The concert had an excellent atmosphere and there was a very brief opportunity to try some cider from Normandy outside the abbey at the end of the concert, just before we got back on the coach to the hotel. The following morning we retraced our steps back to Paris and enjoyed the rest of the day off. 

The following day we gave two performances of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony at Collège Jacques Decour near Montmartre. We have often rehearsed there with Les Talens Lyriques, but we had never before given a concert there. The first performance in the morning took place inside with the audience listening to the orchestra ‘in the round’. The second concert, in the evening, took place outside in the courtyard. We were fortunate to have good weather and the background noise (sirens and engines etc.) was fairly minimal during the concert, which was good. It had been quite noisy during our soundcheck rehearsal. With two performances and two rehearsals on 19th August, I was so pleased that I had a bumper; many thanks to Gareth for his help. 

On Friday 20th August, the orchestra met at Gare du Nord and took the Thalys to Köln, where we were met by a coach to take us on to Bonn. We checked into the Marriott hotel adjacent to the World Conference Centre where we would be playing. In the evening we walked along the river Rhine, towards the town centre and enjoyed traditional German cuisine and beer; in fact the beer, Bönnsch, was Bonn’s answer to Köln’s Kölsch. It was served in 0,3l measures in curved glasses and it was brewed on site. Bonn was Beethoven’s birthplace, and it would become the capital of West Germany between 1949 and 1990. 

Les Talens Lyriques had been invited to perform in the BeethovenFest Bonn 2021. Our performance took place on Saturday 21st August 2021, and it was recorded for a radio broadcast. We played both symphonies at A=430Hz on period instruments in the New York Saal of the World Conference Centre. The acoustic in the hall was rather dry, and it felt more tiring than usual to play the two Symphonies. I was so glad to have had a bumper, as these pieces are tiring even in a generous acoustic. In the coming months I may be playing Beethoven’s 7th Symphony from memory again, so this was an excellent opportunity for me to revise my memorisation ahead of that project.

I mentioned earlier the greater freedoms of travel afforded to vaccinated travellers. In the hotel, I was able to swim in an indoor swimming pool for the first time since February 2021. It was so good that I went twice on the morning of the concert. Although some swimming pools have been open again for a while, I had personally decided not to go swimming in a pool again until I was fully vaccinated. It was wonderful; I feel like my breathing improves every time I swim.

The audience gave a standing ovation, with many shouts of ‘bravo’ and cheering after the energetic final movement of the 7th Symphony. Les Talens Lyriques’ rendition of the famous second movement of the 7th Symphony was particularly refined. It is always a pleasure to play for Christophe Rousset; he interactively guides and shapes the performance, and the orchestra reacts interactively back. I must also mention the wonderful horn players, Jeroen Billiet and Yannick Maillet, we had on this project; their natural horn playing (particularly in the trio of the 7th Symphony) sounded fantastic, refined, and very impressive.
 

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Our route back to the UK would involve a train south along the river Rhine from Bonn to Mannheim (via Koblenz), where we changed for an ICE train to Paris (L’est). There, Will and I parted ways with the rest of the orchestra, taking the Eurostar back to London St. Pancras. This was an excellent trip, with enjoyable performances and, most notably, it did not require any quarantine in either direction. The printed proof of vaccination status is one of the most useful pieces of paper I have ever had; thank you science.