Life of a conductor |
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 The Author
This diary is written by Lucia Noseda, wife of Gianandrea Noseda, who works and travels with him as he conducts across the world. |
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(Back to Gianandrea section)
March 2008
The BBC Philharmonic tour Japan
Sunday 9 March
Our trip starts at 11.30am at Manchester Airport: a flight to Munich and then the connection to Tokyo. Last night Gianandrea and the BBC Phil played a concert at The Bridgewater Hall, so everybody is a bit tired and ready to sleep on the plane!
Monday 10
After 11 hours flight from Munich we arrive to Tokyo Narita airport where the Japan Arts Agency staff are welcoming us. The journey from the airport to the hotel takes nearly one hour and we are very tired and happy to eventually arrive in our room and to take a rest. It's 1.00pm here in Tokyo while it's still 4.00am in Manchester. Luckily tomorrow it's a day off so we'll have time to recover from jet lag.
Tuesday 11
It has been a long night’s sleep and we are ready for a good breakfast. There is a nice big Japanese garden out of the glass walls of the restaurant, with waterfalls and little lakes full of big and colourful fish. It's a relaxing view to enjoy whilst having coffee. It's a lovely warm day and we go out for a walk.
In the afternoon it's still hard to be awake, so we take it easy and have a quiet dinner in the hotel. Tomorrow will be a tiring day as we'll travel by train to Joetsu for the first concert of the tour.
Wednesday 12
The sun shines again and it's nice to leave Tokyo by train. Heading towards the mountains near Joetsu the air is clean and fresh. After the concert we have a very good Japanese meal - Gianandrea is ready to order one of his favourite dishes, ‘shabu shabu’. The name comes from the sound of the thin meat slices cooking; you soak them twice in a vegetable stock that is boiling on the table and then you can eat them with different and tasty sauces.
Thursday 13
9.00am: We are already on the train back to Tokyo. We'll be at the hotel at 12.30 and have an hour and a half before leaving for the concert hall. Today Gianandrea and the orchestra will perform in the most important hall of Japan: the wonderful Suntory Hall! The concert is sold out and we are all very excited. I still remember very well the first time when Gianandrea performed in this amazing hall:
It was November 2001 and he conducted Mahler Symphony No.8 with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. As usual I left Gianandrea's dressing room five minutes before the concert beginning, and on my way to the auditorium I felt an unusual silence (in every concert hall around the world you can usually hear the public in the auditorium even when still outside), and I thought that the hall was deserted. But when I opened the door to go to my seat I realized that it was completely full and the Japanese public was reading the programmes and waiting for the beginning in a religious silence.
Tonight is a special occasion as Gianandrea is going to perform in this hall with the BBC Phil for the first time. The orchestra is ready on stage and he's walking to the podium... the silence is broken by a welcoming applause, the concert starts... At the end of Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique there is a long intense silence. In a magical moment 2000 people are holding their breath until the moment when Gianandrea slowly put down his arms and the players their instruments... A big applause explodes in the hall!
Friday 14
It's a rainy day. Tonight the concert will take place in an other important venue called “Bunka Kaikan”. We've been told that because of the rain and because it's Friday, the traffic will be very heavy; In fact it takes an hour from the hotel to the concert hall – a journey which would normally take minutes! Also today it's sold out and it's always exciting to play in a full house!
Saturday 15
We take the 9.57am train to Osaka. The high-speed trains in Japan are amazing! It's a sunny and bright day, as we leave busy Tokyo the landscape changes and the mountains appear like they are painted on the blue sky. At 12.26 we arrive in Osaka and a car is waiting for us ready to go to the Festival Hall for rehearsal, some interviews and the concert at 5.00pm. After the concert we have just enough time to return to the train station and to catch the 8.37pm train to Tokyo. Everything is perfectly on time: proverbial Japanese punctuality is a reality!
Sunday 16
11am and we are already in the car travelling to Yokohama, a nice city distant from Tokyo but only half an hour by car. The Minato Mirai Hall is nice and modern and situated in a big centre full of theatres, shops and restaurants. It's a pleasant sunny day, so after the rehearsal we can go for a walk around. There is a very relaxed Sunday atmosphere and many families with their children are enjoying themselves watching little shows improvised on the street to entertain the children.
At 3pm the concert starts. It's sold out again! Wonderful!
Monday 17
A day off! Gianandrea has some interviews and meetings but after that we can relax and have a great dinner at a Teppanyaki restaurant. There is a chef cooking only for our table on a special big hot plate. It’s a delicious meal!
Tuesday 18
As Gianandrea will be very busy in various meetings today I decide to go to Shibuya to visit the quiet Meiji Jingu shrine and then to have a look of the famous shopping districts of Omotesando and Harajuku. Tonight the orchestra and Gianandrea will perform in another beautiful hall, the Opera City Concert Hall. It's really amazing how many good concert auditoriums have been built in Japan. And what fantastic acoustics!
Wednesday 19
Today we fly from Tokyo to Fukuoka, a nice city in the south west of Japan. A good concert and tasty sushi afterwards! Tomorrow we'll fly to Korea - new country, new landscapes, new public, new food...
See past diary entries
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