A hectic week…

A mad few days of concerts but great fun! Tuesday saw Mozart (Quintet for Piano and Winds), Poulenc (Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano), and Woolrich (Favola in Musica, based on music of Monteverdi), with the Berkeley Ensemble, at St Peter's Streatham, where their residency is. Many thanks to Molly Nielsen for stepping in at extremely short notice when our regular bassoonist was unexpectedly held up in Israel…. Then Wednesday was Schubert, Mahler (Rückert Lieder) and Finzi (Earth and Air and Rain – an incredible intuitive understanding of Hardy's poetry by Finzi) with Marcus Farnsworth in Brighton, as part of Brighton College's Autograph Concerts series. This seems to be a fantastic setup with a great range of instruments and programmes, all within the school itself, in the lovely Great Hall. It was particularly heartening to see a considerable number of school pupils in the audience! Then Thursday lunchtime was another performance of the piano and winds programme with the Berkeleys, this time in Leicester, as part of the extremely successful Leicester International Music Festival lunchtime concert series. A beautiful venue (the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery) with a fabulous piano and consistently sold-out audiences, this series seems to be onto a winner! It was a privilege to be part of such a prestigious line-up of performers this season, and we were bowled over by the audience's warm welcome. A hectic few days, but wonderful music in lovely venues with great colleagues.