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 , where we'll be staying for much of this tour.
Today we are off to 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: Haydn Trauersinfonie, 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 and Elgar Cello Concertos. All will be with and Dutch cellist
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
