The Philharmonia on Tour
We followed the orchestra on tour with Charles Dutoit, finding out how they manange to perform in a different country each night! Watch the film above to find out more, or read what some of the key people in the tour have to say:
Roy Davies: Transport & Stage Manager, Philharmonia Orchestra
Normally we allow a two hour ‘get-in’ at any venue; that’s getting the lorry here, getting on the dock, unloading it, setting all the larger instrument’s up - percussion, timpani - and at certain venues actually laying the platform out with chairs and music stands.
Frank Veenstra: Artistic Manager, Frits Philips Hall, Eindhoven
To present the most famous orchestras in Europe is very important to us. The Gewandhaus Orchestra is always coming to us, the Concertgebouw orchestra of course, and the Philharmonia fits in that perspective very well.
Tim Jackson: Third Horn, Philharmonia Orchestra
The really important thing about touring is the chance to get to play in all these amazing concert halls around the world. This week for instance to be playing in the Philharmonia in Berlin, going to Amsterdam to the Concertgebouw, but the chance to play in these fantastic halls around Europe is one of the major things about touring for an Orchestra.
Gordon Laing: Principal Contra Bassoon, Philharmonia Orchestra
With this particular tour, because we need second instruments, (as our instruments travel ahead of us), the van could not go straight from London to Milan overnight, so we had to have spare instruments which is why the van went off two days early.
Mansel Bebb: Personnel Manager, Philharmonia Orchestra
My title is ‘Personnel Manager’ and it is my responsibility to book them and to make sure they turn up and do the dates. Nowadays because of this speed that everything happens in the world, the tours are harder . The stress for the players, for everyone (me included of course) feel very fatigued, but I don’t have to play in the concert at night and they do. It is amazing, the high quality and standard that this orchestra keeps up
You can read a tour diary from cellist Katharine Wood on a tour in 2005.
