Scenes from Cologne and Vienna, and on the road to Budapest. View as: Windows Media video (19MB WMV) – OR – QuickTime video (10MB QuickTime)

Budapest’s Bela Bartok National Concert Hall is part of an overwhelming Palace of the Arts complex built just three years ago, with a National Theater and the Bartok Hall adjacent to one another. The Bartok is actually three halls, including the main concert hall for chamber music and other offerings. There are grand sweeping lobbies […]

The message light was blinking on the phone when I got back to the room. Everyone in the Symphony received a message that the Super Bowl would be projected on a big screen in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel. It was fun to watch Das Super Bowl in a German broadcast beginning at midnight. […]

While the Pittsburgh Symphony enjoys a day off in Hanover, I traveled with a few musicians to Vienna to interview our Music Director Designate, Manfred Honeck. PSO Director of Corporate Support Lizz Helmsen and I took a 9:00 am taxi to the Hanover airport, where I had much trepidation about the weight of my suitcases. […]

Leaving Cologne, Carnival and the Rhine behind, we were on the bus at 10:00 am for a four-hour ride to the northwest, destination Hanover. The ride was smooth, with a gray sky and some breaks among the clouds. Construction delays added some time and we arrived 45 minutes late at 2:30. Principal Cellist Anne Martindale […]

Here’s some Pittsburgh Symphony Tour footage from Spain and Amsterdam. View as: Windows Media video (17MB WMV) OR QuickTime video (10MB QuickTime)

It’s Weiberfastnacht in Cologne—the day the women take over the city in the events leading up to Shrove Tuesday and Lent. I’ve never been to Mardi Gras, but the atmosphere seems the same. It began at eleven minutes after eleven this morning, with a countdown and balloons and confetti. Two shopkeepers told me yesterday that […]

Watch the Bierbike It’s Carnival time in Cologne. Here’s a video of the Bierbike (Beer bike) — part bicycle, part beer garden. Look carefully, and you’ll notice the occupants pedaling.

Over 800 concerts take place each year at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A morning concert on the schedule meant the Pittsburgh Symphony needed to rehearse at the Old Stock Exchange, near the train station at the edge of the red light district. In the afternoon, the Pittsburgh toured the city with its lively atmosphere of […]

Even in winter, everyone rides a bicycle in Amsterdam. It’s in the 40’s and gray today, but whizzing in front of the hotel are the cyclists who ride single-speed bikes without wearing helmets, and talk on their cellphones while pedaling. They’ll be coming to Pittsburgh this summer as part of the Keystone State cycling event […]