My name is Christian Jones and I have played the bass trombone with the Philharmonia Orchestra since 2002. We are one of the four self- governing London orchestras, which means that we’re based in the capital and the players you will see on Wednesday have a direct input into any of the big decisions affecting the Orchestra’s life. We are also lucky to have have a team of specialist and dedicated office staff to ‘run the show’ while we are busy touring and practising our instruments!
The Philharmonia has carved out a unique role for itself in that it has established regular non-London concert series within the UK, as well as touring abroad. Put simply that means that I, as a native of the Staffordshire Moorlands, get to go ‘home’ to the Midlands a lot! As such, I was looking forward to Wednesday as soon as I saw it in our ‘advance schedule’ about 6 months ago!
The orchestra’s diary is divided into ‘patches’, which can last from a few days to several weeks. The conductor will always be the same during any one patch, though the repertoire may vary; our current patch is particularly exciting as we are working with Esa-Pekka Salonen, who since 2008 is our Principal Conductor. During our last three weeks with him, we have played in The Sage in Gateshead and the Royal Festival Hall in London; after Warwick, we will play in London and then round off in Paris.
As a brass player, the repertoire for Wednesday is particularly exciting, not least because we will open the show with a brand new brass fanfare! The Philharmonia is no stranger to world premieres, having given the first performance of Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss in 1950. (No, I wasn’t there!) Also Janacek’s Sinfonietta is especially rousing, though there will be more reflective moments during Wednesday’s programme, including Debussy’s masterpiece La Mer, written while he was holidaying by the English Channel of all places!
From the concerts we have already given with Esa-Pekka, I know that we’ll raise the roof in the Butterworth Hall, though hopefully not literally, as it’s just been refurbished…!
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