November Sunday Soiree

 We had a great afternoon last Sunday, playing music for a small gathering of friends and family in our Studio.
The weather wasn't crash hot, well, it was humid and warm at times which is inclined to play havoc with string instruments as they are inclined to go flat...
But we managed and played our pieces with aplomb if not always in tune or in time...the audience was kind ,bless them....

 We played "The arrival of the Queen of Sheba"
at a sedate pace as a warm up.
Next we played Bourree by J S Bach in which we left out  the repeats as that would have sent the audience to sleep.
Then Three Trios by Haydn which Ken had
re-organized for us so we only played the charming bits.
Bach's Prelude 22 is quite tricky as we all play different parts and the timing needs to be spot on

 However we all finished together in the end....
Relief , relief...
After a bit of a breather, my cello teacher Catherine Finnis played the duet part of  Willem de Fesch's Sonata op.8 Nr 3 with me as I have been studying this piece for quite a while...bless her, she supported me in all the right places and I managed to complete it without too disastrous a
result. Catherine does a brilliant job in keeping me enthused and motivated....

The highlight of the afternoon though, was Catherine and her husband John Gray playing the only Duet for Cello and Double Bass ever written by Rossini, it was just fabulous . Catherine has played her cello all over the world and John played the double bass  in the Academy of St Martin in the Field for many years but he also played in all the film music for the
James Bond series.....how is that for fame.....
but as we know, fame is a fleeting thing and here they are playing in our humble Studio...what an afternoon..... We finished celebrating with a few reds and coffees......and everyone went home happy