WQED fm PSO Tour Blog

The past two days’ schedules have been extremely tight, with travel and concerts back to back. From Basel to Stuttgart was smooth with a rest stop at Pforzheim Nord in the midst of hundreds of buses. I rode on the family bus decorated with a brightly-colored cartoon theme. Stuttgart on a Sunday seemed extra quiet [...]

Sunday morning at breakfast, I spoke with Heidi Gorton who’s playing harp in the Mahler First Symphony and the Shostakovich Fifth, sharing the stage with her mom, PSO Principal Harpist Gretchen van Hoesen, and her dad, Co-Principal Oboist James Gorton. This morning brought the first rays of sunshine on this trip. The bus leaves for [...]

The first Pittsburgh Symphony  concert here in the Stadtcasino Basel was packed with an elegant crowd that heard the Brahms Violin Concerto featuring Anne Sophie Mutter. Mutter is from nearby Rheinfelden, Germany.  She got a chuckle from the crowd when she introduced her encore of a Bach Sarabande from his Partitas. Her elegant bare shoulders [...]

On the Deutsche Bahn train from Basel to Bad Säckingen, I learned that wicking underwear is all the rage amongst a significant number of the orchestra members. Principal Tuba Craig Knox explained the washday properties of Purex vs. Woolite on tour. Purex is preferred for its concentrated sudsing action. It seems that at least one [...]

Antikenmuseum horse in Basel Most everyone is here, many having followed different routes. The official route was a little slow with a two-hour delay in Chicago, long enough to learn that the Penguins were about to lose in the playoffs. Then a bit of a delay to head a little further north over the Icelandic [...]

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is off to Europe and WQED-FM 89.3 will cover the tour from beginning to end! From May 15th to the 29th, Jim Cunningham will be traveling with the Orchestra and will file daily reports back to Pittsburgh. Travel along with the PSO as they perform concerts in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, France, [...]