Sunny Side Up

Today I played Beethoven's 2nd Symphony (and Egmont Overture - cue 'scrambled' and 'toast' jokes) at the Royal Academy of Music under Sir Colin Davis. My former violin professor, Hu Kun, is studying conducting with him, and so he relayed much to me about how Colin Davis just releases his ideas through subtle implication, weight of personality, relaxation and charisma. Allowing things to happen and all that. Amazing eyes, too! So it's great to experience at first hand how a master communicator communicates on a personal level with a great number of people. But of course it's something that's impossible to put into words, so I won't try.

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Just sorting through post-tour files, I find a poem handed to me by a 'village elder' just before one of the Welsh recitals last week. It's not especially profound (and this has nothing to do with Colin Davis! - it just happens to be in the same post :) ) but it does express something of what they were feeling...

Just a line to say I'm living
That I'm not among the dead
Though I'm getting more forgetful
And mixed up in my head.

I got used to my arthritis
To my dentures I'm resigned
I can manage my bifocals
But God I miss my mind.

For sometimes I can't remember
When I stand at the foot of the stairs
If I must go up for something
Or have I just come down from there

And before the fridge so often
My poor mind is filled with doubt
Have I just put some food away
Or have I come to take some out?

And there's the time when it is dark
With my night cap on my head
I don't know if I'm retiring
Or just getting out of bed

So if it's my turn to write to you
There's no need for getting sore
I may think that I have written
And don't want to be a bore.

There I stand before the mailbox
With my face so very red
Instead of mailing you a letter
I have opened it instead!

Anon.