A busy day

I knew it that 45 minutes is just simply too short for a transfer between two flights at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. This is how much time I had between the official landing time and the departure time of my connecting flight.My flight from Leeds had arrived on time, I was the very first one out of the bus, moving quickly into the terminal building. By the time I was in the queue for entering the Schengen zone, only 40 minutes were left until the next flight would continue. And there was this veeeery long queue of visitors from China, which did not seem to move at all, and I had to place myself at the very end of this queue. There was a special line for "short connections", but this was closed between 12:00 and 16:30. Fortunately someone shouted "European Passports", and a new line opened, which I joined and which was very short then. Lucky, but the border control police officers seemed to have their training day today: very young officers looked very long at each passport and asked very detailed questions.

And the day had started so promising: first a few things done in the office, then driving with Gerhard to the Old Broadcasting House to the monthly Open Coffee meeting at 10:00. Then driving back to Headingley again, to give my lecture at 11:00. Before that, ordering the taxi and arranging for car parking. After the lecture, the taxi came in time and brought me to the airport, 1 1/2 hours before departure. Plenty of time, as the Leeds Bradford airport was quite empty around noon. The only inconvenience was that the taxi let me off 200 m before the airport, because otherwise additional £ would have to be paid: there is no more free passenger drop at Leeds Bradford airport. Greedy people! Now taxis stop before the airport, passengers walk along the road, and I saw several groups who waited for a pick-up from friends along the street outside. I can predict what soon there will be: any kind of stopping in the vicinity of 1000 m around the airport will be made illegal. Then it may really be better to fly from Manchester airport.

When boarding in Leeds, I was told that I had to change the seat - it was faulty. Ok, so I got a nice wide legroom space in the emergency exit row - which usually costs extra. Had my window seat, and dozed off a little after munching the savory snack. Arrived on time in Amsterdam.

And now in that Schengen queue, where I was inching slowly forward. Behind me a guy from York who was on my flight and also had to catch another flight. Finally my turn, after the officer carefully checks my boarding pass and the passport, I can go through. Now only the x-ray procedure, then I am clear and have entered Europe. The boards show my flight is already boarding - and the signs indicate a 24 minute walk from here to gate B26! I start running now. The Amsterdam airport is very big. I use the moving walkways wherever possible and walk fast on them; on the regular hallways I just run, pulling my rolling carry-on behind me. Reach the gate - no passengers are there anymore, but I am still in time. Go down the stairs, and am the last one on the bus. After I enter, the doors close and it drives to the tarmac where the next Cityhopper is waiting.

After that little exercise I can relax in the plane on the short flight to Luxembourg. Arrive in time. Weather is warmer than in Leeds, still some remnants of the weekend heat wave. At the hotel, they cannot find my reservation. But it does not matter, because they still have a room.

Then I take a bus towards the town. With me on the bus is another participant of tomorrow's meeting, whom I already knew from a few years ago - nice to see him here already. I get off at the Philharmonie Luxembourg in Kirchberg. Pick up my ticket, have a sandwich snack for dinner, then enjoy a marvelous concert: "Terezín / Theresienstadt". Anne Sofie von Otter sings songs which were composed and played by inmates of the concentration camp Theresienstadt. Very moving.

Back to the hotel, preparing for the weekly online chat with students at California Lutheran University (in California obviously) which is from midnight until 0:45.

Yes, this was quite a busy day. But overall very enjoyable. Tomorrow is the FP7 Call 8 Info Day. Will be again quite busy.

Lorin Maazel's Farewell Concert at Lincoln Center: Mahlers Symphony #8

All four performances of Lorin Maazel's Farewell concert had been sold out, when I first checked the web site of Lincoln Center for availability. But when checking again, just hitting reload every few minutes, suddenly seats became available. There was a problem with the web reservation - one could click on a seat in the chart, then it was reserved, but proceeding and actually doing the payment did not work. So I called and reserved my ticket over the phone.

The performed work was Gustav Mahler's Symphony #8, which I actually had never heard before. A great work, unusual, with chorus, also called "Symphony of 1000" because so many required performers.



A review of the concert is available from "Classical Source".

Concert: Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra

This season, the Leeds International Concert Season seems to have a strong focus on Russian music. This Saturday the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra gave a performance in the Leeds Town Hall. The orchestra also used the "classical" player arrangement (similar to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic). But they had the basses on the right, behind the 2nd violins, celli in the center. There were less bass players, only 6 double basses. This allowed the melody to come through more clearly.

Overall, this orchestra played excellent. They paid attention to the conductor Yuri Simonov, who conducted with enthusiasm and energy. Excellent timing, the orchestra played like a solid sound body.

The works: The music of Kachaturian's Spartacus Suite is well known, although many listeners do not know the composer, which is very unfortunate. Very nice melodic flow and rhythmic patterns. Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.1 featured the soloist Charles Siem who played excellent. Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony was the concluding work, followed by two encores, as the audience was very excited about this fabulous concert.

Preceding this concert was a brief introduction to the composers and the works, given by Anastasia Belina who showed some clips from YouTube - a first for these pre-concert talks.

Concert: St.Petersburg Philharmonic

I was looking forward to see again Yuri Temirkanov, conducting the St. Petersburg Orchestra in Leeds. Back in the early 1990s I have attended a performance in the Munich Gasteig, and it had been marvelous. At that time I had a seat behind the orchestra, so I could see his face, as the orchestra would. And what a funny person he was: he danced, laughed, made grimasses, joked around while conducting. I remember this very well, and I was quite impressed, although it seemed that the funny and light attitude had a certain price in precision: the orchestra had seemed to be slightly out of sync sometimes. But nevertheless, the sound and the musical performance had been great.

When going to the Leeds Town Hall on Saturday, I was quite disappointed to read that he was not able to be here - due to illness. Also a review of another concert by this orchestra during its tour by The Guardian expressed disappointment. However, I felt that the conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier did a very nice job too, as also the Yorkshire Post found.

The first work was Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Ouverture. Very interesting the choice of the orchestral seating: it was the old traditional seating of the strings, with 1st violins left, 2nd violins right, and basses behind the 1st violins (this is in contrast to the "American" or 20th century seating arrangement, which is from left to right 1st violins, 2nd violins, celli, basses). I prefer the traditional one, as it allows the violins to echo themes and motives, and provides a more balanced overall sound. One thing was weird: there were 10 double basses and 10 celli playing! This gave the music an overall quite deep sounding character. The violins appeared slightly weak and thin against that, and the melody appeared sometimes to be drowned in the bass notes. Of course, the sound emphasis it also might have been a result of my seating on the very left side of the galery, where the basses were quite close.

As I had noticed with Temirkanov's conducting more than 15 years ago, I also noticed this time that the orchestra took a wile to find its common tempo. However, they were well together in the 3rd work that was performed: Tchaikovsky's Pathetique. Not much to say about both works, except that they are "war horses" which always draw many people into concerts - the Town Hall was packed full. People applauded after the 3rd movement which sounds like a Finale... but then the real Finale came.

I myself was most impressed with the 2nd work: Prokoffjev's Piano Concerto #3. Phantastic to hear the wit and humor, the irony and temperament, and the deep humanism of this composer in this work. I had not heard this work ever before, so something new for a change.

No encore performance, as the orchestra players were quite exhausted after the 2 1/2 hours.

Brilliant as always were the introductory notes and remarks by Brian Newbould who gave a 30 min pre-concert talk. His comments are alwasy very clear and enlightning, and the mix of him playing themes on the piano and playing segments from a CD provide nice insights into the works.

This was also the concert where I have seen the most people from Leeds Met: Cath and Graham were there, also Dave and Phil.

Esa-Pekka Salonen in Leeds

This Saturday, the international concert season in Leeds started with a concert of the Philharmonia, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. I was very much looking forward to hear again this conductor, as he had been for years the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Sometime in winter 2005, he had given a concert of his own compositions in Thousand Oaks, which I attended. I had wanted to ask him then re. a joint project about computers and music, but I had been too slow in pursuing a meeting, and he had already left.

On the program was the Symphonie Phantastique by Berlioz and two works by Beethoven: the 2nd Leonore Ouverture, and his 4th Piano Concerto. I had not listened to any work by Beethoven in many years, as I felt quite familiar with his overall style. Yet at this concert I was quite surprised to hear the astonishing musical consequent compositional structure, which makes so much sense. In contrast, I still have difficulty following the musical thoughts of Berlioz. His orchestration may be brilliant, but I am not able to hear "what he means" by his compositions. Somehow like listening to someone who speaks a different language: I hear the sounds, but they do not make sense...

A problem interrupted the 2nd movement of the Piano Concerto: someone in the audience, sitting behind the orchestra, fell ill and fainted - the concert was interrupted, and medics carried the person out. The movement was not continued, instead the orchestra went rightinto the finale - and a few minutes later another one fainted, but this time without interruption of the music. There is a review of this concert in The Guardian (1.Oct.)

Concert in Leeds Town Hall

This Saturday, one of the last concerts of the Leeds International Concert Season took place. I really have enjoyed this season, attended many great concerts. This one today, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra under conductor Tamás Vásáry played four "war-horses" of concert pieces, that is very well known popular music which did not pose any risk of the audience not being receptive. The Leeds Town hall only had a few empty seats, it was almost fully booked.

The term "war" would apply to the first piece in a bit of a negative sense: Liszt's "Les Preludes" is a wonderful music as its own, but it has in my mind a negative connection: the joyous victorious fanfare theme that appears twice in it, was used from 1941-1945 in the German Wochenschau (weekly news reel) as the introductory "theme music" of the war against the Soviet Union. And since I have been very interested in history, this music theme creates in me an uneasiness, whenever I hear it. Poor Liszt - had he only known what his music had been abused for...

The 2nd piece in the concert program was the "Cello Concerto" by Antonin Dvorak, one of my all-time favorites. I never had heard it in a live concert before, I only knew quite well since the early 1990s the recording with Cellist Mischa Maisky and the Israel Philharmonic. When cellist Nina Kotova started to play her solo after the orchestral introduction, it seemed as if the acoustic properties of the Leeds Town Hall were not really supporting the sound of a cello - compared to the orchestra, her Stradivarius cello sounded a bit faint and had trouble to stand out on its own. However, the brilliant and emotional play by Nina was shining through anyway. Once I got used to the quieter than expected sound, it was a pleasure to listen to her phrasing, the vibrato, the wonderful singing music written by Dvorak for this instrument. At some times, the orchestra had a hard time to catch up to her interpretation.

During the break, a CD was sold with a recording of that Cello concerto (with the Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Litton), and Nina did sign the CD and concert programs. I briefly mentioned to her my interest in computer music and the integration of human artists with synthesizers - maybe there could be a joint work some time in the future...?

After the break another popular piece: Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. I knew this piece quite well, during my days in high school I had played some of it on piano in a transcription. The part "In the Hall of the Mountain King" was one of my more successful computer-synthesizer-based MIDI renditions back in 1999.

Then the last piece was Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite". I never had heard this piece in a live performance, but I knew it very well since more than 25 years. A splendid work, colorful, dynamic, with quiet and melancholic parts, and then with outbursts of energy. The orchestra translated the score very well into sound, and the conductor did his part on energizing the orchestra with intense gestures.

After the performance, three encores were given, the last one from Dvorak's Slavic Dances. In 1981 I had played this piece with my music teacher, on 4-handed piano. And in the years after that, I had also played it with my grandmother on her piano, when her hands were still a bit more flexible than now.

A great concert evening, with many memories for me back in time!