Our spring tour 2025 has really picked up speed, both in terms of the kilometers covered and musically: In the warm-up rehearsal before the concert in Antwerp's deSingel, Joana Mallwitz speaks enthusiastically about the breadth and lightness in Schubert's great C major symphony, which has grown over the course of the concerts in Essen, Regensburg and Erlangen.

This is one reason why tours are so important: if a programme can be performed more often than in the regular two or three concerts at home, an orchestra has the opportunity to immerse itself much more deeply in a work and in the interplay. This makes the conductor, orchestra and not least the audience happy!

The sky-scraping Gothic Cathedral of Our Lady made of light-colored sandstone with its filigree struts, the imposing Art Nouveau train station, which in an old merchant city is somewhat  a little more serious and tamed than elsewhere, the postmodern “Museum an de Strom”, cozy brick houses, waffles, frites and chocolates - after the long bus ride from Franconia to Belgium the day before, windy Antwerp between the Scheldt and the old town was a great place to clear your head for a few hours. Especially popular: rental bikes - and rental umbrellas!

Snapshots from half a day off: violists Peiyi Wu and Katja Plagens explore the city; principal cellist Friedemann Ludwig shields his cello colleague Nerina Mancini and solo trombonist Helge von Niswandt; Photo break at stunning Antwerp Centraal railway station, where the historical clock is ticking: At 18.15, there is an acoustics rehearsal in the deSingel hall.

While the orchestra members are still exploring the city, recharging their batteries for the evening concert with a short nap or have secured a room next to the hotel lobby to (very considerately) practice away from resting colleagues, our stage manager team is on duty in the large concert hall in the cultural center deSingel, after the local colleagues have cleared the set-up of a concert from the previous evening. The local stage hands have already helped to unload our instrument transport, which arrived the evening before. Now chairs and desks are moved, timpani are rolled in and Igor Prokopets' double bass from our previous contribution is freed from crate no. 8 by orchestra manager Gregor Beyer and carefully placed on the stage. Our coordinating orchestra manager Dirk Beyer inspects the podiums and the third member of the team, Raphael Volkmer, begins to distribute the sheet music on the stands. Some are a little dusty on the back, Gregor Beyer decides, and reaches for the cloth - details on the whole. Our orchestra manager Sophia Berendt always has everything in view and all appointments on her list, as the picture from our departure in Essen shows.

Most orchestra members like to arrive a little earlier in an unfamiliar hall, take their time to find their instrument box, perhaps check the height of the chairs and start to get used to the new acoustics. This is particularly important for our principal oboist Michaela Kuntz, who has to play an extended and famous solo in Schubert's Great C major Symphony - she told us about her preparations.

(Many thanks to Clarinet player Norbert Möller for the photo of Michaela Kuntz in intense conversation with our 1st concertmaster Sayako Kusaka before the concert in Friedrichshafen as well as for the photo of our principal oboist with her flute colleagues and a well-earned bouquet in Erlangen.)

“It is important for me to say that Schubert's Great C major Symphony demands a very high degree of musicality, precision and stamina from everyone on stage. The challenge is the alternation between tutti and solo passages - you have to adapt your timbre and dynamics very quickly and flexibly, and the whole woodwind section has to work very well together. That means we have to keep the concentration and tension very high the whole time. There is almost no pause, so we also have to apply our breathing technique very well in order to have the strength to create these incredibly long, beautiful cantilenas in the solos just before the end.”

“We have different air pressure conditions in the different cities on the tour. Here in Antwerp, we are 8 meters above sea level, in Zurich it will be 408 and the air pressure will be lower than today. This has an effect on the reed and above all on the response, the sound, and also the intonation. Today, the reed will feel a little heavy and bulky, but it will have more sound, and the day after tomorrow it will sound brighter. That's why I took a selection of reeds of different weights with me so that I could react flexibly. I test the conditions in each hall beforehand.

In Schubert's C major symphony, the note c is a very important one, especially in the solos. The annoying problem with the oboe, however, is that water stubbornly accumulates in the C hole. There are hardly any rests in this piece, so we can't just wipe the inside of our instrument. So I have already laid an oil line at home. I put a drop of almond oil into the oboe where the reed would normally be. It runs down the inside of the underside of the instrument and forms a path for the condensation that forms from the breath so that it doesn't settle in the tone hole. Unfortunately, if it does, all that comes out of the oboe is a gurgling sound. You definitely don't want that!”

In the evening, everything worked out fantastic - the audience in the sold-out hall celebrated the orchestra, our cello soloist Kian Soltani with Tchaikovsky's charming Rococo Variations and our chief conductor Joana Mallwitz with long, enthusiastic applause. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks and will keep the special atmosphere in deSingel, which consists of concert halls, theaters and the Antwerp Conservatory, in fond memory. Here are some concert impressions on and behind the stage by photographer Britt Ryckebosch: