May 13, 2019

London, UK

Late last night we got back from a short trip to Poland, where we gave two performances in Lancut Castle, as part of the Music Festival Lancut. They were lovely concerts, in a very grand hall bedecked with chandeliers and giant mirrors. The adjoining (and equally fancy) room served as our dressing room and has to be in the top 5 most grand dressing rooms we’ve had in recent years!


Today was a clear day at home and the UK was bathed in uncharacteristically sunny and warm weather, so I donned my shorts and went for a lovely walk. I also enjoyed a cup of coffee and a read of the newspaper, before settling down to some work writing programme notes, planning rehearsals and writing a new arrangement, before heading on a run and cooking Ellie a post-work dinner of glazed pork tenderloin, avocado salad and roast butternut squash (the last bit inspired by the excellent lunch Nick cooked us recently).


Tomorrow evening Ellie and I are going to a talk given by Sir Rodric Braithwaite [great name isn’t it], the British ambassador to Moscow 1988-92. His job can’t have been an easy one, and tomorrow he’s talking about Anglo-Russian relations in today’s climate. I’m a real geek about foreign affairs, and hope that Ellie will enjoy it too even though it’s not so much her bag! Appropriately enough, on Wednesday the group is heading to St. Petersburg, so I’ll be able to contextualise some of Sir Rodric’s wisdom just a day later.