Orin O'Brien, bass, remembers her favorite tour with the New York Philharmonic.

How long have you been with the New York Philharmonic?

This is my 35th season. I joined the orchestra in 1966.

How many tours would you say you have done with the Philharmonic?

We do one every year, plus occasionally we do an additional one. If you add all the tours together I've done at least 50.

Will you be visiting any new cities on this tour?

Valencia. I have never been to Valencia, and the first thing it makes me think of is Valencia oranges, which I suppose every cook knows about. Also, I believe the city is famous for Valencia lace. And we are going to Oviedo and Santiago. We have one day in each, and I've never been to those cities. Another city that is unusual is Zaragoza, and I know it in only one context. I believe it is the name of a famous dance, and I believe it figures in the famous Don Quixote story by Cervantes. Don Quixote was in a dance, I believe, in Zaragoza. It is a famous literary city. The volunteer ladies at the Philharmonic always make us a packet about each city. They do a little research for us, telling us interesting places to visit and good restaurants to go to. It's nice of them to do this, and I will be reading up on Zaragoza from those notes.

What are you most looking forward to on the Spain tour?

Well, Barcelona is my favorite city that I have ever been to. There is a famous walk right down in the middle of the city, a sort of mall called Las Ramblas. It's beautiful. They have birds in cages for sale, they have food and other things for sale, and people just walk and look around at the city. There is also the very famous and beautiful Gaudi cathedral.

Barcelona is in the Catalan part of Spain, which is where the great cellist Pablo Casals is from, and also Gaspar Cassado, another very famous cellist and compatriot of Casals. He was a beautiful, beautiful player, a famous teacher and wonderful musician. I think Barcelona has a lot of museums, as does Madrid. The famous Prado has all those original works of Velasquez and Goya. But Barcelona, as a city, is even more beautiful. Madrid is a bit more heavy. There are more politics and more bullfighting there. In Barcelona, the art and architecture and the general feeling is more cultural. It is really an art nouveau city.

Of all the tours you've done with the Philharmonic, do you have one that was a special favorite?

Yes I do. The 1968 European tour of five weeks with Leonard Bernstein was my first with the orchestra. We went to Israel, where I had never been before. It was thrilling, and the concerts were exhilarating. We did Mahler's Fifth and the Symphone Fantastique a lot -- also Haydn symphonies, Rossini overtures, and William Schumann's Third Symphony. But the tour was memorable for playing Mahler's Fifth in Vienna for the very first time. We got a half-hour-long ovation and the orchestra and Bernstein got incredible reviews.

We also went to Venice, which is every bit the fairy tale kind of city I had read about, and I was just astounded. We thought Venice was the absolute end. We played in the famous old theater La Fenice, which burned down a couple of years ago. I remember it was so physically beautiful, quite small, and we could hear every note.

What is the best thing about touring with the New York Philharmonic?

The best thing of course is the music, and the next thing is getting to be able to spend a little time with your colleagues. If you have friends in the Philharmonic you like to share conversations and meals with, most of us are working all the time at something, practicing or teaching. Most musicians lead a pretty full life of constant work. In the city we all rush out after rehearsal and go to our next commitment. There is very little time to socialize. But on tour, you are stuck together in the plane, in the airport, waiting for buses. You get to know your colleagues and you become like a large family. It is a nice communal feeling. In airports and train stations, people used to sit down and play cards and chess games.

I would say conversations are fascinating on tour. Some of our European-born musicians can tell us interesting things about the cities we are visiting, or we might plan to go to museums on our free day. Or in some cases musicians from other orchestras come backstage and see us. Still, it is not really a pleasure trip; it is a business trip. The music comes first, and you have to be perfect, just as it is at home. You're always on trial, always.