Pete's second week

Pekka Kuusisto

Last Tuesday's concert in the Music Academy, fronted by the young man above was interesting.  Not necessarily in the Chinese curse sense, just interesting. We had a couple of American contemporary composers and some Bach, all fascinating, well played and enjoyable.  However, I was still not totally satisfied.  Pekka Kuusisto is in his 40's now, but he still acts like he was 16. No problem, even if it grates a bit, provided the quality of performance is first class.  Call me fussy, or perhaps utterly spoilt by Kristof Barati, but I didn't take to his style of playing. It seemed mushy, all the samey compared to Kristof's crisp, crystal clear tones and strokes. Pete had seen the inside of the Academy, which was basically the main purpose of the trip, so at least that was 100% achieved.

Kristof Barati

On Thursday, no such qualms ailed us.  We were in the Marbled Hall of the Radio Building and the performers were guess who and his friend Gabor Farkas on the piano. Sheer, sensual enjoyment doesn't even begin to describe it. They played three sonatas, one by Beethoven in G Major Op. 30, the one by Schumann in A minor Op. 105 and after the interval  Bartók's First Sonata. I occasionally felt like I died and got to heaven. And all this for less than 20% of Tuesday's ticket price!! How worrying then, that Kristof is getting more and more sought after in all the concert halls of the world and we might not hear him as often in the future as we have become accustomed to.  Good for him, but not so good for us! :-(

Clash (Dozsa peasant uprising 1514) 1928-29

Concert Musicians Landscape with Figures 1921-22

Self Portrait with Bishop's Mitre 1923

The Two of Us 1929

On Wednesday, between the two concerts Pete and I went to see an exhibition in the National Gallery.  This painter, Gyula Derkovits lived 39 years, lived in poverty and died in the first half of the 1930's. His works are stunning, cannot be totally squeezed into any particular style or school, but I think, and in spite of his politics and ideological content, are timeless and address many important questions of both his own time and ours. I ended up with a horrific back ache, which is always a sign of an excellent exhibition, as standing around and slowly moving kills my lower back. We were there for about 4 hours and had it not been for my crippled back I would have stayed longer.

The Geological Institue from the air

In the afternoon Pete went on a walkabout to the City Park, where he saw some lovely  Art Nouveau villas, my old school building and the Geological Institute (see above).

The presenters of Coast Australia

I, on the other hand, managed to catch up on some of my favourite TV programs that I have missed due to having too many other things to do.  Lately I fell in love all over again with Neil Oliver, that lovely little Scotsman, I first met when he was doing Coast back in the UK.  Australia is an amazing and spectacular country, so when I discovered Coast Australia on BBC2 I thought I would be in for a treat.  Absolutely! I could not have been more spot on. Whether he is in Sydney, all over the Great Barrier Reef or in Tasmania, the shots are eye watering, the presentation high quality and enjoyable, so I had a very good couple of hours catching up.

And then on Friday we went down to the village for a couple of days. We had to put the car away, see to the garden, have a chat with a variety of people about things while we are away in Canada etc. I sorted the gardener, the post lady, the roofer, my sister and a few others. The gardener is coming in watering, weeding and lawnmowing, the post lady will be taking our post to my sister, who has finally received her artisan cheese that I bought weeks ago. The roofer is coming to mend a few broken tiles and do some tin edges on tops of walls, so that we won't have to paint them every year. In the two full days we were there I managed to weed everything, water everything three times throgoughly and even took Pete out for a 10km hike to the big lovely look out tower in the hills above us and back. Pheww!!

Now we are back in town. Pete is taking us out for dinner tonight and will depart on the hydrofoil to Vienna tomorrow morning.