I'm back from a few days in Kent and London as part of Alison's backing band playing the Geminiani cello sonatas, and I'm left with a curious quandry, choosing a harpsichord for the recording in August. We rehearsed with a fabulous Ruckers copy by Andreas Kilström: a rich, opulent, varied Bentley of an instrument that's absolutely perfect for the solo pieces, but is so loud and resonant that's it's not always sympathetic to a couple of cellos: it's very easy to get in the way, and also pretty easy just to drown out everyone else. We borrowed an excellent small Italian for the concert, which balanced much better, and left me able to relax more and play more notes, but it didn't quite have the balls for the big stuff. I'll listen back to the recording of the concert and think on. 

Eligio Quintiero is playing an alto guitar, keeping well out of the cellos' range, which works beautifully. It's great fun to be playing with him again - musical ideas just flow out of him, and everything stays in a constant state of flux, a kind of never-ending musical pragmatism reacting to the sonic surroundings, which is a very social way to work. I think we hardly said a word about the music in two days, but we laughed at each other's playing a lot.

And before dashing for the plane home, an interesting meeting about September 05 and a possible partner for future ConCal projects.

But now to booking flights to Canada for August. And the joy of a large cheque to Concerto Caledonia from the Inland Revenue - I do like dealing with them when the money flows in this direction.