What a Joy

10 July 2020
WRITTEN BY
Michiel Commandeur

Michiel Commandeur

Musician

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It is hard to know where to start for writing this tour diary. The orchestra has not played together now for more than four months. Because of the corona crisis, seven of our tours have already been completely cancelled. Travels to New York, Prague, Heidelberg, Croatia and so on... all gone.

So it is a hard time right now for the MCO. We manage to see each other some times on Zoom meetings, where the board tells us about the current position of the orchestra and where the members tell the rest about their personal situation at home.

Then suddenly there was one project, at last, that could happen, a livestream with the great harpist Xavier de Maistre in Lübeck for the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. In order to keep the necessary distance between each other on stage, we had to be a small group. Only string players and just 14 of us and we all had to play from our own desk. No classical "desk partner” this time. This was a completely different format than we had originally planned, but still! I got very excited by the idea of playing together again and seeing some of my fellow players.

I decided to travel by car because I find the train and especially planes still a bit scary right now, and arrived at our hotel in the beautiful town of Lübeck. As soon as I entered, it was clear that they were very strict on the corona rules. There were one-way lines drawn on the floors and when moving inside, one always had to wear a mask. It was so strange to enter a hotel room after being at home for four months. And I suddenly realised that I had not been at home that long since we started the MCO more than 23 years ago. Fortunately, it felt comfortable straight away.

So off to the first rehearsal, a really exciting feeling! I met a couple of my dearest colleagues (but of course, with around 30 of them missing) and we all cheered when we met again. But no hugging. No kissing. No touching at all. All with distance and masks. So with some laughs, we started playing the Mozart Divertimento.

What a joy! And how quickly everybody was able to adapt themselves to the orchestra again. It took a little while, but then all of us recognized that "MCO feeling" again. And when we rehearsed the Bartók Divertimento – a piece that is so much a part of our musical DNA – we sometimes had the feeling that we were back completely. After some nice Schweinshaxe in a typical North German restaurant (with masks!) and a “Lübecker-Aquavit”, we all had a good night's sleep in our big hotel beds.

The next day, the soloist Xavier de Maistre joined us for the other two pieces in the programme. One, Danse sacrée et Danse profane by Debussy, was a very dreamy and warm piece in which the strings and harp were entangled in both a sacred and a non-sacred dance. The other piece was a harp concerto by the English composer Elias Parish-Alvars from the mid-19th century. This was totally new for us. I can’t remember us ever playing a harp concerto before, and it become a great lesson in listening and being flexible. The soloist played beautifully, and in the end the piece became a new conquest for the MCO.


On the day of the concert we drove to the beautiful surroundings of Hasselburg, north of Lübeck. There was a television set up for the concert in a beautiful old barn, where the music festival normally has its highlight concerts for a room full of people. Though our concert had to be performed without public. We were hosted in a very comfortable and kind way and played the concert to a silent and nearly empty hall. It was surreal in a way, but our presence gave us all so much energy. The feeling of playing together again was amazing (just listen to our enthusiasm after the final note at the link below!)


We all hope that the number of cases stays down and that we will all meet each other again in September. But whatever happens, we stay patient and we keep playing and we keep faithful to each other because we know that one day we will all be united again and will fill the beautiful halls with our beautiful music once more. And to all our audiences, hopefully see you soon!


Watch the full performance online for free, until 4th October, at ARTE Concert.

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