Still Practising!

And so I woke, not too early, showered, and got dressed. My sleeping companion had already gone down for breakfast (I'd left the door ajar when I went to bed so she could get out when she wanted to) and I followed her and enjoyed the full cooked breakfast experience!

While our host went to load the dishwashers, the four of us who formed the string quartet went to rehearse in the sitting room. We settled on a couple of movements - the first from Mozart's K464 in A Major and the first from Haydn's "Lark"! I've played both before, and just love playing string quartets, so it was quite a treat!

Then we rehearsed other items for the concert - a trumpet piece with a young player, a couple of songs with a young singer, a few orchestral pieces and the Telemann Viola Concerto, which I was playing.

After rehearsals a few of us headed off to the craft centre, where we'd later perform, in order to have lunch, then came back to the house and I went for a rest in my room - listened to some music, read my book, etc.

Then supper, which felt rather early to me - always the situation on concert evenings that supper has to move, although usually I would eat after the concert rather than before! After supper Rachel, our second violinist, was kind enough to give me a copy of the viola teaching book she has recently produced - she's in the middle of setting up a project for teaching young children stringed instruments using colour - if you're interested, you can see her website here!

Then, going via the supermarket in town to get wine (for after the concert) we went back to the craft centre where we were giving the concert.

The concert went splendidly. Our host did introductions to all the pieces and players in both Welsh and English, we were given Welsh Cakes & scones in the interval (which is when I took this photo - our cellist, Liam, was just practising a few bits at the end of the first half while everyone else was queuing for refreshments)!

My Telemann was the first item after the interval. It went well. One of those times where my fingers worked well. I've also done quite a lot of practice recently too, which was helpful. In fact, I was told by our host (and maestro) that it was the best he'd ever heard me play it, which was pleasing! :-)

After the concert we cleared up and went back to the house where we sat in the sitting room chatting until the small hours. Bob & I polished off 2 bottles of wine between us (the others weren't drinkers - and I was grateful to have a drinking companion - my Welsh host doesn't drink at all and thinks I'm some sort of old soak!!!).

Bed was late, although I still listened to music and read a bit of book (a sample on my kindle) before going to sleep.