If I look back all those years, I don't think I could find a busier two months, repertoire wise, than last February and March ...

So much so, that I tire just to think of writing about each set of the concerts I played. There were great moments and people, but also plenty of fun-and-games. Looking back, best were actually the concerts I wasn't supposed to do ... read on.

There was a date I eagerly expected: Brahms # 1, with Vello Pähn, in Kuopio; Dohnányi's Nursery Rhyme Variations (wonderful to re-learn that piece after such a long while) plus Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, with an ailing Eri Klas, in Tampere: two Estonians conductors during two weeks in beautiful Finland with lots of lovely fresh snow. Then my 1st Chopin Cycle (# 1 being a Concerto I refrained from learning before: I always hated the way people treated this piece) in Stuttgart. No comments.  

Coming back home a bit low, as I walked through the door, the phone was ringing, guess what? SOS-Ortiz was being summoned to within 2 hs away from where I had just arrived from!!! Emanuel Ax was unable to make it...

Crazy I know, but I couldn't help it but accept: I 'needed' to prove to myself that Chopin can be done my way, the Concertos being really the Symphonies he never wrote, but with rather weakish orchestral accompaniment (if one thinks of Brahms or Beethoven), it will obviously take real care in shaping and creating the support due to those gorgeous solo piano works of art!.

The Dutch conductor Jac van Steen and his Winterthur Orchestra provided the scene: he was not someone I had come across or even heard of, to my great loss, I must say. Immediate, natural and most musical rapport: it made me think of John Lubbock.

In 4 days, 3 performances of the # 2, plus a recital -- I was due to perform in the International Piano Series at the South Bank, a few days later, without a warm-up. The opportunity of doing it once before was the definite catch.

Though, by going away unexpectedly, I had to cancel trying the only available pianos at the Queen Elizabeth Hall ... little did I know what was in store for me!

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