Riding Two Waves at Once!

Posted By on May 11, 2009

Very often, the members of the AHQ are asked how we coordinate our horn quartet schedules with our busy orchestral schedules. Our answers usually revolve around the praising of a system which allows us to purchase, at our own costs, the necessary replacement in the orchestra. We also point out the fact that European orchestras very often employ up to 8 or 9 horn players. The latter is not the case with the Luxembourg Philharmonic which has 6, nor the Beethoven Orchestra in Bonn which has 7. And it does regularly happen that the events line up so that there is a direct conflict between our orchestras and the AHQ. Two weeks ago, for example, Kristina (who is substituting for Dave Johnson at the moment) and I played a Brahms 4th Symphony concert in Luxembourg, raced to Bonn, spent the short night, and met Charles and Geoffrey at the “Gästehaus Petersberg Königswinter”, performed for the National Association of Criminal Lawyers and raced back to Luxembourg to repeat the OPL concert from the previous evening.

The AHQ has just embarked on a large European tour, which includes concerts in Germany, Luxembourg, France and England. The peculiar thing about this tour is that we are actually returning back to our orchestras from time to time participate in projects where our services are especially needed. For instance, Kristina and I are, believe it or not, squeezing in a 6-day Italian (and Prague) tour with the Lux Phil right in the middle of this AHQ tour. Geoff and Charlie have been required to drive back a few times to Bonn in order to play Electra there at their opera house. I remember once returning for 4 days from an AHQ United States tour in order to play Einheldenleben. It just worked out that we had a 6-day hiatus in the U.S. tour which allowed me to make this bizarre commute. A similar thing happened years ago when I had to find the Lux Phil on the road in Slovenia and play a concert or two with them and then race back to continue a tour with the quartet. And now, I just found out that Kristina is obligated to do several things with her brass quintet- The Ni Ensemble- between rehearsals this week.

Tough and exciting times. The only things that really suffer are our poor lips!!!Kristina Mascher is replacing David Johnson on this tour.

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