Television viewers are invited tonight to the equivalent of an old-fashioned vacation slide show, a behind-the-scenes video view of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's triumphant tour of Japan.
"BSO Beyond Baltimore," airing at 8 p.m. on WBAL, Channel 11, offers an engaging, personable travelogue, as recorded by producer Terry Todesco and photographer Al Hintenach, who joined the BSO last month on the Japan portion of its 29-day Asia tour.
NTC Unlike last week's excellent Maryland Public Television presentation of highlights of the orchestra's climactic concert in Tokyo's Suntory Hall, this hour-long special concentrates on the musicians' experiences away from the concert stage.
"We wanted to show you, our hometown, what it was like," says Concert Master Herbert Greenberg, introducing the program.
Among the off-stage touring highlights: associate principal horn player Peter Landren and other BSO joggers doing their morning workout around the Imperial Palace; flute player Emily Controulis taking a pilgrimage to a temple dedicated to cats to memorialize a departed pet; brass players shopping for new instruments at the Yamaha outlet; and other players sleeping and joking on a succession of tour buses and trains.
"The concerts are actually a welcome relief from hanging out" in airports and bus stations, notes music director David Zinman during the show, describing the orchestra's sometimes grueling travel schedule.
Bass trombone player Randy Campora leads an especially funny mock documentary visit to check out Japanese junk food at a Lawson Store, their equivalent of a 7-11.
"We thought that this was a big enough event that it deserved a premier airing . . . We wanted to get a glimpse of the orchestra members as our cultural ambassadors," says Emerson Coleman, executive in charge of production for WBAL.
The orchestra's music and the remarkable reception by Japanese audiences to it, are not left out of the program, however. One notable segment presents the BSO playing an encore composed for the trip by bass player Jonathan Jensen, adapting an ancient Japanese folk melody.
And viewers will get a sense of the tension that prevails seconds before a performance, for the Channel 11 team had access to the wings.
Before one Suntory Hall concert, for example, we see violin soloist Ann Akiko Meyers tuning her instrument, as Mr. Zinman literally growls encouragement. Suddenly aware of the camera, she mugs into the lens, then strides onstage with the maestro.
And before one of cellist Yo-Yo Ma's performances, he asks the conductor, "do you have any last words?"
"Smile a lot," replies Mr. Zinman simply.
Such intimacies are deftly exploited throughout "BSO Beyond Baltimore," proving television's power to share experience vicariously. It sure beats a slide show.