After a lot of quality time spent in Matão, town of my childhood where I had first unforgettable experiences, I went back to São Paulo to “face the music”. I had accepted to perform “Rachmaninov’s Concerto no 2” with the Banda Sinfônica de São Paulo.

But before I got onto that that process, I had accepted to give a Concerto Master Class, in the SP “Uni”. A young colleague, Eduardo Monteiro, who usually teaches there, was in charge of proceedings. The demand was amazing: there were 17, who had put their name down as hopefuls... And so it was that I faced quite a large crowd of students and teachers alike: that used to worry me when I first started doing classes publicly. But no longer: it’s my duty to try to get the best results from each performer and with that in mind I have no qualms to say what is needed: if there are notes, read wrong, not just ‘missed’ (I make sure of that!) of course I will correct them, without asking who the teacher is who missed seeing that; I will concentrate on style, pedal, quality of sound, projection, and deep respect of the score and/or the composer’s intentions!

Funnilly enough, the longer the lesson is, the more confident and animated I get, instead of dying from exhaustion... Teaching, to me, is one of the most exhilarating chores in life: to inspire, to ‘clear’ technical faults, to solve pedal issues and, publicly get obvious results in the quality of the playing, wow! When a young person starts to hear him/herself the points I made, or to notice the hands are not together, important but missing polyphony, notes hit with butter-fingers (without any energy) and therefore not together or bad pedaling... then I feel I’ve accomplished something! I so enjoyed that afternoon! At the end I was encircled by many students and teachers; then the director thanked and begged me to come back for ...two weeks!!!

Now, back to playing to my accepted of playing a different Rach 2, meaning there were to be no strings in the accompaniment of that most famous of all warhorses of the piano repertoire -- a Brass Band consisting mainly of wind and brass instruments. Actually Abel Rocha, an extremely good conductor, had cleverly added 3-4 bass-players for the pizzicatos. The transcription had been made by a certain Harold Pottenger in the 60s if I’m not wrong -- others include the Paganini-Rhapsody. Some people criticized me for accepting to do it...

I tell you: I felt I came out it a winner for having done it: I assure you that concert will remain a very special occasion in my career! I can only wish Sergei could get in touch and tell me what he thought of it...

“Thanks, Abel, for being so patient during rehearsals and for putting up with my good-humoured reactions upon that first reading, give me a break: it was too surprising having never heard any of it! But you must admit, all our work paid off: the results were fannn-tas-tic?! Let’s do some more ... Rach-Pag next?”

With that unique experience ended my ‘funny tour’ but as a dear friend put it: “I feel Cristina is back in Brazil’s soil”.

Back to Europe I went: during my free two weeks I had been practicing away, preparing an all Ravel/Rachmaninov Recital which I was to play next.

Arriving in Ascoli Piceno and later in the nearby town of Offida to try out the piano in this gorgeous little theatre, immediately brought back all the seduction of Italy!

A day later I gave a Concerto Master Class for some talented students of Eric’s in Amandola’s jewel of a theatre: suffice to mention that this one is a minute copy of La Fenice of Venice, all of 100 seats!

I so enjoyed spending time with the charming Olivia and her husband Eric, both pianists, promoters of the Per Piano Solo Festival. And what could one possibly say about the meal Vincenzo and Elisabetta hosted at a restaurant called “Il Cantuccio”: the three of us guests, were astounded by the sheer quantity of tastes, textures and dishes, all presented in the most exquisite plates, cups, glasses of all imaginable shapes, designs – why did we bother to order a starter plus a main dish, for that matter? It never stopped coming, “with compliments of the chef”: pre-pre-appetizers followed by pre-pre-first and yet pre-pre-main-course and I’m not exaggerating: there were around 10 - 12 tastes of desserts!

An orgy of the senses... BASTA (enough)!!

If ever any of you find yourselves in the area of Ascoli Piceno, don’t miss experiencing that! Back to the south of France for peace, quiet and ...a well deserved “desintoxication”!