Salzburg Festival Blog 14 (5 Aug)

10.30 am Dress Rehearsal. We do the job… and well. This General Rehearsal has , for me at least ,a special atmosphere. We make small corrections at the end, with the public still in place. Stefan Rosu (manager of the Mozarteum Orchestra) introduces me to an American conductor who will take part in a two-orchestra project our Mozarteum orchestra will take part in as part of our Autumn USA tour. I would love to have lunch but the previous days exertions lead me to decide to rest before the evening concert. For the same reason I do not attend the Bach Choir’s performance in St. Peter of Thomas Tallis’s momumental 40-part Motet ‘Spem in alium’. This piece lasts for only 15 minutes, bit it’s demand for impressive resources ensure (like Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis) an iconic status. I would have liked to sing in this piece, as I did over 25 years ago in St. Mark’s Square Venice (with Clare College Choir Cambridge) on the occasion of my wife’s 21st birthday!