This week - we are going big!

This weeks`s  Coop/BKG concert with the Sinfonieorchester Basel is one that is, for two reasons, a definite must. It`s not often that I`ll tell you this, so heed my words: go and support your local band, broaden your horizons and have a great experience at the same time.

Why is this evening so special in my book? The first reason is that we`re playing Mahler. Mahler`s music is for me something like an elemental force. Although many researchers have written volumes about his music, nothing can prepare you for the gut-level impact it has when you hear it played live. I`ve been searching for the reasons why  I love playing Mahler. I can only explain them in simple terms. Mahler`s music takes you through every fundamental experience you have had, now have and will have during your time on earth. It is deep joy and sorrow, exhaltation and deprivation, reverence, awe, playfulness, fury, hope, grieving and consolation.  I think you`ll find the complete gamut of human aspiration in his music. It`s also a lot of fun to play, because he knew  the limits of orchestral capacity and wrote music that is a very sensuous experience for the players. I guess I`d call it musicians`music. It touches my heart and stimulates my spirit.

Besides a fascinating and complex composer, we have a conductor who is, although in every way a larger-than-life figure, a quiet spoken and gentle man, one who enables us. 

When Dennis Russel Davies conducts us there is nothing we cannot do along with the very best. Figured it out? He is the second reason why these concerts will be extraordinary, because the work he does with us has nothing to do with the mere average. He listens and lets us discover what it is we have to do to make the piece work. There is no lording it over his subjects: he may be a benevolent dictator, but I still haven`t seen or felt the dictator part. Working with Dennis Russell Davies is the perfect partnership- he brings out the best in us, and we enable him to make music. 

We have every reason to be proud that Dennis Russell Davies has found his way to us in Basel: the fact that he was recently elected a member of  the American Academy of Arts and Sciences shows that it is not only my opinion that he is a man of unusual charisma and competence. Like Mahler`s music, he touches our hearts as musicians and human beings and helps us find the confidance we need to express the unspeakable and wonderful language of the soul, music. 

So you see, you`re getting a great package this week- it`s not just two for one, Mahler and DRD. It`s the dedication and enthusiasm of many, an absolute will to create that will make this a memorable evening for all participants. And besides- if you don`t go, I`ll never speak to you again.

Malodor - no "Maldoror"!

I'm having some slight difficulty with the latest work in our  

repertory, an opera by Philipp Maintz, to be premiered in Theater  

Basel next Thursday: it has nothing to do with the complexity of it's  

musical texts or the abhorrent tale of the ultimate devil in human  

form. Nope, it's got nothing to do with any of this. It's purely my  

legasthenic side, which tells me to pronounce "Malodor" when I'm  

reading "Maldoror": I promise you, I'm not doing it on purpose. On the  

contrary, I feel I have been quite privileged to have had a deeper  

look into the preparations being made for this coming premiere, having  

been present at some scenic and musical rehearsals prior to its going  

on stage- something new for me. The reason for this is that my eleven- 

year-old son is one of the two boys playing and singing the role of  

the child in this production. 

They needed a bilingual French-German  

speaking boy who could sing and bingo- he was in. It was quite  

touching to watch professional musicians grouped around a piano with  

these two kids, all learning their parts together. I enjoyed the quiet  

intensity with which Joachim Rathke, the regisseur, explained the  

boys' role to them, how he coaxed and corrected them, never using any  

tone of voice but the most collegial. Although he often bent over to  

speak to the kids at their face level, he never talked down to them.  

I'm more than grateful to have experienced the professionalism of our  

singers, who had to learn musical texts that would have driven many to  

desperation. It was almost humbling to experience the way they  

mastered this seemingly impossible task with charm and calmness. Why  

humbling? Because I found my viola part challenging, even though I  

have my music in front of me at every moment. They learned their parts  

- much more complex than mine- all by heart.

How does my son see the opera? He's very impressed with the scenery, a  

huge metal grid shaped in the form of a wave. He came home from  

rehearsals happy, saying how nice Michael - "he's the bad guy, Mama",  

is and laughing at learning how a faked slap in the face from his  

stage "Dad" works. But what he finds absolutely  coolest about  

"Maldoror", the scene that all the kids want to rehearse the most?  

That's simple: he likes playing dead.

AIDA on TV

All around the Mittlere Brücke in Basel there`s a bustle and commotion, a kind of energetic and expectant motion taking place. Left and right of the Rhine, large trucks carrying the names of national and international television stations are parked in close proximity the the river and to hotel "Drei Könige". It`s not even Fasnacht, but there`s something in the air: that something is Swiss television`s production of "Aida on the Rhine", which will be broadcast live. Tomorrow night, television sets all over Switzerland will be tuned in to Verdi`s opera in its Swiss setting. And guess who`s right in the middle of it? YOUR Basel Symphony Orchestra, playing from the ballroom of hotel Drei Könige, weeping along with Aida, triumphing with Radames, accompanying a cast- not of thousands- but of hundreds, in this epochal production.Try to imagine: camera and audio, costume and makeup teams, a full symphony orchestra, a backstage orchestra, a chorus reinforced with its extra members, one conductor and three subconductors, a chorus director, two regisseurs, the many soloists of the opera, extras, and the technical backup to support and enable a production which is taking place in several different settings at once. It is- I promise you- absolutely amazing and a feat of technical mastery whose equal we will not see again for a long time to come.

Besides the sheer mass of it, there are two other, for me, interesting aspects of this production: the first is that we musicians, although providing the musical framework upon which the drama is being unrolled, are completely removed from basically all the scenes where the singing is taking place. Every tone that is sung or played is being transmitted from one place to the other by microphone or loudspeaker. When Radames sings his aria "celeste Aida" from a boat crossing the Rhine, he only has audio contact with Gabriel Feltz, our wonderful conductor. Maestro Feltz has a monitor in front of him where he can follow the action, but I don`t think that either of them have visual contact with each other. And, in spite of "flying blind" as it were- it works. Not only does it work, but the quality is highly satisfying. This is not just a spectacle for the masses- it is what musical professionalism is about.

The second aspect that I find fascinating is that, during the whole production, while hundreds of people are working in the hotel to produce this very special "Aida", the hotel is continuing with its day-to-day activities. The personnel of the Drei Könige" continues to welcome guests, mix drinks, serve tea and cakes, make up rooms and all the while to be relaxed, charming and hospitable. In spite of a TV team rehearsing in the foyer, bar, on the terrace and in a suite, their show must also and does go on. This, too, is professionalism on its highest level and deserves to be mentioned and praised.

Tonight is the dress rehearsal in preparation for the Big Night- will the orchestra be tuned and ready at eight o`clock on the dot? Will we be able to keep the tempi attuned to the soloists and be synchronised in every scene? Will the weather hold? Although there are provisions made for an "Aida" in the rain, a starry sky and a clear view of the river would be ideal. Looking out from the windows of the ballroom onto the Rhine, illuminated by floodlights, I still couldn`t grasp the whole magnitude of the situation. Tomorrow night we will see the whole story in its context. Well, at least you will, if you have a TV. I`ll be sitting in the ballroom  with my colleagues playing for you. You can recognise me easily-I play the viola and will be wearing black.

I`ve been asked in the last weeks why I haven`t continued writing for this blog: it`s nice that you missed me, thanks.  I can tell you quite simply what`s been going on- exhaustion!  In China it was always easy to find an hour or more (bus rides, plane rides) for writing. Back in normal life, however, there are other things to do with the hours and never enough hours to do them in.

 I don`t  suppose that many of you out there realise how varied and  full the agenda of a musician in Basel`s Symphony Orchestra really is. To my knowledge-  and because of the very special structures involved in administrating this orchestra- we play up to six different productions every week. Concert programmes, opera, ballet, children`s concerts, CD recordings, TV productions- you name it- it could very well be on my schedule this week or next. And, as I said quite truthfully, they can at times coincide to produce weeks "made in Hell". Not that I`m complaining- our job is about as interesting and varied as could be and we certainly master every given situation with bravado. But let  me give you an example: on August 22, I left my house at 09.00 for my first rehearsal of the day. On that Sunday, I played  four outdoor concerts and two rehearsals (temperature 31 degrees) and got back home at 22.00. The following Friday, after spending the week completing a recording of Brückner`s fourth symphony and no break in between,  I left again at 13.00 for a bus ride to Bern where we played outdoors (temperature 12 degrees) getting home again at 02.00. You won`t find many (any?) orchestras whose schedule equals ours. It`s a great profession , but there are some sacrifices involved.  And  it irks me when people talk (and write) about what we cost  when they don`t look at the relation to the value they receive. How many of them would give service the way I do and gladly,  out of idealism?

So you see, if I get tired sometimes  it`s not from doing my job the way I  like to. I get tired  because I feel that the understanding of what- and how much-  we do is often limited. So please, those of you who click on "like this": come to our concerts, tell your friends about us. There are some really cool and exciting things going on. Thea last concert`s "Third Half" was a real treat and kept my eyes and ears open way beyond my normal bedtime. And, the "Casino Lounge" which was so beautifully conceived and carried out, would have been worth staying to the very end. If only I hadn`t been soo tired.

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