Travel and Work

Quite a lot of us conductors have to travel exceedingly long distances in order to pursue our art. I personally have been known to fly from London to New Zealand and spend just 4 days in that wonderful country before flying back. During those 4 days I had 3 rehearsals and 2 concerts. And all of my Australian concerts are accomplished in 5 days; we have never been able to organise two Australian orchestras in consecutive weeks! One glance at my website will show you that last year I went to the Melbourne Symphony, came back to the UK for 10 days (and 4 concerts) then went back out to the West Australian Symphony in Perth. How does one cope with that distance and then have to conduct orchestras that quite rightly, will not tolerate tiredness? There are a number of factors that have to be in place before I undertake journeys like the above. The first is that on getting on board the B747 I have to turn left (or go upstairs!), or in the case of the A380, get on the top deck. Busines class beds on aircraft nowadays are superb and in the case of the Qantas A380 of fantastic quality. On-board entertainment is superb on all long-distance aircraft in all classes these days, but the difference between sitting bolt upright and lying flat is as the difference between Epsom Downs and Everest. Recently (4 years ago), due to an error in booking, I did a day-time flight from London to New York with my own orchestra and went economy. I spent the entire time fighting on one side with my next-door neighbour for the arm rest; and if it wasn't the arm-rest it was leg space! What is that all about? Young men seem to like sitting with their legs wide apart and they don't seem to have respect for other people's "personal space"! Fortunately on the other side (yes I was in the middle of the middle....horrendous and never again!) was a very attractive young girl. In the end we played each other our preferred music to see whether we liked each other's taste in music. I was flying Virgin and there was not much classical music choice, but in the end she got Beethoven, I got Lady GaGa! She got the better deal! But I digress. A flat bed is a necessity. The next important factor is to make sure the flight arrives late afternoon or early evening. In the past I have done flights that arrive at 5am and in my view that is a huge mistake. You have to spend the day trying to stay awake, and no matter how much sleep you had on the flight, that is very, very difficult. So I arrive in the evening, have a light meal (as let's face it, you've eaten your full and drunk far too much champagne....a tipple my Twitter friends will know I am inordinately fond of), then go to bed with a book, having taken half a sleeping pill! The only time I ever take sleeping tablets is on long distance trips. The next morning I wake up completely refreshed having had 7 hours sleep straight through and ready for almost anything. I generally take half a Zopiclone tablet for the 4 or 5 days I am there and stop the moment I leave. I am then completely adjusted to exactly the same as I am in my own time zone and able to work in the same way. Jet-lag? Hah! I laugh in the face of jet-lag and never suffer from it!