Notes from the Road

An informal report on Chanticleer's latest tour. This month finds the ensemble in some gorgeous venues and exciting festivals in Europe.

July 27, 2007

The final concert of the tour in the Collegiale St. Martin in Brive la
Gaillarde: another wonderful acoustic, and another audience which seemed thrilled to discover us. The South of France is sunny and warm--it's  hard to leave, and we can't wait to be back in Europe in January!

Our final rehearsal and performance (below, left and right) of the tour.

July 26, 2007

Here we are between our dressing room in Ambazac's City Hall and the town's 12th century church, which has a gloriously warm and resonant acoustic.  The audience was warm and excited to see us; for most it was their first contact with Chanticleer.

July 25, 2007

It's a long way to Limoges, France...here we take a break to streeeetch.

July 24, 2007

Tonight's concert with Elena Bashkirova and Rene Pape was fun; the audience insisted on two encores from us. (There's some video where we're both singing and in interviews, here.) Then on to a fantastic dinner in a private chalet with our patron group, to whom we now bid a fond farewell. Hard to believe we have to leave our chalets and get back in the bus, but tomorrow - Verbier to Limoges!

We'll miss this view!

July 23, 2007

On the average tour day we're either in a bus or a plane or both, but today it's a rehearsal with Rene Pape and Elena Bashkirova for tomorrow night's concert, followed by a gourmet dinner with our patron group. (View the complete patron trip itinerary here.)

July 22, 2007

Last night's concert was very well-received. Afterwards there was a reception in a chalet for us, and singer Anne Sophie Von Otter and pianist Elena Bashkirova.  Rehearsal with Elena tomorrow, then our second Verbier Festival concert on Tuesday.

An angry sky dominates the village ....

While the fog was so thick yesterday we could barely see the church before we got to the front door.

July 20, 2007

An uneventful five-hour bus ride to Switzerland in the pouring rain.  Executive Director Christine Bullin has gone ahead to Geneva to greet 16 friends of Chanticleer who are going to spend the next four days with us.

July19, 2007

The church of Les Dominicains in the Alsace region of France was closed but not destroyed during the French Revolution. It is now a stunning performance space with two stages and a jazz club.  (See shots of our rehearsal and concert, below.)  About three-quarters of tonight's audience came from across the German border, so Matt and Eric A. addressed the audience in French and German.

July 17, 2007

A peaceful morning (below) in Saintes, France....while the ensemble rests up after a strenuous journey--(don't ask..Matt and Brian ended up driving our luggage in from Frankfurt!)--the strains of Bach from a morning concert fill the air of this charming Festival town. We encountered quite the media circus: France 2 Television was here covering our rehearsal and performance, and France Musique Radio broadcast the concert live across the European Union.  Our all-American program (Stucky, Thomas, Whitacre, Kyr, Corigliano, and Schoenfield pieces, followed by ever-popular renditions of jazz standards) was very well-received, and the American theme was carried on this evening, as the Pfister Sisters from Louisiana played in the square, rocking the town til 1AM.

July 15, 2007

Gorgeous acoustic in the Barocksaal of Kloster Machern; tonight's concert was totally packed, with a waiting list of 100. It's HOT here.  All 350 audience members were handed a bottle of water on their way into the Barocksaal (the first time we've seen that). A gentleman introduced the show in German, and asked everyone to open their water bottles at that moment in order to avoid making noise during the show. The ensemble, waiting to go on, heard a massive hissing sound as 350 water bottles opened simultaneously!

The show was taped for radio and was wonderfully well-received: a standing ovation and two encores.

July 14, 2007

A nine-hour busride from Austria into Germany, ending up in a very picturesque valley in the Mosel wine region.

We make a necessary stop...for some ice cream.

July 13, 2007

Concert tonight: the Marble Hall of the Stift St. Florians is packed to the rafters. Many people heard our last concert here in 2000, and many had were at the Musikverein in Vienna last year.  The CD table was very active: a number of people were disappointed, however, as they viewed the table and announced that they have everything!

The room is very reverberant, so some tempos had to be slower to adjust to the echo.

Bonus--It's mushroom season! We feast on delicious dishes of porcini and chanterelles, which are gathered in forests here in July and August.

July 10, 2007

We join the massive summer migration to Europe.  Experienced travelers as we are, we had never seen such security lines and so many infant travellers at SFO!  Another group of musicians was setting out for a July tour: on our plane to Frankfurt were Sly and the Family Stone. We were also pleased to discover two Chanticleer supporters who will be joining our group in Verbier.  After a layover in the Frankfurt airport of three hours – about enough time to get from one gate to the other!---a short Lufthansa flight got us to to Linz, Austria. Then a bus to St. Florians, where we took over a charming 14 room hotel with what we hear is a really good restaurant!

Last time we were in Europe (Jan-Feb 2005) it was the dead of winter during our whirlwind of major cities in France, Holland,  Austria, Spain and the Baltic States.  This is a summer festival tour, so no big cities, but very interesting audiences.  St. Florians, in upper Austria, is the smallest town on this tour – a few small shops, no shortage of places to eat, and the magnificently baroque Stift St. Florians above us.

Matt and Brian went immediately with our presenter, Mr. Karl-Heinz Kuba, to check out the splendor of the Marble Hall where we will perform on Friday.  What a ceiling! The performance been sold out for some time now:  it will be the third time in St. Florians for Chanticleer – the last in 2000-so maybe a few people know us here.  Bass Eric Alatorre – present the last two times-  had given the acoustic a big build up before we even got here.  Eric also made sure everyone knew that one of St. Florians’ most famous residents was composer Anton Bruckner, who is buried under the organ in the church.

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