First Two Days in Hong Kong
Anne Marie Gabriele | October 27, 2008
Hong Kong is an amazing city. We have been here now two complete days and the beauty of the landscape still takes my breath away. Having lived in Honolulu for three years, I see many similarities between the two cities but the breadth and scope of Hong Kong is overwhelming. Obviously it is endless what one can do here but I will just mention a few highlights that will remain with me.
The first night we arrived I managed to take a ferry across the harbor and see the light show, which is a nightly occurrence. Pictures cannot possibly capture the feeling of observing this it is so visceral. Following this with an authentic Chinese meal seemed like the perfect ending to a day of travel from Singapore.
The next day was a free day and after practicing I spent it hiking around Victoria Peak, which is the highest point in Hong Kong. One takes a ferry, to a bus, and then a tram which at one point feels almost vertical as you climb to 1800 feet. It is true that Hong Kong is a city of views and luckily the weather was in our favor. Terrific scenery in all directions from the top was the reward! There is also an hour long hike one can take around the perimeter of the peak which gave excellent views of the harbor and the surrounding islands and a work out to boot!
I have found touring with the Philharmonic for 7 years now that the key to a successful tour is balancing work with jet lag and a little bit of sightseeing. As an oboist I must always think of reeds and the different climates they are exposed to. This makes for constant adjusting and the making of new reeds for places that are quite different in climate from Los Angeles. This does make for a limited amount of time that I do have for sightseeing but since the focus of our touring is performing good concerts, being a tourist should be on a very limited basis. Our concerts on this Asian tour have been very good with extremely appreciative audiences. Particularly in Tokyo where they were still applauding as we left the stage after many curtain calls! This being my first trip to Asia I must say the tour has been an experience of a lifetime for me.
Like coming back home
Elizabeth Baker | October 27, 2008
Coming to Hong Kong for me has been a bit like coming back home. You see, I lived in Hong Kong for a year from September 2002 to September 2003. The Philharmonic granted me a year’s leave to move to Hong Kong with my husband, an architect for Walt Disney Imagineering. Toby was working on the building of Hong Kong Disneyland during that time. So many memories came flooding back to me as I looked across the harbor to the skyline of Hong Kong Island. It was a precious moment for me. I have been attempting to visit all the places I loved to go to and it has been so great to see friends again that I made while living here. Before coming I put together a list of my “must see picks” for my colleagues. It is good to know that it came in handy for many of them; especially my recommendation for a tailor to see whose shop was quite close to the hotel we have been staying in HK. I hope that the orchestra comes back many more times to Hong Kong. It is a most amazing city.
Rehearsal in Singapore
Flying the Airbus A380 to Singapore
Joanne Pearce Martin | October 25, 2008
Despite being extremely hoarse from two consecutive nights of boisterous karaoke in Tokyo, I awake on Friday morning filled with excitement & anticipation. Our concerts so far in Seoul and Tokyo have been exhilarating, but this is the day we get to fly in the new Airbus A380 ! My mind is filled with facts & figures I’ve collected on this remarkable aircraft, the world’s largest passenger plane - $350 million dollars, a tail which stretches up to 7 stories in the air, double deck seating for the entire length of the fuselage, 12 First Class suites with double beds & flat screen TVs, room for as many as 853 passengers(!), and a completely computerized “fly-by-wire” system.
As we arrive at the boarding area, I see people gathered around the seat plan of the Airbus, which is prominently displayed on an easel. Many of my colleagues do not know that we are going to be riding in the big whale, and there is a definite buzz of excitement building. Even people who normally wouldn’t care which vehicle was transporting them from point A to point B are intrigued. Passengers (myself included) are pressing against the terminal windows, twisting bodies and cameras to try & get the perfect souvenir shot, which isn’t easy because the jet-way is pulled up against the plane for boarding.
We’re flying with Singapore Airlines today – they were the first to put the Airbus A380 into commercial use, exactly one year ago. To date they have made over 1600 flights in this model. I also recently read that Singapore Airlines currently has six A380s in their fleet, the most recent one having just been acquired LAST MONTH.
Once we get onboard, one of the first announcements informs us that this is indeed the newest of the fleet! This is no surprise to hear, because everything around us looks and feels as if it has barely been touched. I’m a window-seat person, and never in all my travels have I been able to get such a beautiful scratch-free view though an airplane window. Each roomy Economy seat has a personal video system, a foot rest, and a very well-designed fold-out table & separate “cupholder”.
There is an absolutely seamless transition from the long take-off roll to the lift-off (the most magical moment in any flight) Even if one clearly understands that there is an enormous amount of power thrusting this huge bird into the air, it still seems like a miracle that it can actually get off the ground! During the climb, I gaze in awe at the right wing, with its sparkling fluorescent orange and grey paint, flexing gently as it slices through the relative wind. I become obsessed with the thousands of rivets on this giant wing, and think of a recent “riveting” discussion I had with my husband Gavin, who dreams of building his own airplane someday. My mind then wanders further and I realize that the single-engine plane Gavin & I fly has a wingspan of 26-ft. – the Airbus’ is 261 ft – I could stretch TEN of those little planes across the width of this monster!
The flight from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Singapore is approximately 7 hours, and the time just breezes by before I know it. I pass the time by watching movies, reading, listening to music, using the “seat-to-seat” call feature, and stretching my legs by walking up & down the spiral staircase in the back. I keep up with the progress of the flight periodically, and take note that we’re cruising at 40,000 ft and averaging a ground speed of approximately 570 mph. The charming flight attendants are very friendly, polite, and enthusiastic, and I find myself with an armful of A380 mementos – cute little post cards and playing cards.
The best was saved for last, however - just before leaving the plane after a flawless landing, my colleague Mick Wetzel managed to talk a couple of us into the cockpit! There we met the entire flight crew, including the captain, a very personable young Indian gentleman. I had seen pictures of these cockpits on the Internet, but it truly was awe-inspiring to actually be up there amid all of that cutting-edge aviation technology. Thanks, Mick!
Riding in the Airbus A380 was literally a blast – and yet another fond memory we will cherish of this last tour with Esa-Pekka.
Photos
On to Singapore
Eric Overholt | October 24, 2008
It’s been a great tour so far. Tokyo was an especially unbelievable place. The people there were so eager to assist and serve. Purchasing a small gift for my wife at a department store, the salesperson gave me the feeling it was her greatest pleasure in life to help me.
The flight to Singapore was much more comfortable than I ever expected a 7 hour flight could be – I’m sure the brand new Airbus A380 (think gigantic flying double-decker bus) had a lot to do with that. Unfortunately, as soon as I landed I began having some mild dizziness. Practicing later in the hotel room (with a practice mute – a fixture for us brass players on tour), it felt as if the hotel was experiencing a small earthquake for the entire 90 minutes. A good night’s sleep and a good breakfast the next morning seem to have done the trick in steadying things. I’ll probably take it pretty easy nonetheless.
The hardest part of touring is definitely being away. Now that we’ve been gone about a week and a half, the homesickness for my wife and 10 month old daughter is starting to be difficult to deal with. Eye on the prize, though – I’m sure we’ll pull it together and have great concerts for the remainder of the tour.
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Suntory Hall
Robert Vijay Gupta | October 23, 2008
Amidst four-in-the-morning trips to Tsukijishijo to see the tuna auctions, visits to the Japanese countryside, Indian curry in Shinjuku, sushi lunches and binge-shopping on the Ginza, the Philharmonic has churned out two more world-class performances in Tokyo’s magnificent Suntory Hall, the second stop on our tour of the Far East. Sadly, this is our great Music Director’s last tour with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Suntory is the ‘sister-hall’ to Walt Disney, designed by the same phenomenal acoustician (Yasuhisa Toyota) responsible for our paragon of halls back home, with similar layout and characteristics. However, I noticed that the inside of the hall was this very interesting type of stone, in place of the wood paneling back home; as a result, Suntory is more live than Disney, and in rehearsal, treble-heavy. Our people sitting in the hall for the concert said the sound was balanced and rich, very lush.
La Mer and Firebird in Tokyo were amongst the most amazing musical experiences of my life, the Bolero solos just keep getting better and better, and we’re only halfway through our tour! Ma Mere L’Oye was greeted with thunderous applause before intermission, and after the program, Esa-Pekka actually had to go out for a bow after the orchestra had left the stage, because the audience was still roaring. We’re now sweltering in Singapore, looking forward to more fantastic concerts and adventures in the last few days to come.
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Rehearsal at Suntory Hall
Sushi in Tokyo
"Groundhog Day"
Paul M. Geller | October 17, 2008
I've been with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for over 30 years; and have been on more tours than I can count.
Every time I leave for a tour, people tell me how lucky I am to be able to travel to places like Europe, Asia, and throughout the United States, while listening to great music. They're right. I am lucky, I have a great job doing something that I am passionate about.
However, there are times when I do not feel lucky at all. Those times usually occur while we are on tour.
Let me paint a picture: We are in a beautiful concert hall in a foreign city, it is not the first city of the tour, but we have been traveling so much we haven't acclimated to local time. The orchestra plays their hearts out, applause, applause, applause. But now is when the crew must pack up any trace that we have been there; this includes: all the instrument cases, wardrobe cases, the music library cases, and all other miscellaneous cases that we use on the road. We easily fill up two semi-trucks with these cases. Every single case needs to be rolled out of the concert hall into a waiting truck. Loading the trucks are like solving a puzzle. The cases have to be handled carefully so as not to jostle the delicate instruments inside, and they must be packed with an eye towards maximizing space. Three hours after the concert has finished and the trucks are loaded, we then must drive to the nearest airport with a cargo center (this could be the local airport or this could be the airport a couple of countries away).
When we get to the cargo center, it is usually around 3 in morning, and more often than not it is extremely cold. Los Angeles does not prepare you for working in temperatures that hover around 0.
The trucks must now be unloaded. All of those carefully packed cases, must be carefully off-loaded and prepared for palletizing.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term palletizing: this is a procedure that involves taking the cases and putting several of them on what looks like a over-sized cookie sheet, wrapping them in industrial strength plastic, and then placing a netting over that. This is for the purpose of making sure the cases do not shift within flight. Each pallet must be a specific height and width to conform to the interior of the aircraft, and these dimensions can vary every time. Palletizing can take 3-4 hours.
Once we are done palletizing we often feel like the walking wounded, and it is all we can do to stumble to the closest hotel to shower and if we are lucky get some sleep before we have to go back to the airport. We either travel with the cargo, or we follow on a commercial flight to our next city. Once the instruments clear customs we then de-palletize (which is self explanatory) and now roll the cases to waiting trucks which will take us to the next concert hall. We unload the trucks and load the cases into the theater. We then set the stage for the concert that evening. And we repeat the entire scenario that evening.
Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in "Groundhog Day"; and sometimes the tour schedule can be brutal; but the sense of accomplishment I feel when the concert goes off without a hitch makes it all seem worthwhile.
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Morning in Seoul: Breakfast and Press Conferences
Arriving in Seoul
Its TOUR TIME!
Kazue Asawa McGregor | October 10, 2008
It’s TOUR TIME! As librarian for the orchestra, I’m now in a constant state of alert and orneriness, and spinning endless what-if scenarios in my mind to try and prepare for every situation, an affliction that I ascribe as PTS (pre-tour syndrome).…What if a musician forgets his part in a cab, what if a head of state decides to attend our concert, what if the conductor’s baton breaks, what if we unexpectedly need to open a program to honor someone famous, what if a soloist gets sick and cancels, what if we run out of encores, what if you get the idea. I’m not normally into doom and gloom, it’s just the PTS kicking in. And so, I pack extra music to take on the road such as the national anthems of every country we visit, additional scores and parts, substitute pieces, extra encores and batons, slow, beautiful, elegiac works, and whatever else I think appropriate to instantly pull out of the hat. So far thankfully I have not had to live out these imagined scenarios on tours though I’ve come very close to a few, just enough to not be able to rid myself of the PTS. As for my personal suitcase, I dread packing and will just throw a few things together and be done with it.
My trumpeter husband, Rob, my 12-year old daughter, Misao, and our cat, Rosie, will be holding down the fort at home while I’m gone. My son, Isamu, is off in New York busily engaged in jazz piano studies and won’t miss me. I’m sad that I will miss Misao’s school project exhibit. In exchange I will have the pleasure of seeing my favorite aunt in Tokyo whom I haven’t seen in years. The last time I was in Tokyo was also with Esa-Pekka in 1994 when he led the orchestra there in an explosive performance of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra. But that’s for another blog.
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