There’s always one period in my season that ends up being slightly more travel and work than any sane individual should undertake, and this year it’s been January. In the weeks since the Jacksonville Symphony opened the year with Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony (about which I wrote last month), I’ve guest-conducted with the Asheville and Dallas symphonies and the Minnesota Orchestra. Here’s a snapshot of those weeks away from home. Sunday, Jan. 8: Recover from a very intense week with Jacksonville. Sibelius’ Seventh was one of those fiendishly difficult but rewarding projects that only come along a few times a year. In the afternoon I talk to the Jacksonville Jewish Community Alliance about the various projects we have going on. Tuesday, Jan. 10: Fly to Asheville,

Continue readingA crazy January!

I’ve spent the last few weeks visiting friends and family in New York, London, Salzburg and Belfast. It’s been wonderful catching up with their news, and also sharing mine, much of which has been about what we’ve been doing in Jacksonville. Invariably, everyone asks what the first concert of the New Year is. It’s a program that looks quite straightforward on paper, but in reality it’s one of the most difficult of the season: Beethoven’s Second Symphony, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony. What exactly makes some pieces of music more difficult than others? I’m often surprised at how back-to-front audiences’ ideas about this are. Some moments that seem very impressive are actually rather easy to pull off, like the loud and fast music

Continue readingSibelius 7 and what’s difficult in music