Saturday 30 June 2007

Time now for a proper recap of the St Magnus Festival experience.

ST MAGNUS FESTIVAL DIARY
Wednesday (20th)

'Oh Lord, won't you buy me a ... Honda'. Andrew discovers that although my harpsichord won't fit in his enormous Mercedes estate, it will go into my tiny Honda Jazz.

Later in rehearsal, we discovered what a great piece Schetky's 6th quartet is.

Thursday
Lisa appeared at lunchtime to sing Ich habe genug and the Slaves Lament, and to play a pink boombox in Radio Music: you'd never believe she hadn't sung any Bach for years.

We finished early so that I could go to my Mum & Dad's 60th wedding anniversary party. Susie insisted I get up for pretty much every dance so I think I might be tired tomorrow.

Friday
Up at 6am for the taxi to Edinburgh airport: we all seemed quite awake. But after a hectic few days and some enthusiastic dancing I was in no mood for airports (in fact I'm finding this is increasingly the case in general) so I hid in a corner with iPod and earplugs, and only just made it to the flight on time. When we arrived in Kirkwall I left the others to go to Skara Brae and had a much-needed afternoon nap. When I got up they'd brought me a present of a rubber, ironically commemorating my repeated insistence in rehearsal that people rub out the markings in the parts. It does work though ...

Our wonderful festival hosts are just one aspect of festival life that St Magnus gets just right. Another is the opening reception, where with excellent food and free Highland Park, Malachy seemed right at home. DG was inevitably recognised by some Canadians. 

Then it was off to the Peedie Kirk for a first tryout of some Janis Joplin songs with DG, Alison and Mark O'Keeffe providing solos, and in one case being the horn section. Lisa grinned from ear to ear and Andrew (having just arrived after heroically driving from Glasgow with organ, double bass and cello) said we could be heard from the cathedral.

Instead of going to the pub, we ended the evening sharing a hipflask and listening to the curlews in one of my favourite places, the Ring of Brodgar, followed by some excellent chips at Kirkwall harbour.

Katy's technique for dealing with midgies in the Ring of Brodgar at midnight

Saturday
Despite the fact that it wasn't very warm (about 13C), Alison and I started the day by following Sandra Ballantine's directions to Ingeness and jumping in the sea. Fantastic. Then we had lunch with Sandra and Ian and it was off to work in the cathedral. 

There were plenty of radios around for Radio Music; unfortunately most of them had no batteries in, so Andrew had to go off to buy those. Alison's radio was kaputt, so Andrew also ended up borrowing one from the shop across the road. Mine looked great, but unfortunately made no sound at all in the piece other than an occasional crackle. Lisa got the pink boombaby again, and Katy grinned throughout the piece as before. We had tea and cakes round the corner at the Strynd tea room while some very large people got married in the cathedral (they were participants in sporting strength events apparently: pulling trucks with their teeth, that sort of thing).

In the concert I particularly enjoyed the Bach suite: we didn't seem to get in the way of it, and playing the minuet again after the badinerie makes sense on several levels. The Cage apparently divided the audience: certainly the applause was less than heartfelt after it ... While some people loved it, others assumed we were taking a break and struck up conversations while we were playing. Very entertaining in itself from the stage.

Walking back down the hill afterwards, the light at 10.15 looked like this. Time for fish and chips back at the harbour and group bonding in the festival club.

Malachy tries to explain the importance of alcohol to DG

Sunday was one of those days with lots of things in it that don't quite happen. We sort of rehearsed the Janis Joplin in the Community Centre, saving our energy for later, then we sort of had a BBC balance test until it turned out it was going to be nearly three hours later than scheduled, and Lisa and Mark had to perform Mahler 4 on the other side of town. So eventually we had a 5 minute balance test at 10pm and waited nervously for the audience to show up or get turned away (it was very full). It was definitely a gig though, with the horn section on a riser at the back and a half bottle of Jack Daniel's hidden inside the piano (Lisa couldn't find a whole one) which was easily consumed, partly on stage and partly in the dressing room afterwards. As Lisa put it, the first time she took a drink people went 'Yay', the second time 'OK', and the third time 'She's got a problem'. Anyway, all good fun and on Radio 3 on 14 August I think. Not sure if I'll listen: I remember halfway through thinking 'I'm not sure if I want to hear this in the cold light of day'. But the audience seemed to have a great time and we were suitably hysterical afterwards.

We reconvened in the club later to discuss further repertoire ideas (my vote goes to Judee Sill), and someone from the Scottish Arts Council introduced herself and gave me her card 'in case you need to get in touch'. I gave her it back. 

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra were in town, as well as other musicians that I know from various places, and it was salutary to encounter 'professional musican' attitudes here and there in chance conversations in the street. Two in particular spring to mind: 'We've got a late night gig tonight.' 'Oh poor you'. No actually, we're planning to entertain some people and give them a good time. It doesn't require sympathy; no-one's got a gun to our heads. In fact, we're hoping to enjoy it a great deal. And the other: 'What are you playing anyway? [consults festival brochure] Ah, a load of Jock Baroque. And Bach for some decent music. Oh well. Are coming to hear me play Shostakovitch?' No, I'm not, bugger off and take your narrow-minded condescending attitude with you. ... Of course I didn't actually finish these conversations like that: I smiled cheerily and walked away as soon as was polite. But I was glad that my brushes with that kind of professionalism were just brushes. 

Alison warming up, and Meg Munck waiting for me to stop taking pictures
so that she can tune the harpsichord

Anyway, we had to be well behaved in the club on Sunday night as next morning we had a 10am rehearsal for our lunchtime concert of Schetky, Kellie and other stuff in the cathedral. Mark Summers came from Loughborough to hear the Schetky - hooray. But the concert itself was an exercise in survival really. I don't think it came across like this to the audience, but I was heartily relieved to get off at the end, and not just because it's the first concert we've given in ages with no talking in it. We were all missing Katherine in different ways, and no-one was in a particularly good frame of mind afterwards. One to put down to experience I think.

After some much needed downtime, Andrew took DG, me and the harpsichord off to Birsay where Bertie Harvey let us into the church to rehearse for an hour or so. Then we picked up Alison and headed for South Ronaldsay and The Creel for a staggeringly good meal involving lots of fish (of course), six-hour cooked mutton, three different rhubarb puddings and four very happy and very full people.

DG grunting in an inflatable shirt outside the Earl's Palace, Birsay -
I still don't know why he did this

Tuesday's audience in Birsay were really up for it, and I got to try my trick of simultaneous melodica and harmonium playing by jamming down bottom A flat on Bertie's little Estey organ with the end of the melodica while playing Lastrumpony. I didn't notice that we'd started 10 minutes late, so when I looked at my watch halfway through the set I started to panic, thinking that the audience would miss the bus back to Kirkwall or not get a chance to eat their sandwiches and cake afterwards if we didn't hurry up. We hadn't talked that much had we?
As the audience was heading out, many of them thanking us on the way (there's nowhere to hide) a familiar voice said hello: the voice belonged to my GP from when I was about two until my mid-twenties; and her partner in the practice was there too. Instantly I was transported to the consulting room where I would sit with a sore throat, being asked sympathetic questions. I could picture all the furniture including the little wooden kids' chair and table by the window, and the well-loved stuffed toys. But I was in a remote corner of the Orkney mainland, having just played a concert. Confused.

Once outside, Kristen Harvey taught DG Fionn McArthur's tune about the church, with Jennifer Wrigley and Alison looking on, and eventually we packed up the harpsichord and went off to get blown about by the wind near the water at Brough of Birsay.

Driving to Stromness's Ferry Inn for vast amounts of pie, Andrew suddenly jammed on the brakes, exclaiming 'That's a brand new one', reversed back up the hill, and we watched a newborn calf trying to struggle to its feet, his mother eyeing us very suspiciously. We left them to it.

the sky over Stromness

As we were walking along Stromness Main Street, we were accosted by someone shutting up a gallery: 'You're musicians!' 'Um, yes. If this is your gallery, can we have a look?' After a good look round and a chat with Alistair Peebles and Carol Dunbar, by the time we'd walked to the end of the road (the only place in Stromness where you can get a phone signal) Alistair had bought us a bottle of wine and Alison had made up her mind, with a bit of persuasion, to buy one of Carol's tapestries. Andrew gave Alison a cash advance of part of her fee from the CD sales cash, and Alison removed said tapestry from the gallery wall with Alistair's help. A good end to the day.

Wednesday
Another 6am start for the plane to Edinburgh, and then Alison and I decided to get the bus back to Glasgow rather than travel all the way into Edinburgh for the train. Late afternoon, Andrew arrived, looking completely shattered after the getting the 0630 ferry and driving south, and now I've got Malachy's bass in my study for some reason - I think Alison and her dad are taking it to London on the train on Friday.