Saturday 20 November 2010

Home again and listening to Bartók for some reason, having successfully negotiated a couple of gigs, getting up in front of people again and playing far too many different keyboard instruments. Yes, my rampant ego generally now demands that it is surrounded by as many pieces of machinery as possible, and the three (harpsichord, fortepiano and organ) from June's concert in York with Kate and Shirley just aren't enough any more. So for the last couple of days it's been harmonium, dulcitone, piano of one kind or another, and harpsichord - and at two different pitches. At least Olivia and I have shared the keyboard duties so it's not quite as indulgent as it seems, but only just.

Alison had two: cello and gamba.

Olivia brought her guitar and made friends with my harmonium, but on Wednesday she also discovered the delights of the fortepiano: she stopped smiling when she found out how much it would cost to commission a similar one from Paul McNulty.

Pamela always has loads more instruments than everyone else anyway.

It was a bit disconcerting to look out into the audience at the university on Thursday lunchtime and see more well-known faces than I was expecting, but fun was had nonetheless. Then yesterday we somehow packed everything into two cars (apart than the fortepiano) and off we went to Ardkinglas, dropping off our stuff there before heading for the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar for a superb (if pricey) lunch. But when the oysters are that good, you don't really mind, and the local beer is great too. The low winter sunshine made the hills look strangely alien.

Back at the house Olivia and I went off to walk round the Caspian Loch and admire the reflections of the hills in the water ...

... while Pamela and Alison rehearsed their Handel sonata. Having said that, at one point they were playing Jock O'Hazeldean on cello and dulcitone, which wasn't in the programme. Perhaps we should have put it in.

Olivia selected the stage furniture very carefully ...

... and despite us failing to rehearse everything, it was a fine evening. Special thanks to the audience member who corrected my pronunciation of Machell (as in Thomas Machell, the inventor of the dulcitone), as she knew some of the family.  I hadn't realised it rhymes with 'Rachel', but now I know.  The completely unrehearsed head arrangement of Olivia's song All the King's Horses was a particular treat, preceded by Pamela and I simultaneously whispering to one another 'It's in F sharp' while looking slightly concerned.  

Then another fine meal by the log fire in the dining room: I always remember just too late that David Sumsion is very generous when pouring out his Islay malts, so I was a bit worse for wear when I woke up in the Ardmore room this morning.

Then it was back to Glasgow in convoy in time for a quick chat with Liz Kenny on Alison's sofa: we would have carried on enthusiastically sharing our experiences of university life for several hours, had not Liz and Pamela got the rather more urgent task of a concert to play tonight with Andrew Lawrence-King (if you've just clicked on that link, it's Steve Player, not Andrew in mid-air, of course).