It’s not often that the Development team gets to travel
with the orchestra for a concert overseas, so when the chance came to hear
Britten Sinfonia in the world-famous Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, our
Development Director, Will Harriss, jumped at the chance.
Midday, Friday 27
February 2015: Off to Kings Cross to catch the Eurostar with the rest of
the orchestra. Everyone’s on time, our Orchestra Manager is busy handing out boarding passes for the train. The group is a mixture of chatting musicians, guarding
their instruments carefully – afterall, a musician without an instrument won’t
get very far on stage. Of course, some instruments can also be hugely valuable.
It can all make touring with an entire orchestra reasonably tricky for
orchestra managers – does an instrument need a separate seat? Can any
instruments be hired at the destination, and how will that affect the
performance? What instruments are required for which works in which concert
programmes?
This is all a new side of the orchestra to me. My role is
to raise the funds for the orchestra, to allow it to reach the highest of
world-class standards in concert halls across the world. But even complicated
funding applications seem to have nothing on the touring logistics of a chamber
orchestra. I’m busy pondering all this when we are allowed to check-in and find
some much-needed lunch and coffee.
6pm: We arrive
in Brussels, and tickets for the final stage of the journey are given out. I go
for a coffee with one of the soloists and begin pondering again the sheer scale
of touring an orchestra. For this one concert date we are taking roughly 30
musicians on tour, with four soloists, 28 singers from the excellent Polyphony,
and their conductor Stephen Layton. That’s over sixty people, and we are joined
by our Orchestra Manager – the unflappable Annabel – and Concert Director, the
equally unflappable James. Polyphony have a tour manager too – hello Fran – and
Britten Sinfonia’s CEO David Butcher and Artistic Planning Director, Nikola
White are already in the Netherlands for meetings, as they plan the orchestra’s
future seasons through to 2018 and beyond. The choir, too, are already on tour
for a prior concert. If you totalled up the annual ‘musician mileage’ by the
UK’s professional choirs and orchestras, it must be into the many millions.
It’s quite astonishing by any standards, but it also reinforces
the need for our environmental planning; for shorter European tours we aim to
minimise our impact through catching the train (as we did today) rather than flying, for
instance.
10.30pm: We’re
all checked into our hotel. The final leg of the journey was uneventful, and
the hotel is a short walk from the Concertgebouw, which will make tomorrow
morning a bit easier to manage for the players. Off for some food and a beer,
in the excellent company of composer Joey Roukens, for whom Amsterdam is his
home. We talk about his forthcoming commission for our ‘At Lunch’ series, and
it’s fascinating to hear about his recent and future works. Afterwards it’s
back to the hotel, and reassuringly the choir have all booked in, fresh from
their concert that evening.
What’s that? Britten Sinfonia’s name is in lights on the front of the
building? And on the posters outside? It’s a real thrill to see, and also
knowing that we’re playing in the hall’s ‘Saturday Matinee’ series – one of
Europe’s most prestigious concert series.
Inside the hall, I strolled down the corridors, and
before I knew it I was listening to Haydn’s gorgeous Nelson Mass. The hall
itself is unique and beautiful, and rightly has a place as one of the world’s
finest acoustics. Built in the late 1880s, it is richly decorated, with the
names of composers dotted around the hall in celebration. Some 900 concerts a
year take place in the main hall and its associated recital hall, to an
audience of over 700,000 people. It’s hugely exciting for Britten Sinfonia –
which 20-odd years ago was just starting out – to be on stage.
A bit later the players are getting to grips with
Shostakovitch’s tricky Chamber Symphony, which is being directed by Jacqueline
Shave, the orchestra’s Leader. It has a vitality about it – an urgency and
directness that is completely mesmerising. It’s just as well, given that it’s
also going out live on Dutch national radio, but I’m reminded again just how
special this band is.
2.15pm: Before
we know it, it’s time for the concert to begin. The hall is packed; matinee
concerts here are apparently always really well attended, and the audience is
both young and old, of all backgrounds. It’s lovely to see such a mix of
enthusiastic people, who simply want to come and hear interesting repertoire,
played really well. Polyphony are on triumphant form, too – they give an encore
(an unaccompanied work by Arvo Pärt, since you ask) at the close of the concert,
after which everyone is on their feet applauding.
4.15pm:
Backstage after the concert, there’s a palpable buzz about the concert.
Everyone knows it went well, and there’s a chance for the concerts team to
catch up with some of the players afterwards.
5.15pm: No
rest for our indefatigable Orchestra Manager. She’s still got to ship an entire
orchestra, instruments and choir back to the UK. So it’s into buses for the
journey to the airport. The concert was utterly thrilling – I’m biased but also
confident any of the other thousand or so people present would say the same –
but for the players there’s no hanging around. It’s back to Blighty to start
learning the repertoire for the next concerts. In fact, on the final leg of the
journey I asked one if the violinists what the following day had in store.
“Well…” she said. “It’s fairly relaxing. Leisurely
breakfast, then a few hours of practice, then I’m doing a recording session in
the evening in London…”
