Salzburg Festival Blog 11 (2 Aug)

I wake up very early knowing it will be a long time before I see my bed again. Today we have the second Mozart Matinee Concert and in the evening a concertante performance of Theodora in Ingolstadt. This is a yearly event for the Salzburg Festival for the main sponsor AUDI and this year we are the final concert in their summer music Festival.I arrive at the Mozarteum at 9.30am and Rob Howarth, our fine harpsichordist is on tuning duty as Ken (Smith) has to tune for six different events this Sunday!

Concert goes really well. Mozarteum Orchestra on great form which as we are being recorded for future radio transmission is a good thing! Immediately afterwards I change as fast as possible and jump into the waiting Audi limousine. Sylvia Annrather (super efficient member of the Betriebsburo) has kindly organised some lunch for me to eat in the car and my driver Christa makes terrific progress (speed!) on the Autobahn.

Thank goodness the German traffic laws are different to the UK nanny state’s! In truth i was anxious about this journey beforehand, worried about the intense Sunday traffic. In the event we arrive in Ingolstadt in two hours- overtaking the choir bus which left one hour before me. The Freiburg Barock Orchester have less luck having set off just that little bit later and get held up in the heavy traffic. They are however still in time for our warm-up rehearsal which proceeds well.

The hall in Ingolstadt looks unpromising (not least as the backstage facilities are a building site-literally) but the acoustics are quite fine. The concert is a pure joy. The whole cast orchestra revel in their close proximity and the public hugely appreciate a concert that has had the benefit of six weeks rehearsal. The close physical contact between cast and public leads to a tremendously intense performance. At the end the public go ‘bananas’!! (Trite, coarse phrase I know – but sometimes it communicates well what happens at the end of concerts). There is a reception afterwards given by the appreciative Audi management and I meet with several dear friends from my beloved Munich.

Then another speedy drive back to Salzburg-although after such a long day it feels slower than the outward journey- and we are back in Aigen at 3am! Tomorrow we start preparations for the Mozart C minor Mass.