Is that the President?

Well, what a nice surprise. After the concert in San Diego, we clambered aboard buses with beer and sandwiches. That’s not the surprise by the way, thats just everyday glamour on tour. The sandwiches were enormous with enough ham for a week of packed lunches for my kids, but I digress as usual. No, the surprise was that we arrived at the hotel in Costa Mesa at about half past midnight and it looked much like any hotel I have stayed at around the world. We had already had a long day travelling, playing and deplaning so most people went to bed, myself included, and what was particularly nice was that we didn’t have anything on until 5.30 the next day, so I slept a righteous sleep.
I awoke the next day with sun streaming through the curtains and I stumbled across my room to look out of the window. When I went to bed I couldn’t see anything, but now there was a glistening blue swimming pool which looked extremely inviting. I went for a run and then dived in (after showering of course). It was at this point that any thoughts of sight seeing left my head.

When I finally made it back to my room, I could see an enormous traffic jam on the freeway, and I was glad that I had made the right decision to stay at the hotel. I asked the guy on the desk if it was usually this busy and he told me that it was because Barack Obama was visiting town. Blimey I thought, we had better play well if we are to maintain the special relationship between our two countries, I hope he likes Prokofiev.

I ironed my shirt and polished my shoes and made my way to the rehearsal. There was a buzz in the air, as although we do occasionally get politicians coming to concerts, he’s quite well known.

Of course being a pro, I had to put aside thoughts of possibly meeting the President and concentrating on the music. I had to negotiate through another Classical symphony. Valery strode onto the stage in the fabulous hall with a big grin on his face. This is a bad sign for me as it usually means it is going to be quick.

It was. Just as the last movement started, he looked over at the woodwind and smiled. Oh dear, and I hadn’t fastened my safety belt. One added frisson of tension, like I need it, is that with the repeats in the last movement, there are five page turns. These all have 4 bars to turn before the most difficult bits appear. So far, I have managed to do them, but I have a reoccurring nightmare that one day, my music will fly off the stand. You’ll be the first to know. As we flew up onto the final 6 top D’s, Siobhan and I looked at each other and laughed and then my hands started to shake. I think its probably the same adrenaline rush as bungee jumpers get. 6 more of those left.

When I came off stage, I hoped that the president would have been impressed, but I hadn’t seen any massive security guards, so maybe he didn’t make it. But what’s this, a large group at the end of the green room all laughing and joking with someone and shaking hands. Could it really be the President of the United States of America come to see us?

Well…no, actually it wasn’t, but it was a leader of men. In fact our old, sorry, previous managing Director, Sir Clive Gillinson. I only joined towards the end of his time at the helm of the LSO before he left to run the Carnegie Deli in New York, but a lot of the way we work now is down to his leadership, and we certainly have a lot to thank him for. There were a lot of people who were actually much more happy to see him than Mr Obama. No offence to him of course. In fact when we are in Washington, I shall try and pop in and say hi. My parents house is called ‘Ty Gwyn’, which is Welsh for the White house. I find its aways good to have something in common as your conversation starter.

Chicago tomorrow.

More Stylish Travel

At this moment in time, we are flying up the coast to San Diego where we have a concert tonight before going on to Costa Mesa. It says on the schedule that this is a “Ryanair style flight”.

I have no idea what this means.

As it is St Patrick’s day or St Patty as they insist on calling him over here for some reason,(I thought she was a Charlie Brown character), I thought that a Ryanair style flight might be some kind of upgraded groovy charter for fashion designers and models. We of course would fit right in. However, now that I am wedged firmly in my seat and have been shown the prices for the drinks and ‘appetizing snacks’, I fear I may have misunderstood the concept somewhat. We all had numbers on our boarding passes and had to line up next to the appropriate pole with our number on. After standing around for half an hour I got bored and went to get a coffee, which of course got the queue moving straight away. I leapt back into my alloted slot and when I got to the front of the queue he called my number and I said “Bingo!”
“I’m just doing my job sir, please move along or we may have to deplane”

I have no idea what this means.

Maybe bingo is a terrible insult here, and I find the thought of somebody deplaning me rather unpleasant. Still, I am now on my stylish flight safe and sound with my plane firmly still in place.

We are leaving San Francisco and I think I have left a little bit of my heart there. We had a great time, such warm and friendly people and I have to admit to getting a thrill playing in Davies Symphony Hall. I tried to get a t shirt for my dad, sadly they didn’t have any but I did get a picture of me next to the “Davies after hours” late night concert series poster. They have a lot of pictures backstage of artists who have performed in my hall. There is a picture of Valery from 1990 and loads of other celebrities, I have uploaded a picture of some of them, which I’m sure the LSO office will enjoy…

I’m feeling a little tired today as it was a very long concert last night and I have to admit to enjoying some “Davies after hours”myself which was mainly libation based. The show began with No 2 which is probably the loudest symphony, and at times unrelenting. I wasn’t playing in that one but could still hear it thundering through the walls for 35 minutes by which time the audience looked pinned back into their seats. You could almost hear a collective sigh of relief as the pounding gave way to Beethoven’s Piano concerto No 5 with Volodin. It was fascinating to hear him play such a different piece after his stunning playing the previous night, although this time he used both hands for the whole concerto.

By the time we went back on for the second half it was already 10pm and jet lag was still lurking despite the backstage coffee which was the same viscosity as crude oil. But as ever with Valery at the front, no matter how tired we all feel, he manages to whip up a storm. We played No 7, one of my favourites, with its cheeky last movement and that fantastic melody from the first movement. Its one of those times when the sound of the band takes my breath away. The big tune starts off quite low and soars in a huge arc which make it completely orchestral as the range it encompasses would take you from bass to soprano if you tried to sing it. But the wonderful thing about it is that it is played in about 3 octaves at once from the basses right up to Sharon’s piccolo and the sound is immense. Valery said in the rehearsal he thinks it sounds like a giant bird soaring over the mountains. He asked us to make as long a phrase as possible and not to flap our wings too much! By the time the melody returns near the end of the last movement it is at its grandest and as I looked up in the concert, Valery was conducting with a big smile on his face, arms outstretched like a giant bird. We knew just what he wanted and I remembered the soaring birds over Alcatraz the day before. The audience roared their approval and we did a little encore.

It was some Prokofiev.

It has been 20 years since the LSO was last in San Francisco. I hope we don’t leave it so long next time.

More soon…

Backstage in Davies Hall, San Francisco