Rehearsing and gate crashing!

This morning there was an open rehearsal of Fanny Mendelssohn's string quartet in E flat major. The players were Sara Bitlloch (violin) and Simone Van Der Giessen (viola) from the Elias Quartet with Lucy Gould (violin) and Richard Lester (cello) from the Gould Piano Trio.

It was fascinating to watch and listen as they played sections then discussed how they wanted to present certain phrases. It all sounded pretty good before they started to dissect it, but you could hear the subtle changes they made.

In my blip is Richard, pencil in hand and ready to write the changes on the page. (Two of the four had to ask for spare pencils before they could start which amused me!)

I have posted more in my extras because I could not choose.

This evening I was at the early concert for the Gould Piano Trio playing Beethoven's Piano Trio Opus 70 No 1 in D major, The Ghost, followed by Lekeu's Piano Trio (1891).

I had not heard of Lekeu before. His teacher was Franck and he was strongly influenced by Wagner. This trio is full of angst - sadness, anger and despair. In the finale he tried to show "the radiant development of goodness" but ended on a sad note. It was emotionally draining to listen to!

The gate crashing? I went to the open rehearsal not realising it was for Festival Patrons. I'm a Friend of the Festival and sort of assumed it was for me. I wondered why there were so few people there.   There are only 17 patrons but 75 friends!! No one said anything and I hope they like the photographs, which were taken with permission.

I did laugh about it.