Dr. Donald Appertconductor & composer
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Grosseto, Italy April 2015

7/16/2015

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As always, surprises happen when I go to Italy! After managing to get my baton on in my carry-on (fiurst time since 9-11 of 2001), and making a very close connection in Amsterdam with only an hour to make the plane to Rome, surviving a two hour bumpy ride to Grosseto by RV (!) with a non-English speaking driver, I took a short nap. At about 5:00 I got up to shower for my 6:00 rehearsal. To my chagrin the door was locked and no one was there! As my colleague who was the Artistic Director of the orchestra was performing in China there was no way to contact him for clarification. So I walked around town for an hour and finally gave up and went for dinner. Possibly I have only the one concert here in Grosseto on Sunday (I saw the poster for it).

  Friday night’s rehearsal was a good one though at the final segment the orchestra was losing focus and dragging mentally. Two breaks – 30 minutes and 15 minutes make it a very long rehearsal. However, with only two to prepare the program, it’s barely enough even with professionals. We didn’t rehears the Britten Simple Symphony as they’ve performed it before. No soloist either – he will come for the second rehearsal. Having just performed it last week in Valcea, Romania he should be in good shape. I will perform my piano concerto again in Vancouver in June with Ron Fabbro.

Saturday night’s rehearsal was quite productive. I discovered an interesting spot in the first movement that had been puzzling me – on the recording we made in Alessandro at the premiere it sounded like a mistake in the piano. Actually it is a rather striking dissonance created between the descending 5th line in the celli and bass vs. the upward line of the piano. Strange to discover new things in one’s own composition!

The opening movement tempo is better as it’s brighter this time. Last movement seems on the slow side but perhaps rhythmically demands that. It will be something to see with Ron in June. I will also discuss modifications Mauri asked for with him as well.

Amusingly we ran overtime at the Concertmaster and Principal 2nd’s request. Nice to have an orchestra willing to work but 5 hours is such a long period; concertration becomes an issue as it gets closer to the end.

One of the cellists is originally from Vancouver, BC. Nice to have someone to talk to in English. She’s lived in Italy since 2002. She met her Italian husband while playing in a quartet on a cruise ship. Lasted 11years and now is divorced.

Sunday- I discovered my left ankle was swollen – most likely a combination of the plane ride and two nights of standing through 5 hour rehearsals. Fortunately the last time this happened my Dr. prescribed regular asprin which I have been taking.

  Sound check was rather shaky and I was not feeling great (perhaps the octopus didn’t agree with me from last night’s late dinner with Mauri?). Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis I put the second small orchestra in back which created some ensemble problems largely due to watching poorly by the musicians.

  Concert was very poorly attended which was very disheartening for all after so much hard work. Foote – Suite in E went pretty well. Mauri told the audience a bit about my Piano Concerto. Except for  a few slips in the viola section it was a fine performance. Claudio, their Concertmaster, was most complimentary about my music and his parting words were he hoped he would be able to play more of my work again soon. Amusingly they started the concert with two young pianists playing several short pieces – rather odd and annoying.

  Second half – in the Vaughan Williams I got a bit too involved emotionally with the music and pleased with things too soon! I made a poor change to 6/8 – my mistake was to be first of several in the orchestra to follow. The second orchestra especially had a bad counting error and got out of sync with the first orchestra. soloists did well for the most part. A fantastic piece that I hope I can get the Oregon Sinfonietta to play well in January. Even the Britten which they know, had several problem spots.

  So as always the things you remember first are all the things that go wrong! Claudio reminded me that it was a “strong program” – so at least the musicians enjoyed it – hard to tell if the audience did or not due to small turn-out.  A piu tardi!
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france and italy 2012

7/13/2015

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My stepmother Alice used to suggest that Linda and I should write a book about our international travels. Sadly we never took that advice mainly because we've always been too busy teaching and performing. As I near another birthday of note (#60 in January) I seem to need some accounting of our travels.

We flew into Nice, France on Saturday, November 10. Jet lagged as always, we managed to find the bus into the center of the city. It was raining as we wandered a bit from the bus strop but were able to figure out the location of our hotel. The room was tiny and my side of the be slanted a bit towards the floor making for somewhat precarious sleeping. Sunday we took in the Marc Chagall Museum and after a longer walk north that of Matisee (not quite worth the effort as it was mostly his work with cutting out pieces of paper). Taking a wrong turn on the way back to the hotel, we got a good deal of exercise. Monday was bright and sunny so we enjoyed walking about the city and the excellent cuissine!
Tuesday we took the train to San Remo. The station was a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Taking the train to the end of the line in Ventimiglia, Italy we then switched trains and had another 15 minutes to San Remo. This hotel was much nicer (provided by the orchestra) and next to the casino which had a small concert hall of maybe 300 seats. The first rehearsal from 8:00 to midnight had some of the usual problems - only 2 horns instead of the 3 I expected and the 2nd was not there. A string section of 21 total with several missing as well. We began rehearsal with Gliere so Linda could go back to the hotel to sleep. It was a little rugged to begin as the orchestra was somewhat sluggish in responding and tempos were dragging. things improved as the night went on. They requested to change the double rehearsal of the next day (6 hours total) to one 4 hour rehearsal in the afternoon. I agreed as my experience has shown musicians of this level work better when you are a bit flexible. Schedule can change quite rapidly.
Wednesday we had to go to a government office to get a Codice Fiscale in order to work in Italy. They discovered I already had one from previous guest conducting but no one had ever told me! However, given the name on my passport had change the last time I renewed it (they dropped my middle name), they decided to issue me a new one. We requested copies of the documents in the event we need them in the future. The rehearsal went well so I ended it about 30 minutes early (always a good way to incur favorable rating as a guest conductor :) . The orchestra plays very expressively well in tune. Their one fault is that they tend to slow down a bit too much in ritards if you let them. 
Thursday morning we had the general rehearsal which is basically a run-through of the concert. It went well but Linda sang very little in order to save her voice for the concert. The Gliere is very high and taxing demanding a great deal of stamina. I finally got the orchestra to give me the correct tempos and not drag. The concert went almost flawlessly. The orchestra played with great expression and precision. My Nara Variations had its best performance to date - it was a great pleasure to conduct this orchestra! Linda was most pleased with her performance of the Gliere. Though not a large audience, they received us warmly (Linda got 4 curtain calls). As always, after so much preparation the concert was over in what seemed no time at all.Only the programs and posters remain. The scores and parts will go back on the shelf. Periodically I remind my students that music is only ink on the page until actual musicians perform it. This rings true after every concert we perform.
Going abroad to conduct is an opportunity to leave everything (teaching, administration, dealing with everyday concerns) and focus on a single concert. It's a luxury that is becoming harder to afford now that I have three orchestra at home! (So much music, so little time!)
Friday morning we returned to Nice by train and took the bus to the airport. Given an early flight to Amsterdam (6:30 AM means 4:30 at the airport - a rather short night's sleep), we booked a hotel across the street. We did go back into the city and had dinner at the Bistro d'Opera, near the Opera House. As always, excellent food and wine! Saturday came very early with a 3:30 AM wake-up call and off to the airport to spend the day on the plane. As often happens, I began composing in my mind having been just commissioned by my good friend Rocco Parisi to write a work for 4 bass clarinets. (Just what I need - another project as I am still composing a work for solo contrabass and strings for the teacher at the University of Georgia). Returning the same day and arriving at 11:30 AM left time to catch up on the exciting part of life - doing the wash and paying the bills! -DA
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    on the road

    I often travel to Europe several times a year. These are tales of my travels and musical adventures abroad and at home.

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