Ivor’s blog

Thursday 27th August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 33 (27 Aug)

Last minute errands: pharmacy, dry cleaners, scores and my office in the Mozarteum Orchesterhaus all demand my attention before my holiday begins on Monday. Last visit to Schloss Aigen this Festival time for lunch with Harold Clarkson. Harold is Anglo-Austrian, and the heavy-hitting head of IMG Artists International Touring. He is ebullient and constantly entertaining and we have business to discuss regarding our Mozarteum Orchestra tours. The evening performance of 'Armida' is rapturously received. Brenda Hurley (with new boyfriend Eddie, from her native Dublin) and I eat afterwards in Triangel. We are joined by Alain Perroux (Eva Wagner's successor as...

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Ivor’s blog

Wednesday 26th August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 32 (26 Aug)

Feeling tired after the exertions of last night and the weakness resulting from the stomach bug, I get up late, around 9am and take breakfast in the garden in Aigen. On such a day, the view of the nearby Gaisberg is uplifting. It's always inspiring even in torrential rain or swirling fog. Salzburg awakes all the emotions. I cycle to the local supermarket and bump into Clemens Hagen (cellist of the superlative Hagen Quartet) who is in fact a neighbour in Aigen. (As indeed are many musicians). His playing of the Schumann Concerto earlier in this Festival was by all accounts...

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Ivor’s blog

Tuesday 25th August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 31 (25 Aug)

I have slept a long time and feel well enough to take the general rehearsal for the Young Singers Concert in the Mozarteum. The music business is already in attendance, Matthew Epstein Head of CAMI International Artists is present and loudly appreciative of these young talents! As is Pal Moe-Casting Director of the mighty Bayerische Staatsoper and also Glyndebourne Festival. Pal knows all sides of this business. He has worked for Deutsche Grammophon, been Opera Director of the Paris Opera for the Hugues Gall buy ambien pills regime and advised opera houses in several continents! We finish...

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Ivor’s blog

Monday 24th August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 30 (24 Aug)

Rehearsals for the Young Singers project with orchestra. We work through the programme in a sort of order and the orchestra is impressed by the quality of the singers. We have made great progress but in the pause before the evening rehearsal it is clear that something I have eaten does not agree with me and Martin Hinterholzer-designated spokesman for the orchestra (and a member of our famous bass-section!) drives me home and I retire. Frank Stadler manfully takes my place for the remaining arias until the pause and Leo Hussain (incoming Music Director of the Landesteater-another Cambridge Music...

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Ivor’s blog

Sunday 23rd August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 29 (23 Aug)

Free day! I listen to a little of Robin Ticciati's superb matinee with my Mozarteum live on the Austrian 1st programme. Like myself (and Sir Roger Norrington before me) Robin is a graduate of Clare College Cambridge. We are all proud of the musical output of this small Cambridge College, in which all subjects are studied, not just music. The college has Nobel Prize-winning scientists amongst its Fellowship and other musicians emanating from its doors in recent years include harpsichordist Richard Egarr, director Andrew Manze and OAE concert master Margaret Faultless. There is of course the world-famous Clare College Choir,...

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Ivor’s blog

Saturday 22nd August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 28 (22 Aug)

I hear the eight gifted singers who constitute the Young Singers project of the Salzburg Festival. They sing through the programme we will present in a public concert next week. They have been here all summer and been coached brilliantly by Rachel Andrist, who is a stalwart of the Salzburg Festival since 2000, when she worked with me on 'Iphigenie en Tauride'. Until very recently she was chief coach at La Monnaie Opera House Brussels which is where I first met her (and incidentally Christof Loy). Rachel is superbly suited to this project, instilling professional attitudes and discipline into some...

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Ivor’s blog

Friday 21st August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 27 (21 Aug)

After the elation of the Premiere and the late night that followed I would have preferred a lazy morning, but it is not to be, for I have a long-arranged meeting with Landeshauptfrau (Mayoress of the whole Salzburg Region) Gabi Burgstaller. Gabi is a strong, feisty personality and unlike nearly all British politicians (since perhaps Chris Smith and Mark Fisher) is passionately interested in culture. She is proud of the Mozarteum Orchestra and the prominent part it plays not only in the Salzburg Festival, but also in the part it plays in promoting the reputation of Salzburg through its...

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Ivor’s blog

Thursday 20th August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 26 (20 Aug)

I attend to small affairs in Munich, have my hair cut, pay a quick visit to the terrific 'Manufactum' store, (I wish we had one in England) and pick up my post from the Bayerische Staatsoper. Then I drive to Salzburg. What should have been a ninety minutes drive takes the best part of seven hours because of an overturned tanker! Not only the UK has motorway gridlock. I am helped by two things, firstly Satellite Navigation and secondly Eva Maria-Wieser (Salzburg Festival Opera Director), who advises me on the best routes to programme into the Sat-nav. I arrive a few...

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Ivor’s blog

Wednesday 19th August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 25 (19 Aug)

A day away from the Salzburg Festival! Herbert Lindsberger, viola player in our Mozarteum Orchestra, Doctor of Music, and renowned chamber-music player is a leading light in Kitzbuehel's Summer Music Festival and has invited me to join an elite team of string players to play in Mendelssohn's terrific String Symphony- 'La Suisse'. We rehearse in the morning in violin virtuoso Benni Schmidt's house in Aigen. For me this is the first time in years that I can walk to work! I drive over to beautiful Kitzbuehel with Herbert, and we take a brief swim in the Schwarzsee before our warm -up...

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Ivor’s blog

Tuesday 18th August, 2009

Salzburg Festival Blog 24 (18 Aug)

I wake up late, a little tired after the exertions of the last week and enjoy an hour or two reading Gabriele d'Annunzio's 'Book of the Virgins'. There is little time left for reading in this Festival summer now, so I enjoy dipping into this slim volume of four short stories. D'Annunzio's work has been rather neglected of late, perhaps his scandalous personal life, egocentricity and not least his proto-fascist beliefs (which were well ahead of his time) have contributed to this. However he writes with flair and sophistication and one appreciates the reasons for his huge reputation (even...

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