Monday, March 23, 1998; Paris and Vienna

A big meal in a great Paris restaurant came back to haunt me at around 4 am when I woke up bolt upright and had trouble getting back to sleep. I've been spoiled with the ever so healthy low sodium, low fat, low sugar (but still high taste!) diet I'm used to at home, so when confronted with a great but fatty meal like I had last night, it sometimes hits hard. Once awake, I kept having serpent on the brain until I drifted off again until the blessed alarm clock did its morning duty.

An e-mail session brought many messages from friends who are reading this diary (including one from a friend who noted that instead of writing "Voilà!" in one of my entries, I wrote, "Violà!" - Yikes!!) but I hurried to get ready to get to Bissonnet's shop. This was going to be a tight schedule for sure; I hadn't calculated how long it took to get to his shop but I was hoping it would be about 30 minutes by train and foot, if that was the case, I might just make it back to the hotel in time to get the bus to the airport. One mishap and I was going to be in big doo-doo.

Part of the intrigue of yesterday's account of events was the fact that I simply don't have the cash to buy an antique serpent at the moment, regret that as I may. My enthusiasm for the instrument notwithstanding, a conversation with my wife yesterday shook me into the reality that we just can't have everything we want when we want it, no matter how unique the opportunity - a good reminder and another reason to be thankful for my wonderful wife of almost 23 years. I as prepared to let Bissonnet's exquisite Baudouin serpent sit in his shop until I heard from a friend in the USA who said he would buy it if I could pick it up and that he would let me play it! So, the best of all possible worlds opened up and I was hopeful that Bissonnet got my messages yesterday and that somehow all would work out.

There was also the fact that the Internet community now knew I had found this serpent in Paris. Small as the serpent world may be, I needed to hold back some details yesterday in case someone might call Bissonnet and the serpent disappear before I had a chance to get it. This instrument is in much better condition, for instance, than the one by Baudouin in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and it plays infinitely better as well; would a museum outbid me with a call to Bissonnet? If I had told Michel Godard last night that Bissonnet was selling one of the serpents in his private collection, would he try to get to it first? Who knows, so why tell?! Such is the life of dealing in antiques - never give your full hand to anyone (especially the internet, on which there are no secrets!) until the transaction is complete.

After checking out of the hotel at 7:45 am, I made a bee-line to Bissonnet's shop, first on the Paris RER train and then by foot from Notre Dame Cathedral. I was worried that the journey was taking more in the order of 40 minutes, so I kept praying that Bissonnet would get to his shop earlier than 9:00.

As I walked up Rue du Pas-de-la-Mule, my heart jumped as instead of seeing the security grates over Bissonnet's windows, the lights were on in his shop and he was inside! I knocked and he motioned for me to come in. He beamed and held up the serpent - ready for me to take right away! Answered prayers - here it was not even 8:30 and I had all the time in the world. A huge weight was lifted from my shoulders as he showed me his proud handiwork. The leather was beautifully cleaned and the cobwebs all gone from inside the instrument. The bocal, which on Saturday had a small crack in it, had been perfectly soldered and a small amount of damage to the leather near the left palm had been repaired. The instrument looked nearly new despite its being nearly 200 years old. But fate struck as Bissonnet was removing the bocal for a final inspection - the original ivory mouthpiece fell to the hard tile floor with a clang! "Murder!" Bissonnet cried, but no harm was done - miraculously the mouthpiece was intact.

Bissonnet demonstrated the instrument for me and he consented to my taking a photo of him in his shop with serpent in hand. I then played it for a few minutes to confirm that this was indeed the right thing to do, and after a bit of Handel's Water Music and the Berlioz Messe solenelle, I was happy to get out my credit card and seal the deal.

One small hitch yet awaited - my credit card was refused!!! Now it was my turn to shout, "Murder!" It turned out that such a large purchase made so far away from home arose suspician of my credit card company, so thankfully I had a second card which went through with no difficulty. Bissonnet wrote out a receipt with a fountain pen and stamped it with various official stamps certifying him as an authorised dealer in antiquities.

I had wondered how Bissonnet would pack the serpent for me, and I really had to smile as he simply took out a large "Hefty" brand lawn bag, put the serpent in (the bocal and mouthpiece would fit in my backpack) and wrapped tape around it tightly. "Discreet," he said with a wink. Before leaving, he told me that he had acquired this particular instrument about 50 years ago for his private collection and he had never offered it for sale. Convinced that I would play it seriously (and not just hang it up for display) and in need himself of some money to help his daughter move into a new home, he decided to part with it. What a wonderful convergence of events! With a final look around his fascinating shop, and my eye looking longingly at a beautiful ophicleide he was restoring (alas, for another day...) we shook hands and I departed by 9:00 am. With the pressure of time off my mind, I walked slowly, hardly believing the Baudouin serpent was in my hands. As I walked past Notre Dame Cathedral, with its front facade covered in scaffolding for restoration, I decided to go inside to pray. It was very dark; being early in the day, few candles had been lit, but a group of monks were up at the altar having their 9:00 service. I listened to them, imagining what it was like for the 200 plus years that their chant would have been accompanied by a serpent. Could the instrument I held in my hand have been used in Notre Dame? Perhaps it was in the orchestra at the première of Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique. I lit a candle to add to the intense mood already building in the Cathedral and made my way back to the Paris Hilton with plenty of time to spare and a wonderful story to tell my many colleagues who wondered what was in the strangely shaped plastic bag I was carrying.

The flight to Vienna was uneventful - I found a place for the serpent (it occurred to me it needs a name...) in an overhead compartment nestled in a sea of coats, and when we arrived in Austria, we found it to be quite cold (0°C). A message was waiting for me at the hotel from my friend, Bill McElheney who plays trombone and bass trumpet in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Vienna State Opera. Bill, an American from Oklahoma, and I went to school together for the one year I was at Indiana University. We played together in Orchestra IV during the first semester of 1973-74. When I transferred to Wheaton in 1974, we lost contact with each other, but when the Boston Symphony came to Europe in 1984 and Norman Bolter took ill and needed to be flown back to Boston, who other than Bill was in town (Lucerne, Switzerland) and able to fill in (for the the rest of the concerts on that tour, Carl Lenthe, then of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and now with the Bamberg Symphony, played with us). Our friendship renewed, we have kept in close contact over the years and as well have many things and interests in common - we enjoy spending time together when he is on tour in the US or we happen to be in Europe. He met me after the concert tonight and we plan to spend the day together tomorrow.

Musikvereinsaal, Vienna

The concert tonight went well; it was held in the Musikvereinsaal, the famed home of the Vienna Philharmonic. This hall is very special to me as it was the model for Boston's Symphony Hall. Symphony Hall is a larger model of the hall in Vienna and it makes for an interesting comparison. My preference is for Boston, but the incredible beauty of the hall in Vienna is hard to beat, especially with the all-gold interior. The ceiling, in particular, is spectacular to look at with many paintings as well as intricate carvings and golden gilded plaster formations.

The small size of the Musikvereinsaal makes for a little bit of a claustrophobic feeling; my music stand felt as if it were right at my nose and patrons were literally breathing down my neck. But Ozawa, who is a favourite of Viennese audiences, didn't disappoint and the orchestra gave what I thought was a sensitive and powerful rendition of the Mahler 6. The trombone chorale at the end was especially nice tonight and our principal horn, James Sommerville, was truly at the top of his form.

It occurred to me after the second movement of Mahler 6 that we were now exactly halfway through our concerts, with 4.5 concerts left. Of course we are more than halfway through the tour, but it's a nice feeling to know that after a Mahler 3 tomorrow night and 3 more Mahler 6 performances, we will be on our way home.

Symphony Hall, Boston

Bill met me after the concert tonight and we went out to a Japanese/Korean restaurant (both of our orchestras frequently travel to Asia and we both like the food there very much). But the beer here in Austria is better than it is in Japan and we left tonight full and happy, looking forward to spending tomorrow together.

And there was morning and evening of this very busy but rewarding ninth day.

A European Tour Odyssey - Part 4 ››

Douglas Yeo joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as bass trombonist in 1985 after holding the same position with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1981-1985. He holds degrees from Wheaton College (Illinois) and New York University, and is the author of over 30 articles about the trombone and music in general; he teaches at Boston University and New England Conservatory of Music.