SE double bass, Diane Clark, took some time out of our action-packed Aberdeen Residency to record some of her highlights…
Day 1
The train pulls into a sunny and warm Aberdeen. Hurrah! Lashings of ginger beer for me as I head straight to Pret a Manger. We check in and head off to the Lemon Tree venue, our base for the next five days.
When we arrive the smell of stale beer is strangely comforting, less so the sticky floor! The hard work of our first day of rehearsals in Glasgow has paid off and we seem to be in good shape, unlike poor our leader Jon who has put his back out and has to top himself up with painkillers every couple of hours. It’s time to get that tour physio! We stop at five and have the luxury of a two-hour break which I spend with Liza (violin) at Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant. One Shetland salmon and crab spaghettini later we head back to start our first coaching session with Grampian Youth Orchestra.
Xander (violin) takes the rehearsal in great style – the makings of a future conductor? And we launch into Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony. I haven’t played this piece since I was in youth orchestra over …erm… 20(!) years ago so it’s a bit of a shock for the first five minutes but then all those sectionals I sat through years ago pay off and soon my fingers are moving from memory. The kids sound great and soon get to grips with the music for our pop up concert which includes one of my favourites – Pachelbel’s Canon. I never tire of it. Four notes ALL in first position. Tick. And so to bed and a lie-in, an even bigger tick.
Day 2
It’s a slow start to the day with most people spending the morning practicing in their hotel rooms. Thankfully they seem well insulated.
We split into three groups in the afternoon playing at various community centres and care homes. Our group consists of myself and four violins, which turns out to be great fun as we romp our way through some Piazzolla. The violins whizz up and down their instruments like true Latinos while I’m stumped by a tune all in harmonics at the end of my fingerboard. Thorben helpfully says I sound like a distressed seal. With that in mind I clap my hands and find a darkened room for some private practice.
Soon we arrive at Newton Dee Community Centre and receive the warmest reception I’ve experienced yet. They start clapping BEFORE we’ve even got on stage. Very encouraging. If only they’d start chanting it would feel like the O2 Arena.
In high spirits we head back for our evening rehearsal. Notes, notes and mores notes.
A well deserved pint at Brew Dog and a cheese platter help end the day. I dream about seals….happy ones.
Day 3
My day begins in the empty shell of a Jane Norman store. This is not a result of too many Punk IPA’s but because it’s time for the Flash Mob rehearsal with the various local youth orchestras. The violins and violas have to practise walking whilst playing Pachelbel’s Canon. No mean feat or should that be “feet”? groan, while the basses and cellos get the easier job of sitting in Costa.
The idea is to sit casually in the shopping centre drinking coffee and eating cake (not a problem) till we hear the dulcet tones of approaching violins at which point we are to whip out our instruments and join in, hopefully to rapturous applause from a surprised public. All goes smoothly, phew.
That done there is just time for food and a lie down before our evening event- Shostakovich Undressed. We are to play the Chamber Symphony while three burlesque dancers perform on stage. Unsurprisingly the ladies of SE have been agonising about what to wear for weeks so we’re rather unimpressed at Tristan’s (violin) suggestion contribution of “rolling his sleeves up” to get in the mood. We needn’t have worried though as the boys come up trumps for the show and look fantastic!
Sound installations followed by some black and white film of Stalin’s Russia with a dance interpretation alongside take the event into the night. It is rounded off with some DJs laying down beats to Shozza. Some of us head to Brew Dog for a quick drink then bed. Tomorrow is going to need every grey cell we have left.
Day 4
Today is the final event in our Aberdeen residency. It’s been such a busy and varied schedule that I feel we’ve been here for far more than just four days. It’s Cathy’s birthday today so she receives the obligatory atonal rendition of “Happy Birthday” at the start of the rehearsal. There are a pile of presents under her chair and a flaming cake arrives just as we play the last bars of Shostakovich’s second string quartet.
Fortified with tea and cake, I start setting up my bass with a pick-up for the sound check with Clachan Yell who we’re joining later in a post-concert ceilidh. That done, there’s just time for some last minute practise before myself and Laura have to attend a civic reception. By now we are getting slightly anxious about fitting in a meal before the concert. As a musician much of your day revolves around food as you never know quite when you’ll eat again. So it is with great relief that we spy some trays of finger food in a corner of the reception room.
Some self control is needed though. I try to mingle less with the canapés and more with our guests but I soon find myself inhaling a tray of mini cottage pies and spinach tartlets….Speeches done, I need to get horizontal and checkout the tennis score.
7.30pm arrives all too quickly. Our evening concert starts with a repeat of the Flash Mob we did in the Bon Accord the day before. The kids perform really well and afterwards take a seat in the hall to listen to the rest of the concert. Jon’s solos are heartbreakingly beautiful (don’t blush) and perfectly supported by the rest of the strings. It’s a privilege to sit amidst their sound. I can listen to more of the concert than you’d imagine. Less notes are an advantage of being a bass player. I leave the stage feeling exhausted, a bit relieved, aching but moreover extremely proud to be part of such a lovely group.
Beers are handed out as we clamber onto the larger stage and get folky. I mostly play D and A which is fine by me as it means I can dance and play at the same time.
The crowd soon start to rev up as do we, flinging each other around in a never ending Orcadian Strip the Willow. Ceilidhs should be on the NHS they’re so good for you! We keep going till just before midnight when thankfully the doors are opened and the sweat of a mixed sauna escapes into the night. People flood out onto Union Street and go their separate ways.
Fusion Bar. Mojitos. Bed. Night, night Aiberdeen it’s been grand.
Today marks 99 years since the birth of the great composer, conductor and pianist Benjamin Britten! As one of the central figures of twentieth-century British classical music, he is one of the most important composers of music for strings.
scottishensemble 