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Archive for July, 2009

Ivor’s blog

Friday 31st July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 9 (31 July)

Many phone calls regarding our soloist situation and various plans are made for possible scenarios including putting the Mozarteum Orchestra on standby for extra rehearsal with any new soloist. We expect news from Genia by midday. I spend the morning marking orchestral parts for future projects. 12.00- Bad news. Genia cannot sing. She must be careful with the incipient one. We understand but must now move fast. A few hours later Matthias has secured the services of the formidable Ruth Ziesak who has agreed to sing both concerts despite having a Lieder Abend planned for the Attersee Festival on Sunday night....

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Thursday 30th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 8 (30 July)

I go down to the Orchesterhaus early to meet Genia Kuhmaier our soloist for the forthcoming Mozart Matinee. We rehearse and she is singing beautifully despite having sung Beethoven's 9th Symphony the night before and feeling very tired. (She is also pregnant). After the Arias we play the rest of the programme in anticipation of the public Dress Rehearsal after lunch. I go over to the Festspiel Haus to meet my family for a quick lunch at Triangel. Then comes bad news my telephone from Matthias Schulz ( the Festival Concerts Organiser and No.2 to Markus Hinterhauser). Genia has gone...

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Wednesday 29th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 7 (29 July)

A full day of rehearsals for our Matinee. Rob Howarth - superb harpsichordist - arrives  having braved Ryanair (the only flight that would bring him in time to our rehearsals). The day is hard-working but purposeful. In between the rehearsals I meet with our designated new Orchestra Manager, Vera van Hazebrouck. In September she will leave Barenboim's Staatskapelle Berlin to join us. She is coming over the several periods during this Festival to prepare for our various upcoming tours etc. I feel tired after a hard-working but musically satisfying day, but is wonderful to dive to Krispl with Britta Burgschwaendtner...

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Tuesday 28th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 6 (28 July)

A morning  spent studying new  scores is followed by our first rehearsal with the Mozarteum Orchestra for our opening Mozart Matinee. It's an interesting programme with the quirky and virtuosic Divertmento K131 and the great E flat major Symphony  K543 framing two concert arias. The Horns are busy in the Divertimento  - there are four of them  and they have self-contained  music in both of the Menuets. The flute solos in this Opus are scarily fast but delivered with panache by our principal (Ingrid Hasse). A  brief swim is followed by a quiet evening in...

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Monday 27th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 5 (27 July)

An amazing day sailing  with friends on the Mondsee. Weather is great although there is not much wind. It is enough however for Sam to have great fun swimming along behind the boat. We drive back to Salzburg stopping briefly at our beloved St. Gilgen where we have spent  many happy weeks in previous summers. It's spectacularly beautiful natural setting continues to amaze. In the evening  Sam,Tess and I are treated of a gastronomic meal at the home of concert-master Markus Tomasi. He is a remarkable cook (and spontaneous, charming host) who somehow manages to prepare  an amazing meal after three...

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Sunday 26th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 4 (26 July)

A beautiful day and a free one. A rare combination so far this Salzburg summer. I lunch with family at the terrific Gasthof Schloss Aigen. Many of the customers were at last night's premiere  and were complimentary about the performance. In the evening Tess and I attend  Harnoncourt's concert with the Vienna Philharmonic. A gentle first-half of Schubert's waltzes arranged by Webern and Josef Strauss Waltzes (this felt like a very odd combination and confused the public somewhat-certainly insofar as to when to applaud!) was followed by Harnoncourt's intense and searching reading of Schubert's great C major Symphony. The opening...

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Saturday 25th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 3 bis (25 July)

We finish the last bars of Handel's unutterably beautiful final chorus -reminiscent of the end of J.S. Bach's Passions and I bring down my baton to show the end of Handel's brief but profound orchestral playout, the choir and soloists  freeze momentarily on stage before the lighting blackout, the Festival House is silent for a few seconds and then... wonderful,enthusiastic applause from the public who have been so concentrated through the last four hours. The performance has gone marvelously well. Christine (Schaeffer) and Bejun (Mehta) were sensational, particularly in Act 2 culminating in their glorious Duet. This Act, in many Handel...

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Saturday 25th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 3 (25 July)

I wake up early with  a sense of anticipation and a few nerves. Not only must I conduct the Festakt live on TV but also the opening Festival Premiere. It had better be a good day at the office! The Festakt  goes smoothly: the orchestra plays well-concert-master  Markus Tomasi in commanding form and Terry sings with aplomb. For all the performers it is quite nerve-racking to sit through many speeches (five in total) and then switch on for one movement of a symphony or an aria in the full glare of the TV lights and the nation's finest. In many ways, it's...

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Friday 24th July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 2 (24 July)

I rehearse with  my Mozarteum Orchestra in Orchesterhaus for Saturday's opening Festakt. Not a lot in terms of minutes of music but as always it must be good. The versatility of the Mozarteum Orchestra is so impressive. Today we have to prepare two pieces from  Handel's 'Theodora' for the Festakt; this repertoire, increasingly the preserve of specialist baroque orchestras, holds no terrors for our players  and very quickly we develop a well-shaped style and baroque sonority. I think the ability to develop a composer/style specific sound-world is as much a defining characteristic of today's best orchestras as an orchestra's  claims to ...

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Wednesday 22nd July, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 1 (22 July)

Salzburg puts on it's summer clothes-certainly meteorologically speaking. Glorious weather is appropriate for the final countdown to this, the most intense of Festivals. For today after lunch is the Dress Rehearsal  of Theodora, the first offering of the 2009 Festival Five soul-searching,stimulating weeks of rehearsal have been accompanied by what has felt like incessant rain. Our cast, directed by our inspirational and also tenacious director Christof (Loy) have certainly been able to concentrate deeply on this perhaps the most profound of Handel's oratorios. 1pm -the area around the festival house is filling up, as people take advantage of the sun to enjoy...

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