Alone with music, again.

Getting back home from São Paulo to my haven in the south of France, I knew I had no time to think of jetlag: there was one day before I was to play my 2nd recital in the village’s church towards funds for the restoration of its ceiling. The organizers who had never had a classic concert before last year’s recital are slowly coming to terms to what’s needed when a pianist is appearing, therefore the instrument offered is gradually growing – whereas last year I had a lovely baby-grand Yamaha, this time the Steinway was a beautiful “B”, The venue of St Pierre’s acoustically speaking, is really something else, a fact that makes me wonder if one day I might record there…

You may not be aware that being the artist in the house is quite unpractical: were I simply the spouse at home, I could easily have contributed with the reception. Before the last recital I was a lot more present so could arrange that catering be provided for 35 friends. This once, having just got back from Brazil, therefore with very little in the fridge plus being on my own, there was not a chance of any dinner to follow… please, please, someone take me out? Of course, dear Nelle, my lovely South African friend, saved my day…

While suffering from jetlag -- I find that side of life also gets worse with age – I kept having nightmares of the horribly-pressed drive* I went through: to get the young pianists to leave the house at all, let alone in good time, was as bad as if they were children, honestly -- v. August/08. Instead, I had to go for 45 or 55 depending on traffic or unexpected road- works which slow down the journey when you least need! Having never been to the little town I knew not the quickest way to the station for them to catch the only train which would connect to their various flights at Bordeaux airport!

Gosh, I must have broken more laws than I can remember: overtaking in forbidden places, cutting on the inside (or outer) lane to jump the light in front of slow cars – the kind of things usually only reckless ‘idiots’ do: dangerous driving for fun, which can so easily cause accidents to innocent passers-by or pedestrians. I was lucky that a policeman didn’t materialize: not only I would possibly have lost my license, but given that three of four flights would be missed by my irresponsible young passengers, I would surely have had to spend quite large sums of money in order to provide them all with alternative means of transport back home… phew!

Once the recital was out of the way, I had to dive immediately into learning the thousands of notes to for the concerts scheduled the following week… No rest for the wicked…

C* O* et ses amis – 2e edition.

The musicians for the forthcoming informal chamber-music + jazz festival started to trickle-in, only two days after the recital.

Months ahead, I had booked the indispensable help of Fernanda, my special Portuguese lady (v. September 2006) to do the cooking and look after us and the house – a most basic need for any busy hostess to function properly… When, on the evening before the musicians were to arrive, a phone call brought me the disastrous news that, due to her father-in-law having fallen down and slipped into a coma, she and her husband were not able to leave Lisbon … That evening I cried quite a lot. Fretting inconsolably, I needed to phone someone to utter my desperation … Luck has it that I had managed to convince Leonie, wife of my friend Werner very early on, to come over for the whole week: such generosity, and wonderful company I know no better -- “to relax, paint, lie in the hammocks, sketch, read”…

Already they had kindly offered to pick-up Steve (violist who was arriving from Canada), on their way to the house the next day.

“Don’t worry, we will manage”, she said.

Poor thing > as it was “she made beds, drove back-and-forth to airports, went shopping to the markets, made coffee, tea, toast, cooked, looked after each of us …” The perfect housewife even found time to listen to one or two rehearsals! A better friend I couldn’t wish for. “Leonie, I couldn’t have done without you: thanks forever”.

All the music had to be prepared and rehearsed at double/triple-speed in the few days available. But all concerts were most enjoyable. In the programmes: piano quintets by Mozart and Fauré; Beethoven’s Spring Sonata for violin and piano; Schumann’s Introduction and Allegro for viola and piano; Franck’s A major Sonata for cello and piano; plus Poulenc’s Sonata for oboe and piano.

Werner had also done some transcriptions: of accompaniment to a Bach’s oboe concerto for string quartet; and to 7 songs by Schumann (mostly from Dichterliebe) for oboe d’amore and piano; plus numbers in the Jazz-4-Fun section to end the concerts – the guy does everything!

While I was on tour in Brazil, Werner was having trouble finding Thierry, the bass player from 3 years ago, who had …vanished. Upon my arrival back in Europe and after frantic phone calls … and with the help of local friends we found him in-the-nick-of-time, but only on the very last weekend: booked for a couple of jazz-gigs, he gladly got out of those for the pleasure of joining us! Nice!

Whereas three years ago, to participate in the Jazz-4-Fun section, I ended up singing the one song I knew “The girl from Ipanema”. This time I chose ‘Corcovado’-- both by Jobim. Werner duly announced to the bemused audience, since I was Brazilian, the festival had to close with a Brazilian song! I tried to have the courage to ‘sing out’-- if only I really had a voice like that of Elis Regina, my idol instead of wishing it … right … dream on!

The hosts of our début concert, André and Viviane, of Château Francs, were priceless. The comprehensive restoration works to the gorgeous concert hall ended just in time for them to reinstate it into existence: it had been built as a venue for public events, all of 400 years ago, almost to the day. Adorning the back of the ‘stage’ is a magnificent chimney – the sound in there just turned out fabulous!

NB: André remembered my initial suggestion to buying a piano, as resident for the venue. So when the lovely baby-grand Yamaha rental came in, it wasn’t going anywhere: as simple as that!

Following the occasion, dinner was to be served in the same room by then transformed into the largest dining room ever seen. Once, most of the audience had left some 30 Belgians were invited to join the hungry performers and a few friends.

The second concert took place in the largest venue of the lot, the fabulous Abbaye de St Ferme, where we played last year too.

The 3rd coincided with the re-opening of the newly restored roman Église de Gardegan and was organized by my friend Nicolas (Château de Pitray).

(Highlights for me: Schumann’s stunningly beautiful music and Fauré’s luscious C minor Quartet)

Lastly but not least, we had agreed to an informal dinner-soirée at the Jardins de Sardy belonging to another friend, Frédéric -- where ‘lives’ that unique double-Pleyel he inherited from his grand-mother (v. Picture Gallery).

I was off to the New Ross Piano Festival, in Ireland. Four lovely days near very warmly-hearted people; Connie, the administrator is brilliant and Sean – although a slow-driver, and only a ‘chairing’ director … tsk,tsk -- was great fun to be with.

Small festivals have freshness and easily become the pride of a whole community making their project work as well as possible, as if they were one person.

Lack of rehearsing time though, is not something I enjoy when playing chamber music or indeed with an orchestra and was one reason why the Brahms’ Clarinet Trio didn’t get its best performance ever. But two short recitals presented me with the opportunity to immerse myself totally, plus an enjoyable Master Class.

Two charming brothers, who drove all the way from Switzerland to attend the festival, were willing to play some tennis at my request and the piano technician, who looked so much like Björn Borg it was uncanny, offered to complete the doubles-team but … there were hardly enough hours in the day to rehearse, let alone for all I wanted to do!

On the other hand, Finghin, the artistic director, besides playing everything day and night, still found time to cook and bake for the concluding dinner… these talented Irish!

That evening we played a bit of everything: 4-hands (err.. 3, really) , a bit of jazz, some bossa-nova and then “Björn” also accompanied Irish songs from piano.

Time to go back home: I had some packing to do for the 3-wks trip to Hong Kong, as a juror in Hong Kong’s 2nd International Piano Competition