After 5 days in smaller cities across the country, today we hit Madrid. Of course it was somewhat of a culture shock suddenly to be in a great metropolis and one of Europe's major cities.

There was a strong sense of expectation as we looked forward to the concert in the evening, but there was a long time before that came. The Auditorio Nacional, Madrid's concert hall, has a very unusual schedule on a Saturday evening, with two concerts, one by the Orquesta Nacional, and the other by the visiting orchestra. So the hall's schedule has to look like this:

4.30-5pm RSNO rehearsal
stage reset
5.30-6pm Orquesta Nacional rehearsal
7.30pm Orquesta Nacional concert
10pm concert finishes
stage reset
10.30pm RSNO concert

This appears very odd to us, but in a city where the restaurants don't open until 9pm, and where it's quite normal for social life to extend well into the early hours, it's not as odd as it seems! It did allow us to have a long rest between the rehearsal and the concert, which in my case included a quiet room service dinner and a glass of wine. A welcome moment of peace in a busy day.

One of the great things about the Madrid visit is that we have with us a party of over 50 RSNO Circle members from Scotland, who have come here for a few days’ tourism and fun, organised by Mairi Foster from the RSNO office. The climax of their trip was of course the concert at the Auditorio Nacional, and they preceded this with a dinner at a nearby restaurant. We had organised a surprise for them, as Stéphane and Nicola had agreed to call by the restaurant and greet them at around 9.30pm on their way to the concert hall. The reaction was predictably happy!

Stéphane and Nicky chatting with members of the RSNO Circle.

Nicky talking to RSNO Chair Sponsors Philip Heywood and Hedley Wright.

One RSNO supporter, Karin Boehm, came all the way from Barbados specially for the concert:

I introduced Nicky to RSNO Development Board Chair, Peter Shakeshaft:

The percussion section wait patiently in their places - with no instruments!

But due to an exceptionally speedy piece of work by our terrific stage managers Evgeny and Michael, the concert was ready to start, amazingly, at 10.33pm!

I've talked a lot about the concerts in previous posts, so I won't say a lot about it here. The Auditorio has a tricky acoustic, which varies dramatically in different parts of the hall, creating a very exposed feeling for the musicians on stage, and quite a lot of difficulty achieving a really integrated orchestral sound. It's certainly a hall that benefits the local orchestras and conductors who know it well. That said, I thought the RSNO sounded on top form. It's really the proudest moment as an orchestra manager when the orchestra plays in a major foreign capital, and this was no exception. After our customary second encore of Eightsome Reels, the audience was on their feet:

Our presenters and agents seemed delighted with the concert, and everybody commented on just how great the Orchestra sounds at the moment. A fitting climax to the tour.

For Stéphane and Nicola and me, the day was still not quite over. The RSNO had helped to organise a small hospitality event for VisitScotland and Scottish Development International, and we had promised to call by their reception and say hello to their clients. By 1.15am the reception had dwindled to a small crowd, but we had a nice conversation with some important contacts in Madrid who bring inbound business to Scotland - group travel, conferences, corporate events and so on.

This was an important example of how a travelling national orchestra can directly help the business and commerce interests of the country. The RSNO is absolutely delighted to be able to be not just a cultural ambassador, but also a great advertisement for Scotland abroad.

Getting back to the hotel past 2am, this has been a very long day. Tomorrow we have a full day-off in Madrid. Some people have restaurants booked; some plan to visit the great museums such as the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornamisza and the Reina Sofia; others will rest, walk, run, and generally recuperate from a busy day in preparation for the final day in Zaragoza on Monday. I do not intend to blog the day-off, so the next post will be on Tuesday morning.

Simon Woods
Chief Executive

---

Share this page...