Flying to Thailand - all those long hours! - is not something that anyone can convince me of facing with joy: this summer it was my first journey. Class-upgrading is not something I can boast about, unlike my lucky husband to whom this happens very often - I suppose from looking at his passport alone, any sympathetic flight purser might feel inclined to oblige, whenever possible: he does clock-up on miles, phew! So when I was told that my pre-booked upper-deck window-seat was already occupied .. I half-expected to be bumped out of the flight altogether... but hey, for once it worked: my hosts from Bangkok had arranged to put me in First!
I'd met this lovely couple, years ago in Texas, who insisted that the next time I travelled that way, I should make a stop-over and play for them in Bangkok - so when Hong Kong was confirmed I got in touch; eventually they proposed that I play for a Charity called "Giving the gift of Life" which sponsors blood-donations and bone-marrow transplants - life-savers for many sufferers of leukaemia. Of course I acquiesced and since they are both quite famous publicly, they secured that a Princess, one of the King's sisters, very keen on classical music, be present at my recital! That meant that during the recital I worried non-stop about how I was to curtsey, from where exactly, would I dare to play an encore, therefore making her Royal Highness wait any longer? or I wondered if I would be allowed to speak at all... Anyway, when I finally duly approached her, she gave me such a long-held bear-hug, and in so doing broke all protocol: a commoner, bodily touching a Princess, it's "unheard of" - it was televised, too! Afterwards while walking alongside her, we managed to have quite a nice chat in French, about how she had learned the piano as a young girl, who her favourite composers were, how much she would love to see Brazil ... A most dear lady, looking far younger than her 83 years of age!

Then excitement of a different type: a gorgeous-looking Chilean Consul asked to be introduced to me, who then proceeded to read a poem he'd written while I played, in his passionate, honey-coated and meltingly warm voice, in the clearest Spanish .. (sigh) ... it only reinforced my thought that his language sounds at its best, in poetry!
He promised to have it typed out properly, before relinquishing it to me - it seemed scribbled with such red-hot feelings that I suppose only he could have deciphered any of it! – so, watch out: I'll soon post it in this site! How about that, my own Neruda!

Thanks Sugar, for all your generosity: you are a beautiful person and a joy to be with; and Nat ... the traffic was not that bad, I agree, once we passed the ... 10th traffic-light, was it? ... after looong periods of crawling at snail-pace or dead-still for ever! Anyway, didn't we have some good laughs?!

For the concert with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, I had decided to play two very contrasting Concertos: the Schulhoff, plus Mendelssohn's bubbly G minor. It went beautifully. Thanks, Tsung Yeh - the conductor - for your enthusiasm! And Margaret, what a nice surprise to find you, as the manager of the Orchestra! We actually spend more time together in those few days in HK, than during all the years you lived in London.. but then you were rather overworked ...
And in charge of making my life comfortable in HK, there was little Ann: who was great fun to have around. Thanks girl: I hope you're enjoying your new job!

I had one more commitment before leaving town: the UN had asked me to play a recital "in memoriam" of Sergio de Mello, the Brazilian UN's Ambassador of good will, killed among so many others in that horrible terrorist attack, in Baghdad, a year ago. The chosen venue was to be Pei's amazing building of the Bank of China and the short piano recital took place on the 70th floor! As you can imagine, the view from up there is quite stunningly unbelievable.
On a dissonant note: what should have been a most especial evening of pride for Brazilians, turned out very disappointing in one detail: not one representative from the Brazilian community made an appearance to honour the efforts of the caring people who thought of the homage ...

My humble opinion? It made me feel ashamed for my people!

Back in Paris, I didn't have long before taking the train to Lyon, for the following week's work: the unlikely adventure of performing 'alfresco' 5 times, the Emperor Concerto, with Laurent Campellone - a young French conductor - and his Orchestre de St Étienne. I must say that for a first, this was quite an achievement for the organizers of "Les nuits de la Bâtie d'Urfé", in St Étienne-le-Mollard: there were a minimum of 400 people each night, some of whom had never attended a classical concert in their life ... The venue was the courtyard of a stunning château, in lovely surroundings. All fears of disruption by rain never materialized, apart from a touch-and-go moment, on one of the nights during the slow movement, when looking into the light ahead of me, I saw raindrops starting to come down.. I just shut my eyes and hoped that it wouldn't get worse or that some musicians wouldn't fret about their instruments, unnecessarily.. It felt quite magical to play the accompaniment to the winds' haunting melody, just before running into the Finale, without ever opening my eyes... and when I did so ... it had stopped!! And the Emperor could make his triumphant entrance, after all! A sixth and last performance is happening later in the year but then, we will be back in a theatre. I really enjoyed this unique experience.

Thanks Laurent, for looking after me so well!