Sunday 8 February 2009

It's all white outside again. Susie and I made it back down the road from Ardkinglas today before the snow came: we were there to hear Ken Aiso and Annette Isserlis playing in the dining room last night, and to have a very nice time socialising in genial surroundings. Hearing Ken and his rock-solid technique play unaccompanied Bach and Ysaÿe at close range is quite something; it really is him sitting at the back of the first violins on Fiddler Tam. 

I've started putting a folder of notation together for next month's project with Mr McFall's Chamber, and yesterday morning I spent an hour or two at the computer preparing a double bass part for the Dvořák Bagatelles. The harmonium part goes very low indeed, down to C sharp nearly 3 octaves below middle C (a note on no harmonium I've ever come across), which you can just about fake if you're nifty with a divided 16' stop, but on my 4-octave Estey it's completely out of the question. The lowest notes are always doubled up the octave, so I figured I would give them to Rick on the bass rather than miss them out. I wonder if it'll work.