Holland Blog 1
Hello, my name is David Chadwick, I joined the second violin section of the SSO about a year ago and this is my first blog! Right now, the orchestra are in Holland on an 8 concert tour and I've decided to blog my way through since we'll be spending a lot of time on a coach over the next 10 days or so.
I've noticed that when on tour my responsibilities as a human being become diminished to eating/drinking/sleeping/playing. As we are such a large group, tours like this require a lot of planning and pretty much every last detail is organised for us by our brilliant management team (creep). From the moment I landed I became a lemming, utterly incapable of making any decision on my own. Funny thing that. However, this morning, in a rare burst of initiative, I decided to walk off breakfast and have a quick poke around the canal-side area of Utrecht, where we'll be staying for much of this tour.
Today we are off to Tilburg for our first concert of the tour. My guidebook says of Tilburg: "its centre bears the scars of unfortunate 1960s urban renewal schemes"...hmmm.
The programme, at least, is attractive: HaydnTrauersinfonie, Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations and Beethoven Pastoral. In fact, the programme for the whole tour is a good one – in addition to those already mentioned, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique & Les Francs-Juges as well as Walton and Elgar Cello Concertos. All will be with Ilan and Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey.
Finally, I shall be keeping my ears open for the Quote of the Day...today's is:
Shelagh Watson (our fixer): "this tour is quite civilized..."
Amanda Shearman (cello): "But Shelagh, it's only Day 1 – and we haven't even landed"
Editor's note – the same cellist later threw a birthday bash in her hotel room.
David Chadwick
