My debut with the “Professors” was in February 1996 at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, in the Grosses Festspielhaus.

Haydn 49, Mozart Piano Concerto 23 with Imogen Cooper, and Beethoven 2. The concert went rather well, especially the Beethoven, and the reviews were outstanding. But the best thing of all was that, while walking offstage, the manager immediately engaged me for a concert in the next Summer Festival, with Christian Tetzlaff playing the Berg concerto and the rest of the programme my choice! A good start I thought. He was kind enough to say in a press interview that it was “pure joy” for the orchestra to work with me.

So the following year Christian and I played the wonderful Berg, with Schubert’s Unvollendete and No.5 either side. We had already played the Berg together in Boston a couple of years earlier, on which occasion we were very excited to meet Louis Krasner, the venerable violinist who had commissioned the work in 1935. We were told he was in the audience, so during the interval we took off our tail coats and nipped down into the hall, where he was sitting in a wheel chair. The audience looked a little puzzled, but we were on a mission. After exchanging courtesies I asked for any tips. He thought for a while and then said: “Only one thing; next time count silently to ten before you start. The piece wants to come out of a void.” I have always done so since!

The following year I was with the Czech Philharmonic at the Festival, but in 1999 things got rather busy. First I was back with the Professors for Mozart and Haydn in The Salzburg Mozartwoche in January. Then in March two performances of Bach’s B minor Mass in the Musikverein. I used 8 first violins and the Arnold Schönberg Choir of about  40, and for the first time quietly but firmly  asked for pure tone. At the interval of the first concert I saw some of the players quizzing their families about the sound. When they turned round to me with thumbs up it was evident that I hadn’t after all  destroyed the orchestra single handed!

The Sunday morning concert of the B Minor was attended by the Chairman of the Chinese Republic, and his fleet of 30 staff, who were on a state visit. They were all staying, as I was, at the Imperial, next th the Musikverein. On this state occasion the road between hotel and hall was closed and red carpeted. Once everyone was inside I had the quiet joy of walking alone across the carpet, with nothing in my hands. No coat, no bag, no glasses, no score (memory instead), no baton. Just me, and the great work ahead. Rather special.

In April ’99 I conducted the orchestra’s Otto Nicolai Memorial concerts. (Nicolai was the first conductor of the VPO, and this was the 150th anniversary of his death.) We played Nicolai with Beethoven 7 in Vienna, and with Bruckner 3 on tour in Paris and quite a few German cities. The management made no demur at my request for double winds, nor for playing the original version of the Bruckner. In the composer’s lifetime they had refused to play both the first and the second versions, and the concert of the third version was a disaster. So this was a sort of premiere! As for double winds, this is essential in Bruckner with a modern sized string section, and was absolutely normal at the time. The VPO themselves doubled their winds when they moved into the Musikverein hall, as the string section grew to 12 first violins. It’s a total mystery to me that modern conductors don’t seem to notice that the wind are inaudible otherwise…

The Paris concert was rather a nightmare for Kay and me. We had a decent lunch in the Plaza Athenée where we were staying. But in the evening something evidently hadn’t agreed with me, and I walked over to the hall feeling very queezy. A glass of port helped a bit, but Kay spent the first half backstage with a bucket in case I had to rush off! The radio recording sounds OK; it’s amazing what a bit of music can do to cheer one up! . In May ’99 we played some Handel concerts in Salzburg and Vienna. A busy year, but 2000 would be even busier.

On 1 June 2000 I conducted a new production of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Vienna Staatsoper. We had been rehearsing for several weeks (with a week off in Salzburg for a Camerata Schumann Begegnung, and odd days for concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the LPO). There were six performances over the following 2 weeks, but the last week became the most hectic of my entire career.

The day after the last show I was booked for three days to film a movie about Schumann and his second symphony with Simon Callow and the Camerata in Salzburg. Suddenly, a week before, a conductor fell ill and The VPO Manager called asking me to pick up four Subscription Concerts over the same period! I said it was impossible, but he was desperate, and we worked out a schedule. It looked like this:

ONE MAD WEEK IN JUNE 2000

3 MAGIC FLUTES, 4 CONCERTS, 3 DAYS FILMING

11 June Fly Vienna

               7pm Zauberflöte

12 June  Study all day

13 June 10-1 Rehearse VPO

3-6  Rehearse VPO

14 June 3-6 Rehearse VPO

15 June 2-4 Rehearse VPO

7pm Zauberflöte

16 June 10-1 General VPO

  7.30 Concert 1

17 June   3.30 Concert 2.

                Then walk to opera house, and:

  7.30 Zauberflöte

18 June   11am Concert 3

  Fly Salzburg

  3-8 Filming

19 June   10-1 Filming

  Fly Vienna

  7.30 Concert 4

  Driven to Salzburg by night

20 June   Filming all day

21 June   Fly London

7 Shows

5 Rehearsals

5 Journeys

The concert programme was:

Weber Euryanthe Overture

Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello

Schumann Symphony No.2

In August 2000 I conducted Berlioz’ Romeo and Juliet with the VPO in the Salzburg Festival. I gave a short talk at the beginning of the concert, to explain this unusual piece and how it was first performed. Interestingly I was asked to give the talk in English, since so many Americans and Japanese would understand it better, and cultivated Austrians and Germans mostly would too.

In January 2001 we gave a nice concert of Mozart and Haydn in the Mozartwoche.

In June 2002 we played a “London” programme of Handel Fireworks, Walton Facade and Elgar’s First Symphony. The Symphony was, amazingly, a debut for the orchestra, and possibly for the hall. The piece is still relatively unknown in Europe. In Berlin, superbly played by the Philharmonic, it had been received with what you might call caution. “We like what we know”. I determined to make it easier for the Viennese, so before we played it I gave a little talk. I explained that in England it had been premiered by their old  chief, Richter, with glowing appreciation, and played all over the world. But Richter never returned to Vienna, and the First War had swept English music away. I explained that this particular English music is closely related to Brahms and to Wagner. I told them that I adored the piece and its story, and that they would love it too. They did!

My last concert with the VPO was back in Salzburg, in the 2006 Festival. For a beautiful all-Mozart programme I finally asked the players seriously what should we should do about vibrato (after all I hadn’t heard any now with other bands for at least 6 years). They went very silent, but then (Gott sei dank!) my favourite leader got up and said “This time we’ll do it”. We had only two rehearsals (the second one public), but they all “did it”, and it sounded quite wonderful. Big success; stunning reviews. Since then I’ve never heard a word from them. A  step too far?

Ah well; we had a nice 10 years, and 26 performances together.