Our last day

Absconding and Conducting

Camping with Katy

Associate Principal Oboe Katy Mackintosh is one of the few players who has elected for al fresco accommodation during our stay at St Magnus...

Hitting Things

Midsummer Sun

We can’t believe our good luck – incredible weather for Midsummer’s Day! A slightly later rehearsal this afternoon has afforded us longer in the sunshine, with many of us taking the opportunity to sight-see, cycle, mooch around the harbour, have a barbecue and generally soak up the rays.

























Like Shetland, the main roads are in great condition – a joy to cycle on! Since we had two trucks for all of the percussion, there was room for us to sneak on some bikes, and, boy, were we glad of that today! It’s amazingly green here, with fields carpeted with beautiful wild flowers and grasses. Two of our violists, Katherine and David, were out and about this morning, with a particular mission in mind. When they came to Orkney for their first wedding anniversary, David bought Katherine a pair of earrings from Sheila Fleet Jewellery. Unfortunately, Katherine lost one of them, and so they cycled out today to visit the jewellers to see if they could make a replacement, which they can!

Logistics

It's been a really busy day both on and backstage - lots to sort out! Poor James Crabb, the accordionist in Sally Beamish's concerto The Singing, has been really ill and almost didn't make the concert. The parts for Elgar's Enigma Variations were even put out in the players' pads, just in case! But it all came good in the end.

Heading North

Wow. Finding a decent internet connection in Kirkwall is really quite hard. We've been all over town, but the Orkney Hotel finally came up trumps (thank you!). But in our travels we caught a glimpse of the St Magnus Festival's founder, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, in the foyer of the Pickaquoy Centre.

Anyway, here's what we've been up to today.

Are we ready?

Welcome to the RSNOs St Magnus Festival blog!

From Friday 19 to Wednesday 24 June the Royal Scottish National Orchestra will be on Orkney as orchestra in residence at the St Magnus Festival. We'll be playing in three different concerts, for the Festival's Conducting Course and also taking part in an education project on the island of Sanday (more about all of these later!).

We'll be sharing all sorts here: videos, photos, news, interviews, maybe even some tour gossip (who knows?). If you'd like to keep up to date with what we're doing, simply scroll down this page and enter your email address in the box on the right hand side then hit the "Subscribe" button. You'll then get automatic email updates whenever we post anything new.

Feel free to comment too! Click on the comments button after each post to add yours. We look forward to hearing from you!

Do you think the weather is going to be like in the photo above in Kirkwall on Friday? BBC weather forecast says "No" (read and weep here)

Interview with Baritone Peter Sidhom

Just one more rehearsal session left before all the instruments get packed up on the trucks and we all head north!

In our first concert on Saturday we will be reprising Vaughan Willilams' A Sea Symphony, which we performed just at the end of the Season in Glasgow. The baritone Peter Sidhom will be singing with us again for this tremendous work; he kindly took time out to take part in the following blog interview...

We know that you are a frequent visitor to Scotland’s concert halls and theatres, but is this your first time at the St Magnus Festival, or indeed on Orkney? No, it's my second visit: I was up 3 or 4 years ago, when I sang in Dvorak's Te Deum; but otherwise I haven't visited Orkney.

It obviously is particularly apt to be singing in a performance of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony on Orkney. Have you experienced before other powerful connections between repertoire and place? Though not strictly comparable, it was an extraordinary experience to sing the seven baritone roles in Britten's Death in Venice at the Snape Maltings a couple of years ago, the first time the piece had been staged there in the 34 years since its premiere there in the composer's presence.

How do you find touring? Do you enjoy the experience of travelling as part of your job? As an opera singer, I'm away from home for about two thirds of the year, and I've been doing this for over twenty years! I've seen places I would never otherwise have visited, and love that aspect of the touring life. On the other hand, you're forever staying in anonymous hotels and apartments, often for weeks on end, and more often than not on your own - so you need to find a way to be comfortable in your skin and happy with your own company!

How do you find Vaughan Williams to sing? What other Vaughan Williams have you enjoyed performing before, besides A Sea Symphony? I adore his word setting, and it's a joy to sing in your own language - not something you get to do too often in opera! I've sung his Five Mystical Songs many times over the years, and I also love "Silent Noon" - a phenomenally difficult song to bring off, but absolutely beautiful.

How did you first get into singing? Did you at any point consider do anything different? I started as a boy treble at Westminster Cathedral, and as my voice broke I was fortunate in having an inspirational music teacher at school who programmed Messiah, Elijah and Gerontius in consecutive years - with me singing the bass solos. I studied Languages at University, and then continued to study voice; but my singing teacher Hervey Alan gently suggested that perhaps I should wait a while for my voice to become the dramatic baritone it now is. So I DID do something else: I joined BBC Radio 3 as a sound engineer (or Studio Manager, as they were then titled) and stayed fifteen years, gradually working my way up to be one of the 2 most senior people, entrusted with opera broadcasts and the Proms. Then I did the audition round of the opera companies, and things started happening...

Wow! had no idea about that.
Do you have a busy summer lined up? Will you have the opportunity to have a summer holiday? I have a regular teaching gig in Italy every July, which is a holiday too in many ways. This year I also have a Prom in mid-August (Birtwistle's Mask of Orpheus) and then go to Frankfurt a week later to begin rehearsals for a double bill of early Puccini (Le villi) and Leone (L'oracolo).

Are you planning on seeing anything while you are here in Orkney? Has anything in the Festival programme caught your eye? Unfortunately I've just had an operation on my foot, which means I'm in plaster and will be until late July - so my mobility's pretty limited, and I'm dependent on the kindness of strangers to help me get around. Lots of things I'd like to get to, but I don't know how practical it'll be! I'm also the guinea-pig this year for Martyn Brabbins's Conducting Course, which I'm looking forward to with interest and a little apprehension...
Rest assured - we will all be looking out for you!

Interview with Percussonist Colin Currie

At the moment the Orchestra, David Danzmayr and Colin Currie are in the Henry Wood Hall rehearsing Jennifer Higson's Percussion Concerto, which we'll be performing on Sunday night at the Pickaquoy Centre. We caught up with Colin beforehand to find out his thoughts on the Festival.

Everyone at the RSNO is really looking forward to their first time at the St Magnus Festival on Orkney! You are not a Festival novice, though, are you?
No, I debuted at the Festival in 2002, when I enjoyed similar performance opportunities to this occasion, playing both a concerto and a recital. So this trip marks my second visit to St Magnus.

Can you describe the atmosphere of the Festival? Do you have any tips for our players when they are on Orkney?
The Festival has a wonderful atmosphere! A hearty combination of relishing good music, the surroundings and having a right good knees-up at the end of the night! Any tips? Make time for some sight-seeing...

What, in your opinion, is the best thing about touring?
I enjoy the variety of a constantly changing work-environment. During the season, I see at least one city/place a week on average and it is constantly challenging and inspiring. Overall, I would also say that the best part of this business is the great people one gets to work and meet with.

Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto has been described as a "colourful, propulsive and unabashedly accessible concerto". Is this a good description of the piece? Where and when have you played it before?
I have played this work nearly 40 times since its premiere in November 2005 with The Philadelphia Orchestra, so a large number of places, including most recently its Asian premiere with The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. It is an absolute gift of a piece for my repertoire, is highly engaging and enjoyable and enormously thrilling in a live performance. This will be only the second European performance, so it is an especially big event for me and the composer.

There’s a lot of percussion being taken up to Orkney by the Orchestra, particularly for the Concerto! Which percussion instruments does the solo part require?
The focus is on the marimba, and I also play vibraphone and crotales. On the un-tuned end of things I have two set-ups, one containing small bright sounds and another with powerful drums and cymbals, all of which get a good seeing to in the cadenza.

We know that you have an incredibly busy international schedule. Where will you be before the Festival, and where are you headed afterwards?
I just gave two days classes at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, as I am Visiting Professor there. It is a very interesting school, and they have a robust approach to new music which I enjoy being part of.

Following the St Magnus Festival I continue with performances of the Higdon, this time in Bogota Columbia, before concentrating on preparing for three concerts at this year's BBC Proms.

Are you intending to see any other events while you're on the islands? Has anything in particular caught your eye?
I hope to see Max's "The Lighthouse".