MADRID, Spain -- For the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the past four days of touring have been a blur -- the Orchestra has played four concerts in four days in four Spanish cities: Vitoria, Castellon, Barcelona, and Madrid. Each morning has begun with packing and luggage collection, followed by hotel checkout, travel to the next city, hotel check-in, a dash for an early dinner, and then to the hall for warm-up time, a change into concert attire, and the concert itself.

Though hotel rooms may be starting to all look the same to the orchestra, the halls in which we have played have some distinct personalities.

Vitoria's Teatro Principal Antzokia was the oldest venue and also the smallest so far, tucked away in a cobbled pedestrian shopping district. The hall's tiny backstage quarters somehow accommodated the PSO and its equipment, though getting on stage unscathed required vigilance due to low ceiling beams and twisting subterranean passageways.

The next three concerts, Castellon, Barcelona, and near Madrid at El Escorial, were played in halls which are all quite new, with clean architectural lines and gleaming light wood. A portion of Castellon's stage was backed with a simple cotton drapery not unlike a closet organizer, which led to some speculation among musicians that the entire structure might have come from IKEA, arriving at the construction site in thousands of flat cardboard boxes, accompanied by one Allen wrench! Also amusing to the orchestra was the wall at the back of the stage at El Escorial, paneled with huge glowing squares of cobalt glass and looking very much like a Jeopardy game board.

The element common to all the halls on this tour has been the enthusiasm of the audiences who have filled them to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra play. Every night each piece on the program is greeted with successively more applause, ending with standing ovations accompanied by much shouting of approval. Every audience has been rewarded with two encores, and every night the applause only stops when the orchestra follows conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and concertmaster Andres Cardenes from the stage.

There have been some surprises. During curtain calls at the El Escorial concert a man came to the edge of the stage waving his program and a pen, asking for the Maestro's autograph. De Burgos obliged amidst laughter and smiles from the audience and orchestra alike. Headed off stage, de Burgos declared "This is a first!" He turned in time to see the fan get an autograph from Andres Cardenes as well, and said with a chuckle, "And now, he goes for the concertmaster!"

In Barcelona the excitement spilled out into the night with the audience. Instead of heading into parking lots to find their cars, listeners gathered in the courtyard in front of the hall, talking excitedly about the concert and waving to orchestra members as we emerged from the backstage area.

Back at the hotel after a long day, orchestra members finally have time to get in touch with friends and family back home. The hotel's business center is a good spot to send an email, although Spanish language keyboards here tend to pepper an American typist's text full of unexpected diacritical marks! Musicians who have brought their own laptop computers gather in the hotel's wireless hot spot and communicate busily, the quiet typing and soft chat on headsets a contrast to the massed orchestra sound which filled a concert hall only minutes before.

Saturday was a welcome day off in Madrid, perfect for visiting museums, walking, and relaxing. Early Sunday we move on to Valencia for an evening concert there, taking a train southeast through the region's fragrant orange groves and fields of artichokes.