William Caballero and Cynthia Koledo de Almeida

09/03/24 • 24 min

The Principal Horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Caballero, and Principal Oboe, Cynthia Koledo de Almeida, talk about the 2024 European Festivals Tour just before the first of two concerts at the Elb Philharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. They describe the extraordinary success of the Salzburg Festival concert, the beauty of the South Tirol in Merano Italy, and the confetti at the end of the concert in Dusseldorf with Anne Sophie Mutter. The Pittsburgh Symphony has met the challenges of very warm concert halls and a few players being sidelined temporarily with Covid. Cynthia can’t recommend schnitzel with tofu in Austria but they’ve found lots of good things to eat and loved a guided tour with Manfred Honeck of Anton Bruckner’s final resting place at St. Florian Monastery. All in all the trip has been rapturously received everywhere and the Orchestra is feeling great.

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Yefim Brofnman - PSO 2024 European Tour

Piano superstar Yefim Bronfman joined Jim Cunningham in the third floor rehearsal room at Heinz Hall to discuss his interpretation of the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto which he will play on August 15 at the Pittsburgh Symphony's European Tour sendoff celebration, at the Salzburg Festival, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, and at Merano in the Italian Alps. He talks about his tour routine, playing outside, his recent performance at the Tanglewood Festival of the Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy, how author Philip Roth described him in the novel The Human Stain, and the significance of the Sound of Music in its upcoming 60th anniversary observation. He has high praise for the Pittsburgh Symphony working with Manfred Honeck and the value of taking the orchestra to Europe.

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David McCarroll

The Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony David McCarroll spoke about the two German European Tour concerts at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg Germany. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was on its way an afternoon rehearsal with Yefim Bronfman playing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3. The program consists of John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Stravinsky’s Suite From the Firebird and Puccini’s Turandot Suite. David discusses the tour so far with Anne Sophie Mutter, who will be performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.