The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has made many trips to cities across the country throughout its 30-year history, yet presents most of its concerts in the Bay Area. While that’s wonderful news for early-music lovers who live in this area, the ensemble’s just-completed four-city Chicago/East Coast tour has let more people across the country know just how great, and fun, the PBO is. It also made it perfectly clear that, according to natural-horn player R. J. Kelley, “They won’t forget us anytime soon.”
Musically, the tour was a resounding success. The orchestra was joined by singers Dominique Labelle, Yulia van Doren, Diana Moore, Clint van der Linde, and Wolf Matthias Friedrich as they performed two repertoires. Handel’s opera Orlando was the featured piece at the Ravinia Festival near Chicago, at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, and at Tanglewood, while various pieces by Handel, Vivaldi, and Corelli made up the program at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut. The venues were packed, the audiences were enthusiastic about the music they heard, and reviewers praised the sound and the sheer joy of the performers.
Musicians called the tour an incredible bonding experience.The musicians themselves were equally wowed by the audiences, the halls they played in, and the singers who joined them. Violinist Lisa Grodin calls the concerts the best they’ve ever given. “Different venues are a challenge,” she notes, “but you hear everything in a different way and it makes you better. You sound your best.” She describes just bounding out of New York’s Alice Tully Hall after the concert because it was so great. Kelley agrees, calling the tour an unqualified success. “That always comes out in the music, and it feeds on itself.”
While Grodin was onstage continually during all the concerts, Kelley notes that during performances of Orlando the part of the horns is tiny; small but significant and indispensible is how he describes it. “We go on 20 minutes into the first act and are off in 26 minutes.” But in Connecticut, “the horns were on the hot seat.” Still, that doesn’t mean that the performances weren’t without their moments. He was pulled up front when mezzo-soprano Diana Moore performed “Vultus tui vago splendori” from Juditha Triumphus. He confesses he wasn’t 100 percent confident during rehearsals, but that it all came together. He also admits that he left the stage after that number, as Moore had two more arias to perform, only to have both the stage manager and Music Director Nicholas McGegan go backstage to look for him to join in a bow. “When the maestro leaves the stage to look for you, it’s not good!”
Crashing the Party
The postconcert receptions also made an impression on the musicians, though Grodin and Concertmaster Elizabeth Blumenstock almost didn’t make the one in Lincoln Center. They had changed to their “bus” clothes after the performance, as they were to travel to Norfolk that same night. When they went to ask about the reception, the ushers kindly informed them that it was for the performers only. They managed to convince them they were performers, despite their clothing. By contrast, the reception in Norfolk was held in a renovated hipped-roof barn, complete with chandeliers that could be pulled up into the loft area for winter badminton tournaments. That reception particularly resonated with Kelly, not only for the incredible restoration of the barn but also for the two tubs of brews available.
For the PBO, it seems, this was the perfect tour and a perfect setup for its fall season.Still, any tour is more than just rehearsals, performance, and travel. Both musicians called the tour an incredible bonding experience, especially between the long-time performers and newer members of the ensemble. The travel group also included some family members and board members. Along the way, there were visits from other performers who had worked with the orchestra as a whole or with individual members in the past. One of their free days was scheduled for New York City, where Grodin bicycled through Central Park and to the waterfront, a quartet from the orchestra performed a concert, players attended museums, musicians went outside for bike rides and jogs or stayed in to relax, and Kelley went to his “regular” job at The Lion King.
And while the tour was remarkably trouble-free, a few stories are still circulating from the road. Although all the musicians are veterans at traveling with their instruments, the logistics of moving that many people and instruments could easily have resulted in problems. Luckily, no instruments were harmed in this tour, nor were any left behind. It was a close call, though, when the cellos weren’t allowed to board first on one flight. The bulkhead seats, the only place where these instruments fit, were already taken by earlier boarders who didn’t want to relinquish the leg-room. Even that was eventually resolved, thanks to the airline’s eventual offer of vouchers for future travel. (The orchestra will not be starring in an upcoming episode of the reality show Airline.)
Other interesting moments occurred, such as discovering what everyone did with their time off, answering questions from fellow travelers (“Are you a band?”), or checking out the photos of the orchestra on the large billboards outside Lincoln Center. “They had cropped everyone’s hair, so it looked like we belonged in Planet of the Apes. It was very strange and hilarious,” says Grodin. Bugs and rain were a surprise to this California-based violinist. She went for a run when they arrived for their first concert at Ravinia, and “the insects descended on me.” At the concert, she protected her entire session from bugs, but all she could smell was DEET.
Rain Pain
The rain also played a role, and not just for West Coast denizens unused to summer rainfall. It rained for two days before the Norfolk concert, and the instruments noticed it, says Grodin. “They’re copies or really old instruments, and they respond like old people to the moisture in the air. In Norfolk, we started to squeak.”
For Kelly, Norfolk was the best gig, even if the strings were squeaking. “The venue was terrific. And it was my wife’s birthday, and she and her mother were coming to the concert. I didn’t have anything for her, but I found a gift in a little shop there. That was the peak for me, musically and personally.”
So everything went as planned, everyone had a wonderful time both professionally and personally, and, overall, this tour was as good as it could be. Members of the already closely knit orchestra have cemented their bonds not only with each other but also with a new, growing audience. For the PBO, it seems, this was the perfect tour and a perfect setup for its fall season.
Grodin, through, probably best sums up just why this tour was so important to the group, beyond the bonding and the chance to perform in new and varied venues. “It’s a huge opportunity [to do this sort of thing]. It’s incredibly important to be heard. Live music is essential. What we do doesn’t mean anything until it’s in front of an audience.”