Glorious 9th

Some work at last!  Just a few days acting, some radio drama for the BBC at the Mailbox in Birmingham, but it's the first booking for ages and I'm anxious to get back to it.  Also good to meet up with fellow performers; I'm not really very good at the 'networking stuff' and consequently don't bother attending some of the events where those things happen, so I tend to lose touch a bit with what's going on locally, including a few castings.  Some great dramatic scenes for me though playing the villain again - I love it!  I bumped into an old friend while I was there - the producer Rosemary Watts, who very kindly arranged the choir music in my radio play A Miracle In No Man's Land some years ago.  She sings in a choir herself, and so I asked if she had anything coming up, and it turned out that her choir was at Symphony Hall that very evening performing in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, conducted by Andris Nelsons, and Rosemary thought there might be a chance of picking up a return ticket or two if I turned up early enough.  I love Beethoven, and the 9th has always been a piece of music I've wanted to hear live - I knew I couldn't miss this opportunity, so I rang Sarah and Lucy: they hopped on a train and I met up with them in town following my recording and we hung around the box office for absolutely ages waiting for returns... but they were all too expensive, we could only afford the cheap seats.  However after a while someone took pity and sold me a £20.00 ticket for a tenner and then another, finally just before the performance someone else turned up at the box office with a return and the woman at the booth pointed me out, saying that I had been waiting all afternoon and would he consider selling it to me; it was pretty much the best seat in the hall and way out of our financial reach, but the guy shrugged, grinned and said he could see how much I wanted to see the performance, so he didn't want anything for it - he gave me it!  And so I sat just above the orchestra and was just blown away by the whole experience.  The evening began with a short tender piece by Brahms called Nänie, which I've never heard before, but was quiet moving, the choir really hitting a poignant spot for me, lots of colour and delicate tones.  And then - the 9th!  Wow - it was incredible; I know it so well, but to actually experience it live was an event I will never forget.  Nelsons is a brilliant conductor, I couldn't take my eyes off him; he conducted the orchestra with his whole body: his face was bright with emotion, expressions changing with each bar, sometimes stern, sometimes pleading, sometimes joyous, often he would clench his baton in his fist and literally jump up and down like a mad general, the next moment he would be leaning over his score reaching into the string section as if he was pulling the music out of the instruments himself; energetic and personal summed him up - he was living the score, feeling the nuances, experiencing them and translating them into sublime sounds - amazing.  The soloists too played their parts to perfection: I was anticipating that bass voice which begins the vocal section, but when it eventually came and Georg Zeppenfeld's deep rich sound filled the hall, it took my breath away, and then of course came that intricate balance of tenor (Toby Spence), mezzo-soprano (Mihoko Fujimura) and soprano (Lucy Crowe) which just sent shivers and shudders straight through me, and then - that massive choir and the 'Ode To Joy' just erupted like a musical volcano, and together with the titanic orchestra of the CBSO it eventually reached Beethoven's amazing climax.  It's the first time I have heard the 9th other than on a recording, but I don't think it has ever or will be played as well again; I just can't imagine it.  I can't stop reliving the whole evening, the music is still ringing in my head - I've even been dreaming about it - one of those things you should do before you die has now been ticked of my list.  Thank you Andris Nelsons and the CBSO and the generous stranger who gave me his ticket...  I'm not bothered if I ever hear it played live again, that will do for me.