A Thrilling Month with the AHQ
Posted By kerryturner on June 14, 2009
Well, that was it then. The last, almost holy notes of Bach`s “Air-on-the-G-String” rang for nearly 5 seconds in the old, Gothic, pilgrimage church of Bleidenberg-Oberfell, high up overlooking the Mosel river valley. It was a sold-out audience that demanded three encores. We only had two in the folders on the stands. And we really had no lips left. But we tagged on our new encore, “Sabre Dance” to bring the listeners to their feet. Walking out of the church, we beheld a spectacular sunset in the direction of the German city of Koblenz. This was concert number ten on a long and drawn out 20th Anniversary European Tour with the American Horn Quartet.
We added some new works to the repertoire- “Hungarian Medley” by Walter Perkins and “Garota de Impenema” arranged by Morais- and revived an old one, Barboteu`s “Sologne”. The concerts all ended up being around an hour and forty-five minutes. A lot of intense playing at an ever-increasingly high level. Any free days on the tour (and there were a few) were spent slathering on various lip balms, tinkering with problematic mechanics on our instruments and, of course traveling. We put down close to 5000 kilometers on this tour!
We would like to thank all of our hosts on this tour who made each performance possible and contributed to a very successful tour.
Bei jedem Veranstalter, der bei dieser sehr erfolgreichen Tournee, etwas zur Aufführung getragen hat, und jedes Konzert ermöglicht hat, möchten wir uns ganz herzlich bedanken.
Nous voudrions remercier à tout les organisateurs, qui ont contribuè à le succès de cette tournèe et qui ont rendu possible chaque concert.
And now, we all take our places in our various orchestral jobs, for a few weeks anyway. It is always a strange feeling to go back to the orchestra after particularly intense activity with the AHQ. In the car on the way home last night, my wife Kristina, who played every concert with dependable valor and pizazz, made this comparison:
“When you are playing with the AHQ, it`s as if you are Superman. And then, when it`s time to go back to the orchestra, you comb down your hair, put on your old-fashioned suit and thick black glasses, and become Clark Kent again. And nobody has any idea what you`ve been doing.”
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