I’ve been playing in Britain’s orchestras for many years and enjoy a very varied musical life, not least because I play so many different types of clarinet. As a period clarinet player I have had the enormous pleasure of being a member of The Age of Enlightenment Orchestra and get to play so many beautiful original clarinets with some of the world’s finest conductors and then another day I have the exciting adrenalin rush of playing a huge symphony on my modern clarinet with wonderful orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Here’s my top ten orchestral moments in no particular order.
1. Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on tour around Europe with Sir Simon Rattle, playing gorgeous french romantic repertoire, on a beautiful old Buffet A Bass from the Shackleton Collection in Edinburgh.
2. Irish Chamber Orchestra tour of America in 2012, everything made it get into the top ten. 12 hour coach journeys, western horse riding with instructor Leighton (swoon) in the Rockies, The Grand Rapids Hotel that was an alcohol free zone sipping our after concert hot chocolates, first and LAST bickram yoga session with jet lag, altitude sickness and hang over and finally the empire state building on Halloween night after playing Beethoven’s 7th Symphony at the Lincoln Centre in New York.
3. Northern Symphonia Chamber Orchestra accompanying the Ghost of Percy Grainger whilst his pianola reels played the Grieg Piano Concerto.
4. Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Education Project at the Whitechapel Art Gallery working on creating new music by sampling clarinet and violin sounds and mixing them with live and electronic music in response to a sculpture by Giuseppe Penone.
5. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performance of Sheherezade by Rimsky Korsakov one of my favourite pieces and I so loved playing it.
6. Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs every year at Gylndebournes Opera House, whilst each opera is a musical high point every year, the Kiss in Cosi Fan Tutti to Tony Robsons oboe note with Ivan Fisher lives on most magically.
7. Gabrielli Consort and Players Ensemble augmented itself to epic proportions for a performance of Elijah in the 2011 BBC Proms, I’ll never forget being hit by such a exhilarating wall of sound.
8. Orchestra of the Age of Enightenment perform act 3 from Tristan and Isolde at the BBC Proms with Sir Simon Rattle, I got to play the dark bass clarinet solo on a moody, gritty “A” bass from the Shackleton collection. If that wasn’t enough Sir Simon stood me up at the end in front of the Albert Hall audience and kissed my hand!!!!!!!!!!!
9. Irish Chamber Orchetra concert in the Konzerthaus most recently in 2013 was a heavenly mixture of Schubert, Mendelssohn and chocolate.
10. Finally performing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra lots of popular classics and fab tunes all over the country.