The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is scoring in many ways on its six-country European tour.
The symphony changed conductors Tuesday for a concert that was led by Marek Janowski in the famously beautiful acoustics of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
"We know the quality of the Pittsburgh Symphony, but it was really amazing watching the audience response in Barcelona, Madrid and Amsterdam," said Allegheny County Commissioner Dan Onorato after the Concertgebouw concert. "You couldn't ask for a better ambassador than the Pittsburgh Symphony. Its quality is up with the best in Europe and puts Pittsburgh on the map."
He and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl are taking advantage of the symphony's artistic excellence as a calling card to promote business development in Western Pennsylvania.
Ravenstahl and his wife attended the concert at the Concertgebouw as well.
"I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit my first opportunity to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony was in Amsterdam," said Ravenstahl, who added that they thoroughly enjoyed it. "My wife and I were talking about it, and when we get back to Pittsburgh in the very near future, we're going to Heinz Hall."
Ravenstahl said he found a lot of interest in Pittsburgh at business meetings he and Onorato attended in Amsterdam on Sunday and Monday.
"We're a region in transition," he said. "I think the tour was a prime example of the way myself, the county executive, the corporate community and the Pittsburgh Symphony are working collectively to promote Pittsburgh with a strong message of inclusiveness."
Janowski's Concertgebouw program included Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos as soloist and the Fourth Symphony. CDs of Brahms' orchestral music on the Dutch PentaTone label that were recorded within the past year by Janowski and the orchestra at Heinz Hall were on sale in the concert hall.
"The concert went over very well with the audience," said Albert Manders, a Dutch flutist who became familiar with the orchestra during his years studying at the University of Pittsburgh. He reported that the orchestra played very well, with winds clearer in the Concertgebouw than he remembers at Heinz Hall. But as enjoyable as the concert was, Manders said it was not more exciting than many he heard in Pittsburgh.
Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos led the orchestra for the first part of the tour from Jan. 21 to 27 in Spain. The schedule was grueling, with four consecutive days of arriving in a city in the early afternoon, giving a concert in the evening without rehearsal, and the next morning getting back on buses to repeat the process.
"It has been a lot of travel, but my overall impression was one of so much fun," principal bass Jeffrey Turner said. "I think the orchestra has developed such affection for Fruhbeck that it was really great to spend time getting to know the same repertoire with him over and over. He was fantastic."
But Turner said there's a high price to be paid for the symphony's touring schedule in Spain.
"To play at our best," he said, "we need acoustic rehearsal time in the halls."
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