| Well, it's 5 AM and I can't sleep. Now, there's a surprise, eh? Anyway, maybe it's a good time to tell you about Amsterdam, our first stop. Those of you that are world travellers can go take a nap as this is geared for the uninitiated and maybe some of the younger readers.
The Netherlands is home to about 16 million people but it's really not that large a country, physically, so, they have adopted the use of trams and bicycles to relieve what could be a tight situation in Amsterdam. I mention that because it's the first thing you notice as you drive/walk around: the sheer number of bikes in the streets. They aren't super-duper, up-to-date models. They're very utilitarian and not fancy for the most part. In fact, get a load of this: you know how Amsterdam is built on a system of canals? Each year they find between 15 and 20 THOUSAND bikes in these canals from folks who either fell in and obviously couldn't retrieve the bike or folks that just disposed of them there. Another thing about the canals is that while some cities with them smell, in Amsterdam you don't notice any kind of smell because of they have devised a way to literally flush the water out on a routine basis and replace it with fresh water. Very nice!
There is a lovely music store across the street from the Concertgebouw (bow like bowtie not like bow to your audience). I picked up a Dutch edition of the Arban book, a method for daily practice by M. André, a book of Russian orchestral studies, and "Gustav Mahler: Letters to his Wife". The latter is fantastic and made up most of my tour reading. I'm not one for musicological books usually but this is sensational. As I was perusing the pile (which I was asked to do in order and turning the books over a prescribed way!) I saw a book of duets by our own Erik Veldkamp! Bravo, Erik.
The Concertgebouw is one of Europe's oldest and finest cocert halls. Mahler conducted a fair bit there and Willem Mengleberg became his biggest Dutch champion, conducting Mahler's music for him in that very place! It would have been fabulous if that had been the site of the premiere but this is not the case.
If you play the Concertgebouw, it is like the Musikverein in Vienna in one respect: you are relegated to putting your stand and chair in a certain pace and there's very little room to move if you want to actually follow the conductor. In fact, I really didn't see Osmo during the Mahler very much at all that night. It's not a huge hall. Very few of the halls on the continent are. The upper bacony area is bedecked with the names of the famous composers along with the names of Dutch composers I was less familiar with. It has almost a "square-ish" shape to it and the musicians sit on risers that go up a fair bit. The public is right behind you if you play trumpet and I got to speak with some of the folks directly behind me as is my habit. Might as well get to know your neighbors, says I. They were so close I actually could see, out of the corner of my eye, a lady's foot swinging in time to the scherzo! I had joked with them earlier that if they wanted to tap their feet to go right ahead, only make sure they were in time!
The Sibelius went very well. The violin concerto, played by Viktoria Mullova, was a quick substiution for an ailing Dawn Upshaw who canceled as a result of finding out she had the earlt stages of breast cancer and, obviously, to attend to that quickly. Best wishes to you, Dawn, and G-d bless.
The Mahler went very well and the Dutch audience was enthusiastic with their applause. Osmo was very happy to have the first concert be such an excellent one as was I. To have what is often the final venue for most orchestras go so well as just the first stop was, well... a relief.
Their were great restaurants (Palma, an Italian one comes to mind near the Hilton where we stayed) a visit to a very cool souvenir store, a visit to the famous "red-light" district (my, my!), a boat ride in the canal with a wonderful guide, and my favorite moment: seeing a little Dutch boy with a BASEBALL glove playing by himself. I went over and played catch with him and explained the proper grip and he obviously had no idea what I was saying but he was attentive anyway. Cute kid.
Time to get on the plane and get to the land of Eng.
Later,
ML |