole school going completely batty with the visit by Princess Anne we managed to start off our Composition Workshops with the visiting pupils from the Isle of Harris. (We unfortunately weren't invited to join her for tea :( ) The Masterclasses in the evening proved a great success, with 'cello, violin and piano pupils from all over Lewis and Harris making the most of having visiting professional musicians to give them extra advice. It was also lovely to meet with the local Music Teachers and have a chat about what's happening in the schools and communities in the area.

Day 2 saw the pupils from both Harris and Lewis coming together for more composition workshops. During the sessions they were given the opportunity for the musicians to play back their ideas as they were writing them - making suggestions for how to write for violin and 'cello. It was exciting to see the growing confidence in the pupils as the day went on, and by the end they were instructing the musicians on how exactly to play what they were intending. After a quick goodbye to the staff and pupils, we were off in the car for an incredibly picturesque drive to make our ferry connection from Leverburgh to Berneray. After a perfectly smooth twilight crossing, we arrived at our hotel ready to sample the local produce - delicious cockles, salmon and scallops. We're now excited to meet the pupils coming together this morning from Barra and Benbecula. More budding composers...

By Melissa Harris

SCO Education

Education Tour

2009-06-08T10:20:00.004+01:00

It's SCO Education's turn to tell you all what we're up to this week, and what with broken strings, wooden mutes and fancy sideways cello playing, I'm hearing the Highlands String Tour has been quite an adventure. Donnie Gillan and Lise Aferiat will be joining me here in Stornoway later today after a (hopefully) smooth ferry crossing from Ullapool. I've just arrived safely from Edinburgh on the teeny tiny plane, and am about to meet Alasdair Nicolson - our composer who will be leading the Composition Workshops here in the Western Isles this week. The team will also be working with young instrumentalists in Masterclasses. The weather looks lovely, our hotel is right across from The Nicolson Institute where we'll be working with the pupils plus a friendly local has already recommended several popular watering holes for this evening. We're off to a good start!!!!

Melissa Harris - SCO Education.

Ullapool

2009-06-08T09:41:00.002+01:00

A picture here of Loch Broom - now you can see why we love doing these concerts in the Highlands! This view was from the Harbour at Ullapool on Saturday, just before our final performance of this week's programme.

It was a very enjoyable concert despite slightly cramped conditions. We tried a couple of different ways of setting out the orchestra within the Hall - in our normal layout we only fitted in by being at a slight diagonal across the widest part of the room. But the disadvantages of the space were clearly outweighed by the impact on the audience, (we weren’t quite sitting on their laps, but almost) who absolutely loved the concert. One of our most committed audience, Alan Bevitt, a violin maker living on the Scoraig peninsula (where there are no roads), had come across in his boat, so it was a good job the trip was worthwhile. [Above; Brian (viola) and Etienne (French Horn) warm up at a windowsill. And as Chris looks on, Donnie wonders whether playing the cello sideways would create more room.

Everything went pretty smoothly. No strings broke, everyone remembered their wooden mutes, and none of them came flying off in performance. [In the slow movement of the Mozart Symphony 29, the violins are instructed to play with mutes. Alexander requested that we all use more traditional wooden mutes, rather than the modern plastic ones. The sound produced by the two is very different - the wooden ones being more resonant. This means we all have to remember to bring them on stage with us for the second half, and also that we have to wedge them onto the bridge hard enough to stop them flying off with the vibrations. Never a dull moment.]

Plastic mute left and wooden mute right.

Be Prepared

2009-06-06T15:25:00.008+01:00

In this profession, you have to be ready for anything, particularly when touring.
Venues are one thing, and they vary. If one night you are appearing at a Medieval castle perched on a volcano, it doesn’t mean you won’t find yourself on a Basketball court the next. We played yesterday in Kingussie’s Badenoch Centre. Here in the Highlands, you are less likely to find venues exclusively dedicated to the Arts - the larger spaces available often double as sports centres or community halls. It all adds to the variety - one doesn’t usually walk past people doing circuit training as you make your way onto the platform.

The audience extended us a very warm welcome, and had bravely come out to see us after an afternoon of torrential rain. (We had to eat our ice creams in the car.) It is not so often that the weather plays a part in the musical performance either, but in a hall with a metal roof, heavy rain makes a big difference. Alexander, our Director for this week, took the rehearsal while the rain drummed relentlessly on the roof and found himself stating that the dynamics he was requesting were “weather dependent.” In other words, if the rain continued through the evening performance, we would all just have to play louder.

But you see, playing louder can have its risks; in the concert, as we built to the climax of the Dvorak Czech Suite (Finale; Furiant) I played a huge chord and my E string snapped. This is an unnerving experience. My instant reaction is always to be grateful that the flying steel string didn’t take my eye out. (It’s as thin as cheese wire.) But immediately after that, you are confronted by the inconvenience of an instrument with nearly half its notes missing. What to do? You have the option of passing it to your desk partner, (the person sitting next to you) who in a terribly efficient way has brought a set of spare strings with them onto the stage, and having handed you their own working instrument, sets about changing the broken string under the glare of the audience’s fascinated eyes, and with the rest of the band playing on around them.
Finding myself onstage without a spare E string to hand, and also pretty close to the end of the piece, I opted to play to the close, but very high up on the wrong string. It feels a bit ridiculous. And then, with one more piece left in the programme, you have to walk off stage on your own with as much calm and dignity as you can muster, and go through the fiddly business of changing the string while everyone waits, without getting in a fluster. Usually your colleagues applaud you back onto the stage, which can confuse the audience - its easy for them to assume that you are coming back on to play a solo concerto or to have a go at conducting. Let’s hope my new E string stays on for the concert tonight, because I haven’t got another spare.

Stirling Stuff

2009-06-05T00:06:00.003+01:00

And now a bit of touring with a difference! Everyone in the orchestra looks forward to this time of year, when we do most of our Scottish touring. Last week we were in the South of Scotland, (as those of you following us on Twitter will know) and now we are heading north to the Highlands. Of course the sun beats down on us, the birds sing, the flowers bloom etc etc. So far we haven't had to get out our waterproofs at all.

Our first Highland Tour of this year began at Stirling Castle. Those of you with an eye for detail will notice that this is hardly in the Highlands. But with such a splendid setting, let's overlook that. Overlooking, in fact, being exactly what the castle was built to do. It has the most magnificent location high above the plain on an extinct volcano, which was handy, in the 13th and 14th Century, for spotting any military activity across the whole of central Scotland.
We were playing in the Great Hall - built by James IV in 1503. And really, in all its centuries, it can't have heard a Mozart Sinfonia Concertante more beautiful and inspiring than the one played by Alexander Janiczek and Jane Atkins this evening. (Photo above, rehearsing.) It's probably not an ideal acoustic, but one can't be too choosy in medieval castles. And it was certainly an exciting concert.
A photo here of Adrian, Sarah and Cathy enjoying a picnic on the Battlements. [I have to admit that I have been watching the BBC's Robin Hood recently - and was consequently imagining all sorts of desperate fights and brave escapes up there.] Also, a picture of Caroline tuning her timps, surrounded by leaded windows and candelabra. And finally, a surprise at break time - my teatime wafer biscuit with its Strata going in different directions! Perhaps it was something to do with the volcano.

Taking the Audience with us

2009-03-31T10:50:00.004+01:00

Leaving no stone unturned in our quest to bring you the full SCO touring experience, (up to the minute blog postings, the inside story, action photos etc) we have got a link for you to a press review today of our Budapest concert. Next time, why don’t you all come with us too?

Bowing Out

2009-03-30T19:00:00.004+01:00

So we’ve made it home. Rod and Hal successfully shepherded the tour group to Istanbul airport, with the aid of a handy long tube (contents a mystery to me, I now realise), and the only hiccup was a set of Clarinets left behind on the bus for a hair-raising half an hour - plus of course the problem of fitting all the souvenirs we bought into our suitcases. Between the India tour and this one, the ladies of the orchestra have built up a fairly extensive collection of scarves and jewellery. (Ais pictured squeezing that extra Turkish Lamp into her suitcase at the check in desk.)

Our last concert in Istanbul was also very enjoyable – although with a slightly dry acoustic to cope with. For this tour, without conductor and encouraged by Piotr and Chris, we adopted the policy of all bowing together at the end of the concerts. This was the cause of much entertainment on stage, because we were never quite sure when we were all meant to bow together, and when we should just stand still while the Directors took their bows. I imagine the effect from the audience often looked like a Mexican Wave on stage, with one or two people not making it down at all sometimes. The trouble being that if you didn’t happen to be looking towards Chris at precisely the moment when he called ‘All Bow’, and the message hadn’t whizzed along the line to you fast enough, then the first violins would already be on their way up from The Bow before you had noticed that you were the only one left standing upright on stage. And at that point you can either choose to whip forward and back again at breakneck speed, or you can just stand still and try not to feel silly, perhaps managing a slight incline of the head. It has to be said that it’s more embarrassing to bow when you’re not meant to, than to miss out on the bow altogether. Starting to bow and realising you shouldn’t involves having to cleverly turn the forward momentum into something else instead – checking your shirt is in place, for example, or that your feet are still there. We were just about getting the hang of it by the end of the tour – and at least it meant that however the bow looked, we would all be smiling as we left the stage.

The Edge of Europe

2009-03-28T21:29:00.002Z

As I write we are backstage before the concert in Istanbul. ‘Backstage?!’ you cry. ‘Not up in a rooftop cocktail bar, not buying silks and spices in the Grand Bazaar, not lying on a hot marble slab in the Hammam?!’ Yes indeed, we’re here to work, and I wouldn’t want you to think we had forgotten.

Back in Budapest the other half of the orchestra fared less well with their travel - losing ALL their suitcases in Frankfurt. Pip achieved a philosophical stance on the matter, adopting the slogan ‘Luggage is overrated’. We were collectively pondering whether the half of us that did have suitcases owned enough black concert clothes between us to kit out the others for the performance that night, but happily the luggage arrived in time to avoid that eventuality.

Three clever people avoided the airport chaos by taking the night train from Krakow to Istanbul. Lorna and Aisling from the 1st violins (and also Piotr) made the train by the skin of their teeth. (Concerts that start late and then finish with extra-long encores can play havoc with one’s evening plans, you see.) Passers by were entertained by Aisling turning her suitcase inside out - pyjamas on the platform and all - to find her ticket.

At the rehearsal this afternoon, there was a notably relaxed post-Turkish-Bath feel to things (we are currently a collectively clean and scrubbed orchestra) - drinking tea, a bit of chatting, and the Horn section taking a break from those antique Natural Horns to play with more up to date electronic equipment.

Adrian and Nick deserve a special mention for coping valiantly with a different Bass hired for them in every city - today’s instrument requiring a pair of pliers and eventually some gaffer tape.

Viszlát! (that's goodbye for those of you who don't speak Hungarian)

2009-03-27T15:43:00.008Z

This morning while Barry and the group went to the Sculpture Park, I treated myself to a traditional Budapest luxury, a visit to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths (right), one of the largest spa complexes in Europe. Budapest is blessed with an abundance of hot springs, and there are several thermal baths around the city. The temperature of the water at the Széchenyi Baths is maintained at 38 degrees celsius, which is just as well, because much of it is outdoors! Some people spend whole days just relaxing in the water with friends and family, or even playing chess.

As Barry mentioned, this afternoon we enjoyed a lovely cruise along the Danube. Luckily it is much warmer here today than it has been, so many of the group were able to sit out on the deck and take in the lovely scenery. We sailed under the city's four main bridges from the Margaret Bridge, in the north of the city, to the Liberty Bridge in the south. Our guide, Sarolta, told us that these bridges were all destroyed during World War II and have slowly, but steadily been rebuilt. Budapest has certainly been through a lot, and many members of our group have often commented on what a wonderful city it is, particularly in spite of its turbulent history.

Our group has had a fantastic few days in Budapest and unfortunately all that remains is to pack the bags, enjoy one last taste of Eastern European cuisine (which, by the way, is very tasty and I haven't had to endure any cabbage at all) and head to the airport in the morning.

I'll leave you with one last photo, taken from the boat, of the Parliament, because it really is stunning. Barry and I hope you've enjoyed our blog!

Red Dawn!

2009-03-27T13:31:00.004Z

Following a stunning performance by the SCO and Piotr at the glorious Bela Bartok Concert Hall in Budapest's Palace of Arts last night, the SCO patrons and Orchestra met up for a roof-top terrace reception. Catherine and I had a job persuading people to leave such was the intensity of the conversation and consumption of wine and grissini!

It was then a tired but happy bunch that set off in warm sunshine this morning for "Memento Park" on the city's outskirts. Here many of the communist statues that once dominated Budapest's streets, and people, have ended up as a reminder of darker days. I found the chap pictured above particularly frightening.

We are off on a cruise of the Danube this afternoon, so more later...

A Day of Heroes!

2009-03-26T14:54:00.009Z

The reason we are here in Budapest is of course to partake of the SCO's performance with Piotr Anderszewski at the Budapest Spring Festival. Dotted all over this fabulous European capital are symbols of the Festival, these rather large red chairs. I'm sure they probably have some deep artistic meaning but no one I know has yet come up with an acceptable explanation! This particular example is sited outside the Fine Art Museum in Heroes Square where, this morning, we enjoyed guided tours of Hungary's national art collection.

Also in Heroes Square are statues of important Hungarian leaders, including Arpad, who led the Magyars (the seventh of the Hun tribes to settle the Carpathian basin) and who founded the first Hungarian royal dynasty.

This photo shows Arpad (the chap on the horse in the middle) and some of the SCO Patrons listening to one of our excellent guides Annamaria.

We will blog further after tonight's SCO/Anderszewski concert at the Palace of Arts, but in the meantime here is another hero, Franz Liszt (one of Hungary's greatest composers) taking our Fundraising Co-ordinator, Catherine Wilson in hand!

Food Supplies

2009-03-25T22:11:00.003Z

Fresh from standing-ovation success in Krakow, half of the orchestra has arrived in Budapest. Don’t panic - we were meant to be travelling in two halves today. Lufthansa proved their cast-iron efficiency by transferring us through Munich Airport, (which is large), from one icy plane to another, with every single bit of our luggage, in 20 minutes flat. Once they had us on board, they didn’t wait around either - we were taxiing away from the gate before we had found anywhere to stow all our violins, or sit down.
[Those of you with a rudimentary grasp of Geography may have something to say about the logic of travelling from Krakow to Budapest via Munich, but I really couldn’t comment. And anyway, the other half of the orchestra are coming via Frankfurt.]

Along with our wonderful group of travelling patrons (see Catherine’s post below) we have also been making some culinary-regional explorations, and I include for you a story in pictures of our food so far.

1. Rotten fruit and veg for sale in the supermarket.

2. Pip produces a smoked fish snack to eat on the train.

3. Chris and Peter talk to our supper.

4. Peter insists on his 5 a day.

Monopoly anyone?

2009-03-25T17:23:00.009Z

The SCO Patrons trip got off to a very successful start yesterday. No flight delays and no lost luggage, much to everyone's relief (particularly those who were on last year's trip to Vienna)!

This morning our two local guides, Sarolta and Annamaria, took us on a walking tour of the city. We saw some fantastic architecture, and some very tasty looking cakes! The rain has held off for us so far and we've enjoyed sunshine and blue skies, but if you're thinking we're experiencing an early taste of summer, rest assured, it is absolutely freezing!

One of the highlights of the morning was the chance to see the incredible views down the Danube from the top of the Gellert Hill on the Buda side of the river. We really were lucky to have been there on such a clear day.

Hilly Buda, rather than flat Pest, is definitely the place for stunning views as illustrated by the photo below, taken from Castle Hill. The large building with the red dome and spire is the Hungarian Parliament.

After so much walking, we'd definitely earned a good lunch and, luckily, eating and drinking comes very cheaply here. I enjoyed a two course lunch (though i'm not sure everyone else was too pleased about my choice of Garlic Soup for a starter) for less than five pounds. However, in Hungarian Forint, that's about 2000, hence paying for things feeling like playing a game of Monopoly. It's very strange to have think in such large sums of money and I can only assume that the locals are all very good at maths!

I'll leave it there for today, but before I sign off, here's a photo of our Sponsorship and Fundraising Director, Barry Ferguson, relaxing outside the Palace of Arts with his new best friend.

Last night

2009-03-24T13:47:00.002Z

I'm a little short of prose today, so perhaps the photo can do the talking. With thanks to Orchestral Manager Hal Hutchison on keyboard, and Stage Manager Ronnie Herd on vocals - showing the rest of SCO how it's done, while out in the old Jewish Quarter of Krakow last night.

Concert Dress

2009-03-22T21:24:00.006Z

Hooray! The Technology has come to life again, and we have photos. We have just played our first Polish concert. The girls in the band room (orchestral-speak for dressing room) were having a problem with dress today - two members having left their black concert shoes back at the hotel. When a member forgets their concert dress, (surprisingly easily done) the mistake is usually only discovered pretty close in time to going on stage, so there is not a moment to waste. The message goes out and there is a general whip-round, all ladies having a look to see if they were wearing their black trainers today, or if they put that spare black vest in the bag. So, we club together and always manage between us to conjure up some sort of outfit. I have known a friend go on stage in a pair of flip flops and jogging leggings with go-faster stripes on them. Needs must.

The concert was a great success - and it's a good job we were dressed up, even if some of us were hiding black trainers under evening skirts, because the audience was very formally attired. The vogue for applause here seems to be to clap for a long time, unlike in India, and, while leaping to your feet in appreciation, to clap in a rather fast synchronised way.

Here's Maxi and Peter taking the correct International Transfers route through Terminal 5 yesterday. (See India Blog for alternative T5 stories.) And Chris George below, leading the Back-of-Coach Choir in a rather delicate 'Alleluia' canon on our way through Poland yesterday.

Long Journeys

2009-03-21T23:00:00.005Z

Here we are back on Tour! So far, things promise to be quite different from our recent Indian trip. For one thing, the summer sandals have stayed in Edinburgh, meaning that the choice of toenail polish was less of a priority during the days of preparation. I’m also not expecting mosquitoes; we have come prepared for snow. As I write we are on the Tour Bus and we’re driving North West through Poland. Our Buses are rather charmingly called ‘Mazurkas Travel’ and we picked them up from Warsaw‘s ‘Chopin Airport’. But where is everyone?! The airport was very smart but empty. And the roads are also almost deserted - although I might add, not without their potholes.

Only 15 hours after leaving home and we reach our final destination; the Hotel BRDA, of BYDGOSZCZ. As our new Principal Bassoon, Peter Whelan, pointed out, it does look a bit like a Ryan Air booking reference when written down. So far, we haven’t lost anybody, although inevitably we’ve lost one suitcase at Heathrow. No large instruments are travelling as cargo this time - we have the excitement of hiring Bass and Timpani in every city to look forward to. Somewhat miraculously, the precious silk North Indian Carpet (that was lost somewhere between the Duty Free and Gordon Ramsay’s in Terminal 5 on the way back from Delhi) has been returned at Heathrow, this morning, to its rightful owner. We‘ll see if it lasts the journey around Eastern Europe.

Apologies for the lack of photos today, due to technical problems. Hope abounds for tomorrow.

Eastern European Tour with Piotr Anderszewski

2009-03-18T09:10:00.009Z

The SCO has had a brilliant few weeks back home performing in Scottish concert halls, including 4 fabulous concerts with Louis Langrée and violinist James Ehnes (read review here). On Saturday 21 March, the Orchestra is heading to foreign climes again, this time to Eastern Europe with brilliant pianist Piotr Anderszewski.

Blogging from India was a great success (see archive to right to read all the posts), so Rosenna and Rod will be posting orchestra-news-on-the-go from Poland (Bydgoszcz, 22 March and Krakow, 24 March), Hungary (Budapest Spring Festival, 26 March) and Turkey (Istanbul, 28 March).

New bloggers, Catherine and Barry from our Sponsorship department, will also be posting news from Budapest. They are accompanying 34 SCO supporters to Budapest for our performance there on 26 March. As well as attending the concert in the Palace of Arts, they'll be visiting the Museum of Fine Art, the Memento Sculpture Park and going on excursions around the city, so you can expect a bit of culture from them!

The programme for the tour is as follows:
JC BACH Overture, Lucio Silla*
MOZART Piano Concerto in B-flat K456
MOZART Divertimento in E-flat K113*
MOZART Piano Concerto in C minor K491

Piotr Anderszewski, director/piano
Christopher George, director*

22 March Bydgoszcz, Pomeranian Concert Hall
24 March Krakow, Philharmonic Hall
26 March Budapest, Palace of Arts - Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
28 March Istanbul, Is Sanat-Istanbul Hall

Signing Off

2009-02-24T18:55:00.008Z

A final post from me to say cheerio and thanks for reading. I thought you might like to know that we made it back in one piece, with everything we were meant to be carrying, apart from two Silk Carpets that have gone astray. We were meant to be starting rehearsals yesterday for our next project but, what do you know, the conductor wasn’t able to make it because of Flight problems. (I am now getting confused and thinking about Flying Carpets.) So we ended up with one more free day to spend looking at our photos. Pip Eastop has set up a gallery of pictures from the tour if you would like to see more. And there is an article that I wrote about the tour in the Herald newspaper today.

We will be in touch when we get to Poland!

Blogging news from SCO HQ

2009-02-23T10:35:00.002Z

Hope everyone enjoyed reading Rosenna and Rod's India Blog, although do keep visiting this week as they may make a couple more post-tour posts yet!

Just to dispell some myths, although the Blog officially has 23 "Followers" it has in fact been visited by a much larger number of people! The Followers (or SCO Groupies as we like to think of them!) are just those who have logged in to follow it - thanks for your support guys! So, here's some statistics:-

The SCO's Blog has had 734 unique visitors over the past 3 weeks, making 1,914 visits in total between them
Our visitors have come from 41 different countries - UK, India, USA, Australia and Italy being the top 5.
61% of our visitors returned to read the blog more than once, with a quarter visiting between 9 and 100 times!

The Blog will remain live so you can come back and visit, or send friends here to see us.

The SCO's next foreign tour takes place between 21 and 29 March, taking in Bydgoszcz, Krakow, Budapest and Istanbul. The programme features the wonderful pianist Piotr Anderszewski performing two Mozart Piano Concertos - K456 in B flat and K491 in C minor. We'll have some more live Player Blogging from Eastern Europe, so be sure to come back and see us again soon.

P.S. Scottish audiences can see Piotr performing the same programme in Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow on 18/19/20 March.

Wifi and a Mouse

2009-02-20T20:14:00.010Z

As I write we are waiting at Delhi airport having come straight from our final concert. Last night there was a wonderful final party hosted by Mrs Amjad Ali Khan. We were all given gifts, as well as cocktails, so suitcases and heads have been a little heavier today. As you can see from the photos, members of the orchestra have been taking this cross-cultural exchange to heart, and have been enthusiastically sporting the new outfits that they have bought out here. For my part, I have been given a beautiful ‘Tika’ - a jewelled hairpiece that hangs down the centre of the forehead which I wore tonight for the final Samaagam - translated as ‘confluence, or, coming together’.

The other Indian item that many members have adopted enthusiastically is the Tabla (as well as the tabla players themselves, to be honest). After some members expressed to Tanmoy Bose their desire to buy a set to take home, he had several of the best instruments delivered to our hotel in Kolkata. So they are now part of the musical baggage train too. Harry Buckoke was even treated to a proper Tabla lesson as a special present for his 18th birthday on Wednesday.

You never know when an instrument might come in handy; at Chandigarh airport one bus load of members found themselves stuck in the vehicle with a door that wouldn’t open. After various manly shoulders were applied to the door with no success, it was Harriet’s cello spike that did the trick in the end.

So, we have had a very enjoyable final concert, with some fantastic moments in the improvised section of the Samaagam, all the Lab players, Mithilish and Khan Sahib being on top form. I think we all feel that it has been a privilege to work with such a wonderful musician as Khan Sahib , and to listen to him play so freely and expressively every night. The evening did have it’s farcical moments of course; we were honoured to have the Vice President of India as well as other government ministers in the audience, which demanded quite some Security. As we were herded around to make way for the safe arrival of dignitaries through the back door and our backstage area, Pip treated us to his selection cartoon noises on the French Horn.
We anticipate a good few hours in the airport tonight, so I thought I would share some photos of us passing the time - two Harrys playing each other at chess, and a heated moment between Pete and Clea in a game of Battleships. This particular airport has it’s challenges - it’s in the middle of being rebuilt, they don’t take Rupees in the Duty Free, and a mouse just crawled across my lap as I was eating a sandwich. I let out a pretty good scream.

Movements

2009-02-18T09:41:00.001Z

We have been treated to some interesting building design recently. The concert Hall at Bangalore was in the shape of a violin; the scroll end pictured here. And, after we all leaped enthusiastically out of bed for our first really early start of the tour (4am), we have now arrived in Chandigarh. This ‘new city’ which lies at the foothills of the Himalayas, was built under Nehru’s initiative in the 1950s and designed by Le Corbusier. Needless to say, it ’s very different from anywhere else that we have experienced in India so far. It is laid out in the image of a human body - the government buildings being ‘the head‘, the shopping district ‘the heart’, the parks and green spaces ‘the lungs’ etc. (Our hotel presumably is the jewel in the belly button.)

It’s roads (‘the circulatory system’) are a lot calmer too, and many of us have been out in the bicycle rickshaws today.

So - enough of this sightseeing and poolside stuff - what are the concerts in India like? They are the same as at home, and also different. As I’ve already said, they don’t start on time, often by some distance. There is always a loudspeaker announcing us as we walk on and off stage, rather in the style of a television game show; ‘And now, please put your hands together and welcome… the SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA!’ It’s quite fun. It is difficult to tell from the stage, (for one thing I’m meant to be concentrating on the music rather than looking at the audience) but they seem to come and go as they please - just up and leave when they’ve heard enough, or fancy a drink perhaps. When they stay, they respond very clearly to what they are listening to. It is true that there is much more physical involvement in the music from the audience than we are used to; sometimes they clap along to parts of the Samaagam, or they make beautiful dancing movements with their head and hands. Certainly they applaud after they hear something they like, even if the music is continuing.
As a performer Amjad Ali Khan is also very expressive physically - more so here in India than he was in our concerts in Scotland. I can’t go on without mentioning his toes; they move in the most captivating and expressive way when he is playing, and although he always covers them up with a drape when he sits down to play, they usually wriggle and dance their way out before long! At the end of the concerts, the audience (so far) has always jumped to its feet. But the applause finishes sooner than you would expect, very abruptly, so we leave the stage in a surprising silence. Apparently it is considered impolite to applaud for too long, or demand a curtain-call. I’m sure not wanting to keep the players from their appointment at the hotel bar has nothing to do with it.

[A word about Rod - in case you had assumed that he had fallen under a rickshaw or run off to the Himalayas with our per diem allowances - I can confirm that he’s still here, as some of you had been asking. No doubt he will have plenty to post for you soon.]

Contrasts

2009-02-16T06:47:00.000Z

While we were in Hyderabad a small group from the orchestra visited an orphanage run by the charity Scottish Love in Action, which cares for around 60 'Dalit' children (untouchables) and schools a further 90. It was a moving and uplifting experience for all involved. Met with balloons, garlands and fresh coconuts, there was a two-way concert exchange - the SCO members playing Flute Quintets and some musical games, and the children then giving their own performance which included dancing, recitation and even some martial arts. Pictures, (many thanks to Harriet Davidson) are of Judith talking with some of the children, and of Su-a leading a new friend in a dance of Strip the Willow. The visit took place the morning after we had attended a very lavish post-concert reception, and summed up for many the challenges of the Indian wealth gap.

Meanwhile, the saga of our travel by bus continues. Last night, on our way in from brand new Bangalore airport, one of our buses got lost. Our management very sensibly flagged down a couple of Tuk-Tuks (the motorised three-wheelers) and asked if they would drive to the hotel so we could follow behind in the big bus. After some length of time we arrived at a deserted train station and it became clear that the plan had not been a success. A car was scrambled from the hotel to come and rescue us.
Being later than one intended does not appear to be unusual in this country. In Hyderabad we came across a wedding party at a lakeside hotel who were waiting for the Groom to arrive; he had been due at 8pm and he appeared at midnight. It has to be said, he did make a pretty splendid entrance, in a silver veil and with money pinned to his tunic, on the back of a white horse, surrounded by drummers and dancers. His Bride was reported to still be in her bedroom getting ready. (Below; Vicky, Harry, Claire, Hal and Amira under the wedding canopy.)

A little more Light

2009-02-14T04:38:00.000Z

We played a great concert last night at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hightex Road, Hightech City. That’s it’s real address - I’m not making it up. Presumably it was made up by the Crown Prince of Dubai, who owns the place. It's in the middle of a large area of scrub land, is pretty sizable, and apparently modelled on one in Dubai. So we had an audience of 3,000 of which we were told no fewer than 1,000 were multi-millionaires! What a thought. We approached the post-concert reception with some excitement. (Pip's photo above.)

It was a day of contrasts. There were some beautiful moments in the concert - particularly when Amjad sang with Brian’s viola improvisation for the first time, in the middle section of Samaagam. The afternoon’s rehearsal had been a little less sublime. It can be a challenge to maintain a focused professional concentration, when there are either no lights due to power shortages, or blinding lights right in your eyes. Alison’s sunglasses either due to the lights, or her new role as a rock-star - I’m not sure. And the violas? Two different ways to play it.

And lastly Hal and Rod coping bravely with our backstage area just before the concert - the area itself being in complete darkness, but filled with hundreds of cables rigged up to generators and trailing across the ground, or down from the ceiling, or just down into the open holes in the floor.

On and off stage

2009-02-12T18:40:00.000Z

My mother has informed me that I am not the first member of our family to perform in Bombay. It appears that she came with her parents to be a bridesmaid at a wedding in 1966. And of course she and my grandfather played the spoons at the reception. So I thought perhaps it was time I wrote a little about this performing experience myself.

We played last night in Kolkata ‘Science City‘, a very large venue, quite space-age from the outside, and with a giant T-rex dinosaur at the entrance. Getting to the Hall is the first hurdle - quite literally in fact. Our hotel being just opposite the venue, across the road, you might assume this would be no big deal. But, on consultation with the hotel staff it becomes apparent that only lunatics would consider crossing this particularly busy road on foot. Anxious not to have a dead orchestra on their hands, they insist on a bus. After we perform a U-turn in the middle of the road across a convenient hole in the central reservation, I make a mental note to start inspecting for signs my hair is turning white.

The entrance gate is blocked by our audience’s cars trying to get in, and as a posse of men on foot try to clear a path for our bus, I wonder if this is what it feels like to be a rock star. We are shown backstage, and expect to start in 10 minutes. While we warm up, staff put their heads round the door to ask if we’re sure we wouldn’t like something to eat. A man from the company which has donated all the drinking water to us pops in to ask if some people would mind posing for a photo mid-drink.
It turns out there’s plenty of time to warm up, and after the Mozart and Beethoven in the first half, the Wind section leave for dinner, a satisfying day’s work accomplished. The strings and the Lab group await the end of the interval with patience and resignation, while being served delicious spiced tea. Once we’re on stage again for the second half (Samaagam) there is a little bit more waiting while Khan-sahib settles down on his platform, removing his gold watch, filing a nail and tuning his Sarod. The piece is received rapturously, and so we play the second half of it again. After that and a few more near misses on the road, it's back to the hotel bar for a drink. (Thanks to Pip again for Photo1.)

Life on the (Open?) Road

2009-02-10T19:20:00.000Z

Having just stepped, a little shakily, off the coach that has brought us back from the British Council Reception in Kolkata, the theme of 'Roads' is uppermost in my mind. (I would like to clarify now that my shakiness should in no way be attributed to the G&Ts served to us at the delightful poolside party.)
Travel by road, so far, has been a tale of two cities. (Do I mean two halves? I know, I know. Muddled metaphors, split infinitives, the lot.) Except, more specifically, I mean a tale of two times of day. Day time; of course, the traffic is famous. But rightly so! The noise of the car horns can be challenging to some delicate ears. I have to admit, the purpose of the hooting has not yet become clear to me. I notice that in Mumbai there are adverts exhorting the driving populace to limit their use of the car horn, with some success. In Kolkata, a city that prides itself on being the most musical in India, things are a little more noisy. I have observed that being stuck in traffic, absolutely stationary - I mean pull out the Stop lever to cut the engine, get out of the vehicle and have a chat time - is in fact the most peaceful moment on the road. So who can blame the drivers if, at night time when the roads are clear, they drive with a true spirit of freedom? Red lights? Why stop? It costs 100 Rupees if you’re caught driving through them, apparently, but I wouldn’t fancy my chances stepping out into the path of the vehicles to ask for the money. The freedom of the drivers seems only to be curtailed by practical considerations, like the rather abrupt discovery that the dual carriageway has got what looks like a house, and certainly a building site, in the middle of one of the 'lanes'. Happily, they appear to have good brakes.

A delightful image of Su-a, Donald and Harry all dressed up for the party this evening.

The Great Sub-Continental Timpani Odyssey

2009-02-09T20:50:00.000Z

Mon 9 Feb : Travel day, Mumbai - Kolkata

Last night’s concert was a roaring success. The auditorium was completely full and the audience response to Khan Sahib’s was fantastic.
A standing ovation from the Mumbai audience is a rare sight, apparently, but we were fortunate to enjoy one. No photos from the concert of course, but here's one of the rehearsal.

The sunset, caught during a quick trip back to the hotel between rehearsal and concert, was pretty good - although I suspect possibly the norm for here.

After a relaxing morning, the 55 strong Samaagam caravan sets off for Mumbai airport, and ultimately Kolkata. We’re spread across two buses, one car and a van and the journey through town is fairly painless – despite our anxieties about 2 hour traffic jams, we’re there in just over 60 minutes. Claudia & I have been wondering how we’d fare checking in the basses and more particularly the timpani: in Britain, the sight of a timpani flight case usually provokes a prolonged bout of tooth-sucking from airport staff, but things are different here and they’re accepted without much fuss. Airport security was much tighter than at home, and even the “front of house” area was under very tight security; nobody is allowed through the doors unless holding a valid ticket. All luggage is scanned immediately on entering the building, before even checking in, and then of course we have the usual scanning of cabin baggage as we’re used to. The fun was added to by a large TV unit filming what seemed to be a commercial for one of the local airlines – Hal, Claudia and I found several excuses to cross the set so watch out for us on Indian telly!

Immediately we went through security, I had one of those experiences which can only occur on tour. Having not eaten since an early breakfast, I was looking forward to a snack in the departure lounge (it was by now 1630). However, Pankaj (our local production manager and a vital contributor to the continuing success of The Great Sub-Continental Timpani Odyssey) and I were summoned by the airline and quickly whisked out onto the tarmac to supervise loading the timps onto the aircraft. We’ve flown these boxes before on 737s but irritatingly the dimensions of the hold & hatch can differ across the range. It turned out that the hatches on this particular one were about 40mm smaller than our largest case… A largish group of baggage handlers soon assembled and following some head-scratching, we realised that the wheels on the case could be removed. So, with the aid of a spanner, loading was completed, and fortunately for all the din of jet engines drowned our stomach-rumbles. I can’t imagine a UK airport being prepared to let passengers help supervise their precious cargo like this – and given the noise & stink of kerosene, I’m not too bothered about missing the perk – but the Jet staff really couldn’t have been more helpful or sympathetic. Although not sponsors, if their colleagues at the next 5 Indian airports are as good then they'll have played no small part in the success of this tour.

We've just arrived at the hotel, which is lovely. It's full of wonderful citronella smells from candles everywhere - of course at home we use them to deter The Dreaded Scottish Midge, so they're presumably also good against mosquitos... Although I suspect I may take a dose of a another traditional antimalarial this evening: quinine.

Roy Cross (Director, British Council Scotland) was at the hotel to meet us. As you know, we're sponsored for this tour by the BC, and Roy has been here for the past week or so attending the Kolkata Book Fair (at which Scotland was theme country for 2009). He's been keeping a blog and since he's just promised to mention our blog on his, the least I can do is return the favour.

And so have the instruments! - UPDATED

2009-02-09T20:26:00.000Z

Hurrah! I've finally managed to find a cable to download Hal's video of Peter's bass arriving from the airport. I should point out, before BA's lawyers are onto me, that the instrument didn't travel all the way from the airport like this: it was only the final 500 metres hotel-venue.

And while I'm catching up with Mumbai action - I loved this building site we walked past. We've all heard of cowboy builders, but piratical ones? Avast!

In the picture - and definitely not pirates - are Cameron, our sound engineer from Warehouse Sound and Claudia our tour manager, who works for Askonas Holt. Askonas Holt, who also represent Amjad Ali Khan and many of our other regular artists (including SCO's Conductor Laureate Sir Charles Mackerras and new Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati), have been our principal partners in developing this amazing project. We've worked closely with them, liasing with an Indian company, Showhouse Events who are promoting the concerts. Cameron, on the other hand, is based in Edinburgh and is the man behind the PA at the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert. In fact, he's the only person involved in the production or performance of the concert who has worked on every single show since it started in 1982!

Images

2009-02-09T18:36:00.000Z

Just a few photos to illustrate some of the things mentioned in Rod's post. A refreshment stop while out walking the oldest district of Bombay, the Bass travelling through Mumbai airport, and a rehearsal photo - to prove we're working hard. (Photos courtesy of Pip Eastop.)

And so have the instruments!

2009-02-09T02:00:00.000Z

Having endured a worse travel day out here than me, Rosenna has shown her fortitude and devotion to duty by such a prompt posting. So, spurred by embarassment into some writing action, I’m sitting in the hall with the laptop during this afternoon’s general rehearsal.

The small group of Lab players (the concertante group for Samaagam: Lise, Robert, Brian, Su-a, Lis, Ruth E and Alison G), Roy and I travelled out on Thursday. Claudia, our tour manager, joined at Heathrow and we arrived at our hotel in Mumbai around 0300 Friday having had a good journey, no delays and no problems with customs clearance for any of the gear which was a big relief. The others, flying out a day later, fared worse as Rosenna has already described. Since her last post, all bar one of the delayed suitcases have arrived, and we’re fully reunited with timpani and the delayed double bass (of which more anon): so everyone is all set for the work to begin.

We’ve been pretty busy; Saturday – the first day of rehearsal with full orchestra - and the first concert this evening were always going to provide interestingly steep learning curves as we and our Indian colleagues came to terms with how we each need to work. Despite a rainforest worth of correspondence there are always things which remain undiscovered until the day and so we’ve all had to negotiate our way around various aspects of concert presentation and stage management. All is now sorted, and we’re looking forward to our first concert which is a sellout. One of the tour sponsors, 100 Pipers whisky, is hosting a reception and we’re in the bizarre situation that we don’t actually know when the concert will start! Fortunately the orchestra are all in Indian mode and are happy to be on standby for beginning anytime between 1930-2000.

The stage dressing & branding looks very good and it’s great to see that the Scottish Government and British Council brands are well represented – both have contibuted generously to this tour and we certainly could not have undertaken it without their support. The British Council of course have a strong presence in India and we’re delighted to be meeting their local representatives who are attending all of the concerts.

Having left the Queen’s Hall on Monday morning, the timpani eventually escaped from Mumbai airport customs shed late last night and were in the hall for us this morning – much relief all round! Apparently owing to some recent change of regulations, the carnet wasn’t quite right. Much negotiation and some bank guarantees later, the customs commissioner was reassured that we will in fact take the drums back home with us and won’t try to sell them here. Although quite where, in this land of the sacred cow, the putative proud new Indian owner of some fine baroque timpani would source replacement calfskin drumheads, is another issue!

Peter, our guest principal bassist, was delighted to see his instrument had finally arrived by the end of yesterday’s rehearsal. It had survived a night at Heathrow perfectly but nonetheless he was rather less than delighted to hear how the instrument had made the final leg of its journey to the hall – we have a video of the moment it arrived outside the hall, and should get it posted shortly. Definitely one of the most remarkable sights I’ve seen in a decade of working with orchestras! But until I master the technology, you’ll just have to guess what happened…

Tomorrow we’re free all morning – and so Hal, Claudia and I, who’ve yet to venture further than the 500 yards worth of city between hotel and hall, are looking forward to a quick whirl of sightseeing. We leave Mumbai at 1400 for the airport and our evening flight to Kolkata (Calcutta).

We've made it!

2009-02-07T11:16:00.000Z

As I got into bed yesterday at 05.30, I was thinking about this business of worldwide air travel. When it goes well, it is so very easy. You start at a big smart clean space like Terminal 5, and stroll onto a plane. You sit down, you eat what’s put in front of you, you watch the films that are played in front of you, you fall asleep. After a trifling 8 hours, you drift off the plane to discover that you really are in India. Such a big reward for so little effort.
But then, we all know that when plane travel goes badly, it seems like a form of torture.
I did reasonably well yesterday. I arrived only a couple of hours late and without a suitcase. But I’m not complaining. Of the 31 other people, 2 double basses and 3 cellos that were meant to arrive with me, we lost 1 bass, 3 cellos and 11 people. Crikey. A combination of weather delays, a shortage of plane de-icers, steps, gates and buses lost us our first 6 travellers plus cello, and an unfortunate decision to follow the Exit signs rather than the International Transfer signs on connecting, lost us the remaining 5 people and 2 cellos. Adrian definitely wins the travel prize for making it to the Hotel on the right plane, with suitcase and Bass. (See photo.) His journey started with staff at Edinburgh airport telling him flatly that he couldn't take his Bass with him. Too big and too heavy, even for excess baggage. And at the other end in Mumbai, a bribe was necessary be allowed out of the airport. So bravo Adrian! A well deserved watermelon juice and Hindu blessing on arrival.

(Other photo; Fiona, Claire and Vicky in front of the Gateway to India this afternoon. We girls decided to take our newly-painted toes for their first outing. Having been bombarded with questions about mine, I will now reveal that they are electric pink.)

The Difference between Management and Players

2009-02-05T16:05:00.001Z

Rod has written you a lovely first-(past-the-)post Blog. Hopefully he's now in mid-air with the advanced party. And the Timpani. The rest of us leave tomorrow morning.

While Rod and the Management team have been shouldering the responsibility for getting us all out to India with all our equipment, we the Players have been making our own personal preparations. Not needing to trouble ourselves with Visas, Flight details and the like, we have been free to concentrate on other things. There have been several group outings to see the film Slumdog Millionaire, for example, and I for one would now like to learn how to dance Bollywood-style. (Perhaps I will be able to fit that into the itinerary somewhere.) The ladies in the Woodwind section have been leading us through a long list of novels by Indian authors, or based in India. Cue lively literary discussion in the Band Room backstage during Intervals and Tea breaks. We have spent a week's wages between us on Pharmaceutical products, herbal remedies, mosquito repellent and suncream, and I'm not really expecting to be able to lift my suitcase. The staff in the Chemist across the road presumably think I'm going away for a year. And then there's been the very pressing business of choosing the right colour of toenail polish to complement those summer sandals...

Nearly ready to go

2009-02-04T07:14:00.000Z

Hello, and welcome to the SCO's new blog.

Well, after all the preparation it's nearly time to head for India. The orchestra has a busy foreign touring diary, in recent years mainly around Europe, and certainly never before to India - in fact we think we're the first European orchestra to tour so extensively in India. So the planning has been an interesting learning curve for all concerned. As far as international touring goes, the schedule is fairly good - we have a few free days scattered among the 6 concerts and travel days, and mostly the flights are at civilised times. So I think we're all looking forward to seeing something of the 6 cities we're visiting.

The timpani are flying as cargo, separately from the group as they're too big for the standard luggage x-ray scanners, and their courier van should have made it to Heathrow by now, snowy roads permitting. It's rather strange, posting these big metal boxes off to yourself in a Mumbai hotel. We had some mixed experiences with the big instruments going missing on a Spanish tour in October 2007, and I imagine it's easier to borrow replacement basses & drums in Madrid than Mumbai, so fingers crossed everything arrives in time for Saturday's rehearsal.

All the other arrangements now seem to be in place, and it's time to relax and try not to worry about bad weather causing cancellations at the airport...

We leave on Thursday morning, after a full day of rehearsals in Edinburgh tomorrow.

Rosenna and I will try to post at least every other day, so hopefully between us you'll have daily updates to read. Don't be shy with contacting us, though - it's strange writing a commentary like this without seeing the reactions of our audience, so do leave us your comments.

more news (from me at least) to follow once we arrive on Friday morning.

Map of India Tour Dates

2009-01-22T15:33:00.001Z

Here's where the Orchestra is playing in India in February. Click on pins for dates and ticket outlets.

8 February, Mumbai Tata Theatre, NCPA
11 February, Kolkata Science City
13 February, Hyderabad International Convention Centre
16 February, Bangalore Chowdiah Memorial Hall
18 February, Chandigarh Taj Chandigarh
20 February, Delhi Siri Fort Auditorium

View Larger Map

SCO tours India, 8-20 February

2009-01-22T15:27:00.000Z

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra becomes the first Western orchestra to make a multi-date tour of India in February. The Orchestra tours with world-renowned Indian sarod player, Amjad Ali Khan, and will be performing his work, Samaagam, which explores the common roots of Indian and western music.

Amjad Ali Khan’s concerto, Samaagam, (meaning ‘confluence’ or ‘coming together’) for sarod, concertante group and string orchestra has been realised by David Murphy. Based on ragas for the different seasons of the year, the piece explores the common roots of the music of India and the West. Although the majority of the music has been written down, the performances also involve an element of improvisation from all the soloists. The performances open with Mozart’s Overture, Idomeneo and Beethoven’s Symphony No 8. The programming of Mozart and Beethoven alongside Samaagam explores the concept that while music from East and West may sound superficially different, they share the same underlying musical DNA.

David Murphy has been researching the notation of Indian music for Western musicians for some time, and this new piece of music has been two years in the making. In December 2006 the SCO LAB, David Murphy and Amjad Ali Khan got together for a meeting of musical cultures, instrumental styles and improvisation, culminating in the idea of an orchestral piece to be performed in the UK and abroad.

The Orchestra’s tour of India has been made possible though funding from the Scottish Government’s International Touring Fund and the British Council.

Tour dates

8 February Mumbai Tata Theatre, NCPA
11 February Kolkata Science City
13 February Hyderabad International Convention Centre
16 February Bangalore Chowdiah Memorial Hall
18 February Chandigarh Taj Chandigarh
20 February Delhi Siri Fort Auditorium

Programme
MOZART Overture, Idomeneo
BEETHOVEN Symphony No 8
KHAN Improvisation
KHAN Samaagam

David Murphy conductor
Amjad Ali Khan sarod
SCO LAB

Ticket outlets - please note that tickets go on sale 5 days before each performance

Mumbai
Crossword: Kemps Corner (Flyover) or Powai (Central Avenue)
Planet M: Andheri (Shoppers Stop) or Bandra (Hill Road)
Rhythm House (Kala Ghoda)
NCPA Box Office

Kolkata
Crossword: Elgin Road or South City Mall
Planet M: Mani Square Mall – Maniktala main road (E.M. Bypass); City Center Mall – Salt Lake Sector – 1; Tollygunge circular road – near New Alipore Petrol pump; New Market – Lindsay Street.
Science City Box Office

Hyderbad
Details tbc.

Bangalore
Crossword: Indira Nagar (12th Main Rd., Icon Mall); Bannerghatta (Shoppers Stop), Garuda Mall
Bangalore School of Music (R.T. Nagar, Behind T.V. Tower)
Chowdiah Memorial Hall Ticket Counter

Chandigarh
Details tbc.

Delhi
Teksons: South-ex Part-I Mkt; 22 Near New Market (Malviya Nagar); B-10 (Vasant Kunj Market); N-17 (Connaught Circus); 262 A (DLF Mega Mall, Gurgaon)
Music World:
(South Delhi) Ansal Plaza; Vasant Kunj; Vasant Vihar;
(North Central Delhi) Pritam Pura; Cannaught Place
(Gurgaon) MGF Mega city mall, Sec 14
Sirifort Auditorium