Happiness Everywhere

Very much excited about writing my first tour diary with the MCO!

The first time I visited the wonderful Budapest was exactly 20 years ago with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. It was also my first tour with the amazing youth orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer. We also played at the Budapest Spring Festival. 

Perfect parallelism in my musical life.

This time my beloved MCO family and the great Daniele Gatti with a program that includes works by Webern and Schubert. 

Arrival day in Hungary after almost a three hour flight from Barcelona. So far, I had a non-typical dinner with my usual Spanish little group. Paco, Vicent and José. Wonderful evening and so much looking forward to our first rehearsal tomorrow morning. More to come...

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First day of rehearsals with Maestro Gatti. So elegant, brilliant and musical. I cannot express in words how privileged I feel to work with MCO and Daniele Gatti.

To finish this wonderful day, nice meal with Hungarian pianist Krisztina Fejes and visit to astonishing Buda and the Royal Palace with a view to Pest. Magical city. Looking forward to tomorrow day and work more on Schubert symphonies.  

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Second day of rehearsals and really great work on the Schubert symphonies. So beautiful. Loving MCO.

To end this wonderful day, our friend-conductor, Alpaslan Ertüngealp, who lives here, drove us to a very typical restaurant outside Budapest, in the city of Aszód. Delicious food at Aredo restaurant. And with a great surprise there having a FaceTime call with our viola extra player for so many years, Alexandre Razera, from Brazil!!!! Looking so much forward to tomorrow's concert in Budapest and also to meeting old friends from the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Very exciting.

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Our last day in Budapest. Meeting with my old friend Zoli early in the morning for a coffee just before the general rehearsal. So nice to catch up after more than 15 years. 

Very special concert here in Budapest and nice dinner all together in a Greek restaurant. Zoli, Nandor, Andrea, Alpaslan, Krisztina, they all joined us for the whole evening. Very touching.

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Off to Italy. 

First stop, Pavia. Beautiful city as usual in this wonderful country.

Very special concert here. 

Imagine an old music box with a dancer inside. That came to my mind yesterday during the 6th symphony. 

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Next stop Reggio Emilia. Two nights, two concerts, Bologna and Reggio.

After so many years having played and rehearsed in this city, somehow is like coming back to an old home. Full of memories with Claudio and full of caressing colors around, special smells. Always peaceful to come back.

Concert tonight in Bologna was just unbelievable. Great energy from Maestro Gatti, the great audience and of course, from the orchestra who in my opinion was just delicious. 

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Before our concert tonight in Reggio, I must write about the highlight of the day, so far. A visit to the city of Rubiera, where I went, more than 10 years ago, with the MCO and Claudio Abbado. We didn't play a concert. Claudio invited the whole orchestra to a dinner at the unique restaurant “Clinica Gastronomica Arnaldo”. 

Today I went for lunch with José Vicente, Alessandro, Lia and Genevieve. 

I will not put it in words, pictures will explain you the experience.