| Most of the
questions are about the orchestra. Who plays in
it, how are they chosen, who supports it, conductors who lead it. I explain: there are approximately 130 players, from 15
countries. The fifteen of the European Union. We conduct auditions each year to choose the best from
each country. Most, age range 14 to 23, are studying at conservatories.
Our lead
violinist, Clare Duckworth, is British and studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Vova
adores working with her. She is a major talent and
has a delicious smile.
We’ve toured
extensively in Europe and have travelled to North and South America, India, Russia and
China. We’re now officially the EU’s goodwill ambassador , but I still must
raise private sector money. This is hardest part of
my job. Raising money.
 But when I look at the young faces and listen to
the outstanding quality of their music, I swell with pride. And then I see the
enthusiasm of our renowned music directors, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bernard Haitink and
Claudio Abbado and guest conductors, who have included
Sir Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta, Mistislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Georg
Solti, Herbert von Karajan, I know it’s worth it.
The orchestra is considered to be one of the
world’s leading symphony orchestras.
In my speeches I
talk about what my husband Lionel and I, care most about. It is the reason we founded
the EUYO close to 25 years ago. We wanted to
demonstrate that through music, a universal language, you can build a bridge, between even the most diverse cultures, a harmony. We are
incorrigible idealists.
At rehearsals,
the girl from Finland is laughing with the boy from Spain and the French and German
boys are earnestly discussing the notes they are to play. During the day when they all eat
together and lark about they are like teenagers everywhere. The main gripes from my
players are the concerns about food. The logistics in feeding 130 young people three times
a day are awesome. Many are vegetarian, some must
follow wheat free diets, there are nut allergies now. The
Greek restaurant chefs, though somewhat sceptical of these new-wave allergies, do their
best.
It is 3:30 pm.
Time to go to rehearsal for tonight’s performance. We walk the five minutes in
the blazing August sun up the dusty hill to the Herodes Atticus, an amphitheatre built
2,000 years ago by the Romans, under the brow of the Acropolis. The rehearsal there takes about two hours. No fussing about the heat.
All respond to the gentle but firm commands from Vova, “Let’s try that
passage again.”
I trudge back to
the hotel to a list of ‘phone messages. We
leave tomorrow for Cyprus. I’ve been working
hard to get the Turkish Cypriot government officials to allow their young players to join
in our master classes with the Greek Cypriot players. This
is, of course, politically sensitive in this divided island. It would be a major
breakthrough. It is what the orchestra is
working for -- bringing harmony through music.
It is 8:30 pm. I
am wearing my red silk dress and gold Chanel jewellery. I take five minutes to relax with a whiskey (Johnny Walker
black label )and then up the hill, this time in a car. The stadium is filled: 5,000 people up to the stars, it seems . The evening air is pleasantly cool. The orchestra files on stage to great applause and Vova comes on almost at a run up to the podium.
Enthusiasm ripples through the audience.
“…All
men shall be brothers “ sing the soloists, that familiar invocation to universal
fraternity in the choral finale, the music set to Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy. The
9th has been adopted appropriately as the anthem of the European Union.
We now face the
accession of 10 more countries into the Union. It
will double my work and efforts. I’m 72 years
old and can’t stop now. Twenty-five countries working together from 2004.
 I fall into bed at midnight, pleased with the evening. But
around the edges is the turmoil of worries about tomorrow’s journey. Will the charter plane flying 130 instruments and 130
musicians and divas arrive on schedule? The theatre I originally selected two months ago
for the concerts has been closed for an archaeological dig.
Will the substitute venue have decent acoustics? The President’s wife is
hosting a charity concert. Shall I try once again to
persuade the powers that be to allow the Turkish and Greek young musicians to join in
master classes?
But somehow I do
sleep. My constitution has been adapting
to the stress for 25 years now.`
|
