The Lucerne Festival Finale

We woke up to a bit of a drizzle on this Sunday, our final day in Lucerne. But there’s nothing like a little Mahler to get you going in the morning, as the Orchestra met in the KKL for a rehearsal for this afternoon’s final performance of Mahler’s 8th Symphony. We are reunited with the cast from the Luxembourg performance, as our 8 soloists and three choirs have made their way across the mountains and into Lucerne.

This group now knows this work well, but each concert hall poses its own acoustic and technical challenges, especially with a piece like Mahler’s 8th, with off-stage brass players and the angelic soprano, Laura Claycomb now perched 100 feet above the stage in the 4th balcony. During the rehearsal, the two sets of brass players needed to be moved from the fourth balcony down the second, as the sound is just not carrying as well from these heights. The operations team rushed to move the chairs, music stands and monitors (from which to watch the MTT cues) to get them in place. The other noticeable difference from the Luxembourg hall is the slightly smaller stage space, as the risers for the Boys Chorus now took up some valuable percussion section real estate. But all the kinks are worked out and everyone is anticipating the tour finale.


Utilizing every inch of stage space in the KKL for Mahler's 8th



Can you spot your favorite SFS Orchestra member?



Now that's what I call offstage brass...the SFS horn section hanging out on the KKL rooftop terrace after the rehearsal

Today performance of Mahler's 8th was not your ordinary Sunday afternoon matinee. Not only was the concert closing the Festival (a big honor), but it will also be broadcast on national radio station DSR2. Microphones are everywhere to capture every nuance of the multilayered soundscape that this work produces. The crowd filled the lobby with great anticipation, many in black tie for the festival conclusion. As I sat in the Box Office lobby, sorting out today's tickets for orchestra guests and tour vip's, I attracted quite a bit of attention with my stack of valuable tickets, as I was interrupted by a half dozen eager patrons who asked me if I were selling any of my tickets. Seems that even the scalper's didn't have any for today. Now that's sold out ! From across the lobby, I saw a tall gentlement frantically waving trying to get my attention....great, another one desparate for tickets. I was right on the ticket part, but this local in need of a seat was Tom Hampson, the world renowned Baritone who had carpooled to Lucerne with the Zurich Opera Director to hear the performance. He is in Zurich singing Busoni's Faust. Davies Symphony Hall audiences can hear Tom Hampson in Mahler's Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn in May 2007, the performances of which will be recorded for SFS Media's ongoing Mahler cycle. Hard to refuse such a loyal fan, I gave Tom my seat and he was beaming as he ran in for the concert.

And what a concert it was. If you haven't heard Mahler's 8th Symphony performed live, you are definitely missing out. It is one of those magical musical journeys that has you smiling, in goosebumps, if not in tears (and as in Luxembourg, our two sopranos on stage teared up at the end, overcome by the sheer beauty of the 300 voices of the chorus and orchestra behind them.) It's easy to understand, I can only imagine standing right in the middle of this glorious sound that must hit them in every fiber of their being. The audience went wild. The usually reserved Swiss jumped to their seats and cheered the ensembles for a solid 5 minutes. Having had the honor of openening Luxembourg's concert season and now closing the festival in Lucerne, both with Mahler's 8th, our tour comes to a satisfied end. Everyone is all smiles as they know it was a special night. And one special thank you to someone who could not be here tonight, longtime SFS patron Gordon Getty, whose love of Mahler made this extraordinary project of bringing Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand to Europe possible financially. It was a huge undertaking on many levels, but one that proved an extraordinary artistic and cultural success.


All smiles after Mahler 8. The cast with MTT



Baritone Tom Hampson congratulates SFS harpist Doug Rioth. Backstage, Tom was overheard calling Doug "the best harp player in the world".... we think so too, Tom.

End of tour also means saying goodbye to English Horn Player Julie Ann Giacobassi, who is retiring after 25 exceptional years in the orchestra. This was her final concert with the SFS.


It's still early evening in Lucerne (I love these 5pm concerts) as I walked past a CD store and spot our new Mahler 5 recording, and I was reminded of a story from a few days back. French horn players Bob Ward and Jonathan Ring were packing up backstage after the Luxembourg concert when a local gentlemen approached him with a big stack of CDs. The gentleman was a horn professor at the local music school, and the stack of CD’s was the SF Symphony’s Mahler recordings. The entire cycle. He asked to speak to Bob and the entire horn section, and proceeded to tell them that he owns recordings of all the great Mahler cycles…Berlin, Chicago…but he thought the San Francisco Symphony’s recordings topped them all. He came to hear the Mahler 8 and wanted the entire section to sign each of his discs. Now, mind you…the orchestra is usually on a pretty tight schedule after a concert, but it’s pretty tough to refuse something like that. He left with signatures and he left happy.



Jonathan Ring and Bob Ward (seated) practicing Mahler


Speaking of Bob Ward….he kindly offers this special Guest Blogging entry about touring abroad from an Orchestra member’s perspective:

It's a different sort of experience being on tour - at home we all have our personal lives and when the concert or rehearsal is over, we head back home to see our families and friends. On tour, we are a more cohesive lot. When not playing, we’re wandering the cities in small groups in search of interesting museums, shopping, sights and sounds. Oh, right - restaurants too...

There are challenges at the concerts that we as a group have to accept - new acoustics, for one. Every time we get to a different hall, we have to adjust, individually and as a group. A less reverberant hall means we have to warm up our sounds and play things a bit longer and more connected in order to create a sense of smoothness in the sustained passages - in a boomy acoustic, playing shorter and lighter helps the inner voices be clearer to the audience. And we have to make this adjustment in about the first 2-3 minutes that we start playing the concert. Even with a rehearsal we are sometimes surprised by a hall at the concert, since the addition of an audience can radically change the way a hall responds. In a certain sense, not only are we each playing our instruments, but we are collectively playing the hall as well.

I have been a member of the orchestra for 26 years, and at the end of each tour that we have taken, I always feel that we have accomplished something special. It's wonderful to make connections with new audiences, perform at a high level, and show the folks in different cities why I think we are a wonderful group with greatly talented players. And a lot of that feeling we can bring home with us to San Francisco. I often think how incredibly fortunate I am to have landed in San Francisco as a 24 year old, and how much I have grown as a musician in those 26 years.


Bob is absolutely right. We have accomplished something very special on this tour. To our knowledge, no American orchestra has toured with Mahler's 8th in Europe and, in my humble opinion, none could do it better. The reactions of the audience, the press, and the presenters have all been singularly positive, reaffirming the artistic reputation of the San Francisco Symphony as one of the very special orchestras around.

Thank you for joining us on our one week tour of Europe. It's been a pleasure bringing the sights and sounds of tour to those back home and beyond. See you in Davies Symphony Hall or perhaps in your hometown on tour.

First concerts in Lucerne

It’s late Saturday evening here in Lucerne and we just finished our second of three concerts here at the KKL. Friday night featured a reprise of our Opening Gala program, (read the review of the Gala program) with violinist Christian Tetzlaff performing the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. He played the work with his usual clarity, technical mastery, and expressiveness, and was followed by Dvorak’s 8th Symphony. The extremely well dressed crowd filed in for a sold out concert, and did not leave disappointed. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take photos in the hall (very strict regulations here in Switzerland) ...but i was able to sneak one in.



MTT and the SFS performing at the KKL

Today’s concert began with the Ives (see sampled churchbells blog entry), and then pianitst Helene Grimaud grabbed the spotlight with an eminently elegant yet powerful rendition of the Ravel Piano Concerto. She was a little sunburned today, as she took a wrong turn hiking in the mountains this morning, and forgot to pack her sunblock. But hidden beneath the now slightly reddish movie star looks, Helene is an ardent nature conservationist, with a particular passion for wolves. In New York, she set up the 16-acre Wolf Conservation Center, an education center where wolves live and children come to study them. Helene explains a connection between her two loves, music and wolves this way, "people are afraid of what they don't understand, and what they fear they want to destroy. And, as with classical music, the best way to induce conservation is to get to kids." The second half of the program was the dazzlingly colorful Scheherazade by Rimsky Korsakov, and featured some really wonderful solo work by concertmaster Alexander Barantschik. After the concert everyone backstage was raving about his playing.



MTT with Helene Grimaud backstage after the concert

After the concert, Festival Director Michael Haefliger stopped by to congratulate MTT and the Orchestra. One is reminded that the Lucerne festival is quite a remarkable assembly of the world’s accomplished orchestral ensembles. Just in the past three weeks alone, we were preceded by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic. This afternoon, in the Foyer above us, I attended a press conference by Mr. Haefliger, in which he boasted of record attendance figures for this Festival and announced next year’s orchestral lineup to the press corps. The Orchestras chosen for the 2007 Festival are: the Boston Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and….drum roll please….. the San Francisco Symphony. Now that’s what I call the Big 5 !



Lucerne Festival Director Michael Haefliger congratulating MTT

Our engagement here this week is actually the first year of a three year residency at the Lucerne Festival. The SFS will return two more times in the next few years. And judging by three very sold-out concerts, local music lovers will be more than happy to join us for our special brand of music making.

In between the two concerts, the orchestra had the morning off. A few musicians took advantage of the glorious Alpine setting to go for a morning hike in the nearby peak of Rigi.



SFS musicians scaling the Alps. (l-r) Alicia Telford, Don Ehrlich,
Karen Gottlieb and Virginia Lenz



While they may try to enjoy the sights, tour staff remain constantly in contact with the hall and crew, to handle tour cargo and scheduling issues to ensure a smooth show. Tour Manager Joyce Wessling and Operations Director John Kieser setting up tour command central at 6000 feet.

The exciting world of cargo

While the orchestra takes the morning off to go on nearby mountain excursions or buy chocolates for loved ones back home, special Guest Blogger Tim Carless (SFS Technical Coordinator) takes a look at what it takes to make sure our cargo (instruments, music, stands, chairs etc) is with us every step of the way.


Cargo always travels separately from the orchestra, leaving sometimes 1 or 2 days earlier, and returning 1 or 2 days later. As cargo flights are not as regularly scheduled as passenger flights, and this can sometimes pose a logistical challenge. On this tour, however, we are blessed with a complimentary flight schedule.

Our story begins with the “Carnet” – the intricate customs document that lists every instrument, bow, mouthpiece and mute the orchestra members plan to bring out of the US and into a foreign country. The Carnet lists which trunk the instrument will be shipped in, the owner of the item, the maker of the item (Stradivarius, for example), the country of origin (both the maker and origin categories are often times listed as ‘unknown’ or ‘anonymous’, especially with string instruments), and finally the appraised value of each piece. The accuracy of this list is crucial. It is a blessedly rare occurrence for a customs official to ask to see the contents of a particular trunk. More often than not, the cargo flows easily through customs, depending greatly on the relationship a customs broker (our representative) has with the customs official. However, if the official decides to take a look, and finds that the Carnet is not correct, that official has the authority to impound our ENTIRE shipment and detain our cargo for up to 30 days before we are even allowed to question the decision. Needless to say, two or three individuals go over the Carnet with a fine toothed comb a number of times before it is submitted to our US customs broker, and before we pack the trunks. We have 424 individual pieces (violins, trumpets, clarinets etc., bows, mouthpieces, mutes, keyboards, cymbals, drum sticks and stands, chairs, sound shields, earplugs, podium etc) within the trunks, each of which is listed on the Carnet.


Guest Blogger Tim Carless recaffeinates backstage in between cargo issues


We encourage our musicians to place the instruments in the cargo, but some prefer to ‘hand carry’ their instruments on flights. This has become more and more difficult to do with the current airline restrictions, but some musicians prefer to have their instrument with them. Also, with the cargo sometimes not arriving until 2 days after the musicians, some prefer to have their instrument to practice on so they can keep in shape, rather than wait for the cargo to arrive.

The cargo begins traveling after the final concert in San Francisco. When we ‘load out’ from the concert hall, musicians pack their instruments and clothes quickly after the performance, and from there, the stage crew takes over. DataWatch ™ Sensors are places in 6 different trunks and they are locked for transport. Each of these sensors will take temperature and humidity level readings every 30 minutes until we turn them off and record the data (via serial computer connection) after arrival at the concert hall. We are thus able to track the temperature and humidity levels of the instruments during the only time they are physically out of our control. We like to keep the cargo between 60° and 80° F, (and our precious instruments like that temperature as well) and the sensors will alert us with a beeping alarm if we dip below or above. Trunks are then carefully packed into two 48’ trucks.


DataWatch ™ Sensors to monitor temperature of precious cargo


Many of our trunks are custom built to tightly fit in the trucks. Timpani are the first to be stacked in the truck, followed by basses and cellos – these instruments, for obvious reasons, but remain upright at all times, and the truck fills up quickly. From there, it is a puzzle of fitting pieces into tight spaces, stacking the lighter pieces on the heavier, and strapping them all down for safe transport. The second truck will fill quickly with wardrobe trunks and the more odd shaped pieces. When both trucks are filled and we have accounted for every piece on the Carnet (cargo piece numbers are shouted out and checked off as they go on and come off), the doors are locked and we head to the airport.

With a crew of seven, 31 wardrobe trunks are quickly wheeled off the trucks and placed on the cargo pallets, creating flat base on which other instruments can be stacked. Basses and cellos take up almost 2 pallets on their own. The pallets can be stacked to 108 inches high, and they are approximately 8 foot square. Another puzzle. Also during the unloading of the trucks, we check off each piece, and try to map each pallet as we stack the trunks. This makes it slightly easier to stack them on the return flight.


Hard working stage crew (l-r) Luree Baker, Dennis DeVost, Hal Soogian, and Vance DeVost unloading instrument trunks

The cargo is then wrapped in plastic shrink wrap, strapped down, and tightly secured under a cargo net. Our cargo flies in temperature controlled spaces on the plane. Other items we see on this kind of a flight, a Boeing 747 fitted for cargo, include fresh vegetables, antiques and collectors cars. Two of our stage crew fly with the cargo and are hopefully able to get some sleep. Upon landing in Europe, the entire flight’s cargo is processed through customs. The trucks are then loaded carefully with then instruments and another puzzle is created.

Upon arrival at the concert hall, the trunks are distributed around the backstage area of hall. The backstage area is posted with directional signs for the musicians (where to find instruments, wardrobe, bathrooms, stage, changing rooms, warm up spaces, etc.), and the stage is set for the rehearsal.

A collective sigh is heard from the technical crew as the doors are shut and the orchestra rehearsal is under way.

Travel to Lucerne

The orchestra arrived safely in Switzerland, traveling as a group via a charter flight to Zurich and buses to Lucerne, while the cargo traveled separately in climate-controlled semis, (you’ll learn all you ever wanted to know about orchestra cargo in tomorrow’s blog). Everyone seems to be in good spirits after a successful Luxembourg experience. After a gruff immigration officer asks for my passport for the fifth time, I hear an eminently more pleasant sound, the laughter of children behind me, and I am reminded that several orchestra members are traveling with family members on this tour.


Cellist Michelle Djokic and her son Nicholas waiting for bags to arrive



Acting Principal Trumpet Bill Williams with his wife Margo and
5 month old son Elias, hands down the youngest and cutest in our travel party.


Here we are in Lucerne, Switzerland, a painfully cute lakeside town on the shores of Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstädter See), surrounded by Alpine peaks, with small ferry boats criss-crossing the blue waters. Founded as an important trade center in the 12th century, it has such charming sights as the Chapel Bridge (first built in 1333) and the adjacent 13th century water tower. It’s hard to believe that in 1601, the town was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami, two words not normally associated with docile Switzerland. But all around you, the oldy-worldy charm of Lucerne quickly perishes such thoughts of nature’s fury.


Picturesque Lucerne: the Chapel Bridge and water tower



Tour staff get their first breather, l-r: Orchestra Personnel Manager
Rebecca Edelson, Technical Coordinator Tim Carless, and Tour Manager Joyce Wessling (the Queen-o-touring!) on the banks of Lake Lucerne


Our home for the next three days is the stylish waterfront concert Hall, the KKL (Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern, for those of you following along in German). Perched on a quite impressive lakeside spot, the modern structure is a highly visible part of the Lucerne “skyline.”


The waterfront concert hall, the KKL


Inside the KKL, the orchestra is on stage rehearsing repertoire for the next two concerts. One of the works on the programs is music from Charles Ives’ New England Holiday’s Symphony. This particular piece requires the sounds of churchbells. Now, the KKL has a lot going for it, but a collection of churchbells isn’t one of them. To produce this sound, the orchestra is “sampling” recorded churchbells into a keyboard to be played from the stage. Not quite the real thing…but pretty close.


Stage technician Hal Soogian monitoring the sampled bells


Soloists for the next two concerts are violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Helene Grimaud. While Christian Tetzlaff just performed the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Orchestra for our Opening Gala in San Francisco and the piece just needs some minor touch up for acoustic levels, a bit more time is taken on stage with Helene Grimaud and the Ravel Piano Concerto, as she has not performed with the Orchestra in several years. Davies Symphony Hall audiences can hear Helene one month from today when she performs with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the NHK Orchestra as part of the San Francisco Symphony's Great Performers Series (buy tickets)


MTT rehearsing Debussy's Jeux at the KKL in Lucerne



The lovely and talented Helene Grimaud posing for your's truly
between movements of the Ravel Piano Concerto


Everyone's in good spirits after a productive rehearsal


Logging onto my laptop backstage, I find a review of our Luxembourg concert in the San Francisco Chronicle. (read the review) It seems we were quite the hit.

From the "It's a small world file"... SFS percussionist Ray Froehlich and Acting Principal Clarinet Luis Baez were shopping for chocolates at a Lucerne mini-mart, when a fellow shopper took Ray aside and said "hey....you're the percussionist from the Tchaikovsky 4 video, arent you? (referring to our Keeping Score DVD widely available in Europe)." Ray was floored. The loyal fan loved the video and made his way to Lucerne to hear the Orchestra because of it. He'll really be thrilled in November when three more episodes are available. (Keeping Score)

And a final aside from the bloggosphere…a reader wrote in to say: "Oliver....I am Elza van den Heever's mom, sitting in Johannesburg, and how great to be able to follow the tour and see the photos. Thank you. I hope the performances in Lucerne will be a triumph!"

wow....soloists' moms emailing from South Africa about a San Francisco Symphony concert in Switzerland. That’s why we love the web.

Mahler 8 at the Philharmonie

I’m on an charter flight with the orchestra to Lucerne right now, enjoying my complimentary Swiss chocolates, but what a day yesterday! It was concert day in Luxembourg, and I think I mentioned yesterday that there was a certain buzz about our concert in town. Well….that was certainly an understatement. Our Luxembourg friends organized a lunchtime press conference for us, as they don’t usually have American orchestras touring with Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand. The local press showed up in droves, quite interested in not just Mahler 8, but also our Mahler CD cycle, the latest issue, Mahler 5 was released in Europe today, just in time for the concert. But they were really captivated by the Symphony’s Keeping Score project, for PBS, radio, the web and schools. In Europe, where orchestras are heavily subsidized by governments and are not very involved in educational activities in the community, seeing an American orchestra take such an active role in engaging not just its hometown, but an entire country with opportunities to learn and connect with this music, seemed a very impressive and farsighted undertaking to these journalists. Music and education writers from the main Luxembourg papers, Belgian and French writers, radio, and even the European heavyweight, the Frankfurter Allgemeine all came to learn about what the San Francisco Symphony is up to these days.


MTT holding court with European Journalists at the Press Lunch


Press attention is nice, but now it was time to deliver the goods….concert time. Our performance was actually the season opening concert for the Philharmonie, a special honor for this very busy and beautiful venue. We were again told “never have we had such a problem with ticket availability” (it's so nice to be wanted isn’t it?). The hall filled to capacity, the national TV network RTL was ready, press boxes filled to the brim, and the cultural and political heavyweights turned out in full force. US Ambassador to Luxembourg, Ann Wagner was celebrating her birthday today, and she decided to spend it with the San Francisco Symphony and Mahler. She was joined by James Hormel, former US Ambassador to Luxembourg, and longtime Board Member of the SF Symphony. Mr. Hormel traveled with the orchestra, returning to Luxembourg for the first time since he held the prestigious post in 2000, and also generously provided sponsorship for the Orchestra’s appearance here.



MTT, US Ambassador Ann Wagner, former US Ambassador
Jim Hormel and SFS Executive Director Brent Assink


So.....the seats were filled, the musicians seated on stage, the choruses in the terrace, MTT on the podium and Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand was under way. And what a performance it was. I was lucky enough to see the breathtaking performances of Mahler's 8th last season in Davies Symphony Hall, which Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News described aptly "remarkable, ecstatic, emotionally draining, almost unbelievably thrilling and spectacular (you fill in the adjective)" (read Rich's full review). Those concerts were very special, but this was pretty darn close...a 90 minute tour de force of emotions, with a tremendous finale that Mahler himself described this way: "Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound." It proved a finale so moving that not only was Jim Hormel spotted wiping back a tear, but soprano soloist Erin Wall (who sang absolutely beautifully) unabashedly had tears rolling down her cheeks as the final bars of Mahler’s stunning work echoed through the Philharmonie. It was that kind of a night. The audience response was boisterous, Ambassador Wagner commented that she had never heard the usually reserved Luxembourgians this enthusiastic. Happy Birthday Madame Ambassadeur.


The San Francisco Symphony and cast of Mahler's Symphony No. 8


After the concert, MTT met his fans and signed copies of the orchestra's latest recording, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, which was just released by SFSMedia that day in Europe. These Luxembourgians are among the very first to have the copies in their hands and enthusiastically snapped them up. Mahler 5 is available in the US on a pre-sale basis at the SFS online store and available as a download at iTunes. But a group of MTT's biggest fans waited until the bitter end, after all the Mahler groupies had disappeared, to get their own special photo with the Maestro. Can you say "Charlie's Angels"?...



Mahler 8 cast members Elsa van den Heever, Elena Manistina, MTT,
Erin Wall, Laura Claycomb, and Michelle DeYoung

Arrival in Luxembourg

After a whirlwind opening week in San Francisco (which included our Opening Gala and a special concert for local community groups), the Orchestra and touring staff quickly packed their bags for a one week tour to Europe. It sounds fairly simple enough, like going to Tahoe for the weekend. But when travelling with 125 musicians, 16 technical crew and staff, and packing 424 instruments in 141 trunks weighing 27,293 pounds….you get the picture. In this atmosphere of heightened security and travel restrictions, this takes some pretty serious coordination. Luckily, the SFS touring staff is quite experienced in taking an orchestra around the world and all went off without a hitch.

Arrival in Frankfurt, Germany, and then a three hour bus ride west along the banks of the Mosel and arrival in Luxembourg. When pressed, I must say I can’t name a single famous Luxembourgian (or is it Luxemburger?)…but I’m sure there must be some. After all, this country is over one 1000 years old. But the fact that it’s the 5th smallest country in the world (smaller even than Rhode Island) probably has something to do with it. And just as San Francisco can be a wonderful melting pot of languages, a single afternoon stroll on Columbus Avenue hearing Cantonese, Italian, Spanish among others, Luxembourg is a similarly diverse linguistic city. A walk around town means hearing many languages spoken. The small country is wedged among three bigger countries, Germany to the east, Belgium to the north and west, and France to the south. It actually has three official languages (German, French, and a Germanic dialect called Letzeburgish), all three of which are learned in school and commonly spoken. Luckily, most also know enough English to make the Orchestra members very comfortable on their travels.

While the musicians enjoyed a free day to recover from jetlag (some visited family, some toured the nearby sights, while others rested after a long day of travel) Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas spent the day rehearsing for our first concert, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Also called his Symphony of a Thousand, the work features three choruses, eight vocal soloists, 100 musicians and a conductor. Ok…..so it’s not a thousand, it’s a little over 300….but it’s still a lot of musicians to fit on one stage. MTT spent the day rehearsing the three choruses and soloists. The choruses are from Europe, and all are delighted to be singing with the SFS in our concerts. One of the choruses is from Prague, and left home at 1am on Monday morning, rode 10 hours through the night to make it to Luxembourg just in time for the rehearsal. They must really love Mahler.

Tuesday brought the orchestra into the hall for rehearsals. Performing in venues other than Davies Hall requires extra preparation. Musicians may be used to hearing certain things a certain way in their home hall, and performing in strange environs always tests their skills in adapting to new acoustics to make the work sound its best (more about the value of this later). The concert hall itself is almost brand new. The Salle de concerts Grande-Duchesse Josephine-Charlotte (we just call it the Philharmonic) has been open a little over a year and is quite a stunning building, curved lines and natural light throughout. Once inside, the hall is moderate in size, only 1300 seats (about half of Davies Symphony Hall) which makes this concert the toughest ticket in town by far. We may well be the first American orchestra ever to tour with Mahler 8, and the buzz around town has definitely been noticeable. Inside the hall, the acoustics are quite favorable, intimate and warm and everyone seems to enjoy this new venue. The hall definitely has all the creature comforts a visiting orchestra would need, and those of us blogging are thrilled to find that it’s a big wireless hotspot! Between our laptops and Blackberries, musicians and staff are happily well connected with everyone back home.

Here are some photos from our first two days in Luxembourg:


A view from the Fortress built in 963 that founded the country.




The striking facade of the new Philharmonie.



MTT giving some advice to a few members of the Swiss
children's chorus singing in Mahler's Symphony No. 8.



Rehearsals for Mahler 8: two small groups of brass players are
scattered throughout the hall. Not a bad view of the show.



Rehearsal for Mahler's Symphony No. 8 for 100 orchestra members
3 choruses totaling 200 singers, 8 vocal soloists and one MTT.

Tour Schedule

2006 EUROPEAN TOUR
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director

Luxembourg

Wednesday, September 13 at 8:00 p.m.
Salle de Concerts Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte

PROGRAM:Mahler / Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, Symphony of a Thousand

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Erin Wall, soprano I
Elza van den Heever, soprano II
Laura Claycomb, soprano III
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano I
Elena Manistina, mezzo-soprano II
Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor
James Johnson, bass-baritone
Raymond Aceto, bass
Bamberg Symphony Chorus
Prague Philharmonic Chorus
Basel Children’s Chorus
San Francisco Symphony

-------------------------------------------------------

Lucerne, Switzerland

Friday, September 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Lucerne Festival
Kultur und Kongresszentrum

PROGRAM:
Debussy / Jeux
Stravinsky / Violin Concerto in D major
Dvořák / Symphony No. 8 in G major, Opus 88

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
San Francisco Symphony

Saturday, September 16 at 6:30 p.m.
Lucerne Festival
Kultur und Kongresszentrum

PROGRAM:

Ives / Thanksgiving and Forefathers’ Day from New England Holidays Symphony
Ravel / Piano Concerto in G major
Rimsky-Korsakov / Scheherazade, Opus 35

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Hélène Grimaud, piano
San Francisco Symphony




Sunday, September 17 at 5:00 p.m.
Lucerne Festival
Kultur und Kongresszentrum

PROGRAM:Mahler / Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, Symphony of a Thousand

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Erin Wall, soprano I
Elza van den Heever, soprano II
Laura Claycomb, soprano III
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano I
Elena Manistina, mezzo-soprano II
Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor
James Johnson, bass-baritone
Raymond Aceto, bass
Bamberg Symphony Chorus
Prague Philharmonic Chorus
Basel Children’s Chorus
San Francisco Symphony