This time, we arranged to meet Christoph Lindner for a lift. The percussionist has been a member of the Konzerthausorchester's Kurt Sanderling Academy since August 2022 and will remain until the end of the season. How has it been with us so far?

If we rehearse in the WOS [Werner-Otto-Saal] up under the roof, then yes. But the stage managers make sure that the large instruments, stands and racks are already there. We only bring the smaller instruments ourselves, for example cymbals and snare drums.

I think we have an extremely nice togetherness in the timpani and percussion section. That's something I'll take with me. But since the size of our line-up varies greatly from piece to piece, there's always the opportunity to come back later for a programme. I often used to help out in other orchestras, but it makes a difference, especially when playing together in the percussion section, if you know each other really well. After a while, you simply know each other's body language very well. That helps you to play together at exactly the same point.

To make sure everything runs smoothly, we draw beautiful plans in advance for orchestra manager Dirk Beyer and his team about what should be where. [Christoph takes out his phone and swipes through the photos of the sketches.] At the last Wandelkonzert, for example, it was a real puzzle to combine everything in the best possible way: Bass drum, two cymbals, snare drum. Suspended cymbal. Triangle. Drum. Tamtam. Bongo. Tomtoms. Vibraphone. Blocks. Congas plus xylophone, cymbals, glockenspiel, tambourine...

Despite the door closing very slowly, we missed the exit on the ground floor.