It’s another dreary morning here in London, but the unspeakably perky BBC One forecasters tell me it’s bound to clear up later today, and stay at least partially sunny for the better part of what Brits know as Bank Holiday Weekend. Not that the rain’s been preventing me from getting out and enjoying one of the world’s great cities, but it’ll be nice to stop wringing out my pant legs every time I come indoors.
Speaking of my wanderings, a friend and I happened into the unexpectedly fascinating National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square last night, and were amused to be greeted in the atrium by a full bar and a DJ pumping out deliberately innocuous rock music. Apparently, UK museums have caught onto the same strategy for luring 20- and 30-somethings that the Walker Art Center employs regularly at its Walker After Hours parties, and while the Portrait Gallery gathering lacked the Walker’s impressive numbers on this particularly rainy night, those in attendance were clearly having an excellent time amid the photos and paintings of UK luminaries. (I had to stifle a laugh as I watched one particular college student, who had ignored the sign advising us to set our drinks down before entering the galleries, attempt to slam down the remainder of his cocktail before it was taken away, as he was led out of the Early Tudors room by an unfailingly polite docent.)
I’ve just got a few minutes to blog about today before heading off to our first rehearsal at the Albert Hall, which I can actually see from my hotel window, a leisurely six block walk away. I’m guessing that we’ll spend the bulk of our time on the Bruckner this morning, though we’ll probably have to save enough minutes for a nearly full run-through of Alisa Weilerstein’s Shostakovich concerto. Mainly, this rehearsal will be about re-familiarizing ourselves with the acoustics of the massive performance space, and also reconnecting with each other after nearly a full week apart. (Because of the hectic schedule of the Proms – a new orchestra every single night of the week – our stage crew couldn’t load our gear into the backstage area until early this morning, so even if we’d wanted to rehearse yesterday, there would have been nowhere for us to do so.)
Still, this kind of quick prep and instant recall is what they pay us for, and the rep on tonight’s program isn’t nearly as taxing for most of us as tomorrow night’s Berg/Beethoven 9 extravaganza will be, so we’ve got a pretty decent chance of making a good showing. After the rehearsal, I’ll dash off to central London for a quick lunch with an old college friend who practices Maritime Law in the UK these days, then dash back to the Kensington High Street to prepare for my appearance on BBC Radio this afternoon, just prior to the start of our Prom. It’ll be a hectic day, but with any luck, a memorable one.
Speaking of radio, I mentioned a few days back that both of our Proms concerts would be live on Minnesota Public Radio, and that you could also catch the pre-concert BBC broadcast online. So here, for those of you interested in listening in, is the complete list of live web streams and radio broadcasts that will be available to those of you back in the States later this morning and afternoon:
All times listed are US Central Daylight Time (UTC -6)
11:45am BBC Proms Plus Pre-Concert talk, with BBC’s Martin Handley, MPR’s Brian Newhouse, and yours truly, streaming live on BBC Radio 3′s website. The program is 45 minutes. (Excerpts of this conversation will be an intermission feature of the radio broadcast of tonight’s concert.)
1:30pm Minnesota Orchestra, live at the Proms. You can stream this from the same BBC audio player, but if you’re in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, or the Dakotas, you can catch it in HD radio quality on the classical music stations of Minnesota Public Radio. (99.5fm, KSJN in the Cities, or find your local station here.) Brian Newhouse hosts, live from the Royal Albert Hall. Program to include Barber’s Music for a Scene from Shelley, Shostakovich’s 1st Cello Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein, and Bruckner’s 4th Symphony.
The same broadcast info will apply for Saturday’s Proms performance, featuring Berg’s Violin Concerto with Gil Shaham, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, featuring the BBC Chorus. I won’t have time to blog again until after tonight’s performance, and depending on how drained I am, I may leave it ’til tomorrow morning. But I promise some new content by the time you wake up on Saturday. (Probably not the video I was hoping for, though – internet connection here has been agonizingly slow, when it works at all…) Enjoy the concert!
