Wednesday 28 August 2002

Well, Saturday's concert seemed to go OK.  I don't play solo gigs very often, as mentally it's a completely different experience from sharing a stage even with one other person. It was good to have to prepare for it in so little time: I played handfuls of wrong notes in the first half, but it felt as though they were a result of being unused to the mental responsibility for holding the whole show, rather than a lack of digital dexterity.  Alison and I have an ongoing debate about the value of practising which has reached precious few conclusions: her most recent word on the subject was 'playing is more useful than practice', which certainly makes sense here.  It's the experience of making music on my own to an audience that I need to practise, not the notes.  Anyway, in the second half, I seemed to hit a groove and it all went swimmingly after that. I finished with the big B minor Couperin Passacaille, which is a monumental piece (if not particularly difficult), and is about as deadly serious as harpsichord music ever gets.  When I came off I thought 'what a dismal way to end a concert', and fortunately the audience were enthusiastic enough to get me an encore to lighten the mood.  Still, if I couldn't make an impression playing French music on a spectacular instrument like the 1769 Taskin, there would be something seriously wrong ...

Our flyers for the US have come back from the printers (Marie's sending them off today) , and last night I built a couple of concert programmes to go with them.  So now we sit tight and hope the promoters bite.