Friday 22 August 2003

Well, the Handel was great, if utterly exhausting. It was certainly a beneficial experience to be challenged by someone who does what I do much better!  Emmanuelle is a superb recitative continuo player (an under-appreciated skill), but then she does it for Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, and I suspect they can spot a good musician when they hear one. I think I learnt quite a bit over the last few days.  And she's also the only conductor who's ever stolen a few bites from my apple in the interval.

Today's rehearsal for tomorrow's concert didn't quite go according to plan, as Paul had driven as far as Perth before he realised he'd left his fiddle at home in Aberdeenshire. So we got to hear him diddle the tunes instead - OK, mumble them.

So now I'm assembling all my mini cue cards, and two set lists to tape to the floor - on stationery from a glamorous-sounding hotel of course, to make it look a bit rock 'n' roll (ho ho). I've got a couple of bits of instrument maintenance to do as well - a melodica note to tune and a bit of harmonium tweakage. I'd better go and do it.