The second concert of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra’s tour to Poland and Lithuania matched the success of the first concert in Bydgoszcz. The hosts at the Filharmonia Podlaska in Bialystok have kindly invited the orchestra to a buffet dinner and proudly presented the plans for a new concert hall, the Filharmonia Bialystok, for which construction works have already begun. We took the opportunity to record a short interview with the soloist of both concerts in Poland, the pianist Michael Roll. Watch the interview…

Foto: Christoph Müller-GirodBialystok. Polish hospitality is proverbial. The second stop on the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra’s tour to Eastern Europe, however, was slightly tinged with an awkward feeling as the 72 musicians disembarked at Bialystok. The city counts 300.000 inhabitants and is the capital of the province of Podlasia, which borders on Masuria and Belarus. It is here that the Nazis had built one of the largest ghettos and had brutally ravished the area. So much the greater was the joy and sympathy on the musicians’ side as they noticed the importance the local public attributed to the visit of a German orchestra. Local press and media were present and appreciated this musical event as culturally meaningful. The date of the concert coincided with the 20th anniversary of the victory of the Solidarnosc movement, which was celebrated enthusiastically all over Poland. The ‘old’ philharmonic concert hall, which will be replaced next year by a new modern concert and opera complex, was sold out with more than 600 visitors. Like in Bydgoszcz, the orchestra was cheered by the – partly very young – audience with standing ovations.TOURNEE 2009 | Interview | Michael Roll from Christoph Müller-GirodFoto: Christoph Müller-GirodLogo: Susanne Hayduk

Related posts:

1. TOUR 2009 | 3.Concert | Slideshow | 100 Strings
2. TOURNEE 2009 | 2.Konzert | Diashow | Interview Michael Roll
3. TOURNEE 2009 | Interview | Michael Roll

For our many international guests, we would like to offer an English diary, providing Information and details of the Duisburg Phiharmonic Orchestra’s concert tour to Poland and Lithuania. 73 musicians, 13 staff members, 2 members of the web team, 2 journalists and music director Jonathan Darlington started travelling on the first day of June. Read on…

It was a very sunny Monday morning when we left our first meeting point in Duisburg, heading towards the Cologne Airport.  After a short break the journey continued with a smooth flight which took about two hours. The arrival in Warsaw was accompanied by thunder, lightning and heavy rain that made it quite  difficult to get all the luggage into the three busses waiting at the airport. Although we were just 280 km away from our Hotel, getting there took us the rest of the evening due to heavy traffic in the small but very beautiful country roads to Bydgoszcz in Poland. A dinner at midnight was the last point on the first day of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert tour. Stay tuned …Logo: Susanne Hayduk

Related posts:

1. TOUR 2009 | 2. Concert | Slideshow | Interview Michael Roll
2. TOUR 2009 | 3.Concert | Slideshow | 100 Strings
3. Tour 2009 | Rehearsal in Vilnius | slideshow

Logo: Susanne Hayduk

Starting on Monday, June 1st 2009, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director Jonathan Darlington will tour Eastern Europe, paying a visit to the European Capital of Culture 2009 – Vilnius.
No 40 pounds per person baggage limit here! It’s a total of 1.776 kilos of instruments, equipment, stands, scores, personal belongings, etc. The first stop will be Bydgoszcz (140 kilometres south of Gdansk) where the orchestra will play on June 2nd at the Filharmonia Pomorska concert hall. The second concert will take the orchestra 400 kilometres East to Bialystok, the capital of the Eastern Polish province of Podlaska, and their concert venue Filharmonia Podlaska. Both concerts will feature a very Darlington-esque combination of works by Vaughan Williams, Haydn, Berlioz, and Beethoven. The pianist on both evenings will be Michael Roll. Read on…

Saving the Best for LastThe highlight of this tour will be a concert in Vilnius, Duisburg’s partner city, which is this year’s European Capital of Culture. As the first part of the partner city project TWINS, this concert will be conducted alternately by both Jonathan Darlington and Gintaras Rinkevicius, music director of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, featuring works by Berlioz, Beethoven and Vaughan Williams and Tchaikovsky – the last two pieces (Vaughan Williams’s “Tallis Fantasia” and Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings”) will be performed by the combined forces of the nearly 100 string players of both orchestras.Next year, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra will pay a return visit, when Duisburg will be co-hosting the European Cultural Capital – Ruhr 2010.We’ll keep you updated!By the end of the tour, on June 8th, the orchestra will have covered 3800 kilometres, played many hours of music and reached out to new audiences.The web team will be blogging throughout the journey, keeping you updated with photos and videos, interviews and impressions, a Google Maps Journal and anything else we can think of to bring home as much as we can about the places, people and music along our way.

Related posts:

1. Tour 2009 | Tour Diary | 06.01.09
2. Tour 2009 | Rehearsal in Vilnius | slideshow
3. TOUR 2009 | 2. Concert | Slideshow | Interview Michael Roll

Zwischen den intensiven Proben zu dem Abschlusskonzert der Spielzeit 2009/2010, das am 27. und 28.05.09 um 20 Uhr in der Mercartorhalle Duisburg stattfindet, stellt Jonathan Darlington den internationalen Besuchern unseres Weblogs das außergewöhnliche Projekt Ring ohne Worte in englischer Sprache vor.  For our many international guests and visitors of this page: The Video “Quick Words from GMD J.Darlington” is recorded in English Video
Quick Words >> Jonathan Darlington >> Ring ohne Worte from Christoph Müller-Girod Foto: Christoph Müller-Girod

Related posts:

1. Quick Words >> Jonathan Darlington >>Ring ohne Worte
2. Jonathan Darlington | Quick Words
3. Quick Words: Jonathan Darlington – 5. Philharmonisches Konzert