Quiet words from the sickbed :-(

History is repeating itself (again)!! It is definitely at least the second time, but could even be third or fourth, that I go down with some nasty lurgy straight after returning from visiting family around the end of November/beginning of December. I did last 2 days OK after our return, but then 2 days ago I started sneezing, coughing, having a temperature and headache and just generally feeling dead. As I had two fantastic concerts I went out for both, but the second one was probably irresponsible.  This morning I was close to writing my will, but Roy made me porridge, I also took a couple of Paracetamols, and now I am a bit more alive!! :-)

I also realised, reading the last two posts, that I didn't go into any detail about a couple of concerts and an opera before we went to Hassocks, so the first part of this post will be a report on those plus the last two concerts and an opera performance from the last couple of weeks.

Dezső Ránki

Back on 24th November I saw Dezső Ránki at the Palace of the Arts playing Haydn, Beethoven and Chopin. The second half was taken up by 24 Chopin preludes, which were magnificent.  He is superb, but not very willing to give encores.  Other than that, I can't fault him.

Tannhauser First Act

The following day I went to the Opera House where Wagner's Tannhauser awaited, but I forgot that it started at 6 instead of 7pm. I should have known, as Wagner's operas take forever and nobody wants to be there at midnight. I had a phonecall from my friend Eszter, asking where I was at about 5.50pm. They were also dishing out free tickets to the likes of us in the gods.  I told her not to wait for me, I'll get there when I get there. I think I arrived sometime between quarter past and half past 6, but couldn't get in at the side door, which is the normal access point to the gods, so I tried the front. I told two young men there my story and one of them disappeared for a minute and then returned with two VIP tickets to one of the first floor boxes.  That was fortunate, because you can go in and out of boxes any time you like, while if it was for anywhere else I would have had to wait until the first interval. Unfortunately somebody took our places, but there was one seat left, so I spent the rest of the first act there.  In the interval I found Eszter, we asked the others to move and we had a very good time, minus my lost 20 minutes at the beginning. As I have written before, I am not an enthusiastic fan of Wagner, but I loved Tannhauser, which must mean that I am mellowing in my old age. Last year it was The Flying Dutchman, this year Tannhauser, bring it on, bring it on!!

Kim Kashkashian

On Wednesday, the night before leaving I had one last concert of the week at the Music Academy.  An Armenian/American viola player, Kim Kashkashian, gave a glorious recital after a bit of a mishap that befell her program.  The other soloist, Hungarian Péter Nagy, a pianist who lives in Germany had fallen down the stairs in his hotel that morning and broke his leg. They only had a few hours to rejig the program, find other artists, rehearse, but did it perfectly well. I even saw my absolute favourite,  Kristóf Baráti, who also played something, and very well he did that too. Her encores were Armenian folk songs, which were beautiful and the whole concert was gorgeous.  I bought one of her Bach CD's at the end, as I really do not possess too many viola CD's.

János Balázs

And now for the last two days: on Friday it was the last concert of a series of piano recitals in the Festetics Palace, where János Balázs, an up and coming young talent treated us to his  brilliance. The program was Beethoven, Robert and Clara Schumann with Liszt involved with the Clara Schumann piece. This guy is only 26, but his virtuoso technique is fully developed.  Also, unlike many virtuoso pianists who play mechanically, he has a soul and much insight with emotion that comes through in all his playing.  We loved it and hope to see him again and again. Especially that he doesn't begrudge us plenty of encores, so we love him even more!! :-)

Kristóf Baráti and Klára Würtz

Finally, last night, when I was already pretty sick, I went to see my beloved Kristóf Baráti. When I got out of bed, Roy enquired where I was going and then realised that the question was superfluous as I would definitely have to be at death's door to miss one of his concerts.  3 Brahms sonatas for violin and piano, C and A major and D minor were on the program and I must admit I did manage to forget my aching head, throat and joints for about a couple of hours. I had a lift home, which was a lifesaver, after which I fel into bed in a heap.

Cutting the cake

The only two other events since we came home were a lovely outing to a pub on Thursday and Callum's Skype call yesterday. The pub is not too far from the flat where some friends have celebrated the birthday of one of them and we went to see them for the occasion. It was a good decision as Weichmann's, the pub is just the type of place we both enjoy and probably will use in future. Not too posh, not too rough with a lively, nice crowd and good atmosphere. Zsuzsa, Cedric and their friends, colleagues and family were also very, very nice: laid back, funny and interesting people and even the beer and the food was lovely too.  I must admit, it is a long time since I have seen Roy as happy as he was that evening.  Mind you, it might be that I picked up my bug there, but then again, you can't shut yourself away just on the off chance of catching something. Not even in the winter. Weichmann's has definitely had the thumbs up and we'll be back.

For a variety of reasons (mostly being away at weekends) we have not talked to Alex and Callum for quite a while, so it was a really pleasant surprise to receive a Skype call from them on Saturday afternoon. The monster was first playing with his stickers and then built a Star Wars gun from Lego. All this wearing only his underpants, but their apartment must be quite well heated. I am really pleased that I now have some Callum pictures to put up, as photography lately seemed to be concentrated on the Hassocks monsters.

Filling the sticker book

What did you say?

Gun manufacture in process

The final product