Tuesday 17 January 2006

This morning was spent in St Cecilia's Hall with Alison, trying out instruments for our Schetky CD. There can't be many places in the world where in one corner of a room are about six keyboard instruments matched in date and provenance to the music that we're playing. And even then it was hard to make a decision. It's looking like a fortepiano-only record now, mostly using a modern copy, but there's another early 19th-century square piano by Andrew Rochead to come out of the store in a couple of weeks, so I'll try that one out then. Harpsichords are a bit like violins in that original instruments almost always sound better and more characterful than modern copies. With pianos the opposite tends to be true, as modern copies have a freshness and clarity that the originals have usually (but not always) lost. 

I looked in on Andrew in his office on the way home, and then In the post waiting for me when I came back were Karine's demos for next week, which are rather wonderful.

Last Saturday was a bit crazy. The first half of Martyn's gig overran by about half an hour, so as soon as I'd played my bits I had to run for it, leaving Allan Wright to be my roadie for the day, and get down to City Halls. The new small recital room has a huge acoustic, and when I got there Alison was already playing solo Bach to a standing audience.

And now that the kids are asleep (11pm), a huge worklist awaits me at my desk. Uh.