Tour McUpdate

Just time for a quick post as I sit here with a surprisingly decent cup of coffee at a McDonald's on Budapesterstrasse here in Berlin. (I know, I know, I normally wouldn't think of going into a Mickey D's in Europe, either, but let's just say that the Internet situation has been somewhat dodgy lately, and every Golden Arches on the continent is guaranteed to have a connection to the wireless service I subscribed to before leaving home.)

Following last night's concert in Berlin, we've actually now played two of the three truly high-profile concerts of the entire tour - the last will be at our final stop in Vienna one week from today. From here, we head to Cologne, Duesseldorf, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Luxembourg, and we'll be changing up our repertoire a bit, playing Nielsen's 5th in place of the Beethoven tonight, and Sibelius 2 in Stuttgart.

More reviews of our London concert have appeared: The Guardian has weighed in with a reasonably good notice, and The Times (Britain's leading daily where prestige is concerned) is positively effusive, even implying that Osmo has lost weight since his last trip to London. My favorite review so far is from The Telegraph: "The Minnesota sound is magnificently 'up-front' and vivid throughout... Vänskä and the Minnesotans built a cumulative tension through every twist and turn [of the Beethoven,] right up to the final explosion of joy at the end."

Here in Berlin, we played the same concert last night to an enthusiastic if somewhat sparse crowd at the legendary Philharmonie just down from Pottsdammerplatz. Sparse, you say? Why, yes, I say. But... but... Joshua Bell, you say? Yup, say I, but you've got to remember that Berlin hosts the very best soloists, orchestras, and chamber ensembles nearly every night of the week, and much as our European profile may have been building over the last several years, few in this capital of the music world know or care what Minnesota is. Prairie Home Companion doesn't come in here, if you know what I mean, and the average Berlin concertgoer might be forgiven for looking at the posters and thinking, "Hm. Beethoven with something called Minnesota? Nah. I'll wait for the Berlin Phil to play it again..."

Still, those who were with us last night were a great audience, and demanded encores from both soloist and orchestra at the end of our respective portions of the concert. The first half flew by for me, as I was struggling slightly to adjust to being seated in an entirely different part of the stage than I've been sitting in. But in the second half, I managed to relax and just enjoy the incredible privilege of playing Beethoven in arguably the greatest concert hall in the world. Osmo clearly enjoyed himself, too - when he was presented with a flower bouquet at the end of the concert, he accepted it, then turned and left it on the conductor's stand as a gesture of gratitude to the orchestra.

I'm about to miss my bus to the airport now, so I'll wrap this up by promising once again to have some video for you soon. We've shot a number of good clips - the problem has been finding a wireless connection speedy enough (and free enough) to upload them. Hopefully, Cologne will have one of those...

Late Update, 6:25pm Central European Time: Cologne does, in fact, have one of those, although not so much with the "free" part. Also, the BBC broadcast our London concert on Radio 3 in the UK last night, and they've made it available for free on their website until March 4. Also, Minnesota Public Radio will be broadcasting the same concert on their Classical Music Service (99.5fm KSJN in the Twin Cities) this Friday night at 8pm Central...