Grittleton 2010

Well I've been there and done that now. I put some pictures and videos on http://frank.mcnamara.se/Grit-2010.

It was, as always, great! We played the Frank Bridge sextet for strings. Our normal Rosemary, David & Jean group got two guest members in Pippa (1st cello) and Sean (2nd viola). You can see the result of efforts in the video that Sean arranged of our concert performance.

The other work was a quartet by C. V. Stanford. This is (justifiably) unknown! There is no known recording, and whilst this was an interesting experience one could understand why his music is known as 'bad Brahms'! We did perform one movement to another group in an informal session.

The afternoons were almost kept completely free, but the evenings were completely filled with informal sessions which included an unusually high number of Brahms Sextets this year. One highlight was playing the Mendelssohn Octet with Livia. She's 90 years old and as bright as a button!

Livia is an interesting person. She does both weeks (most of us are exhausted after one). She was Britain's first female professional horn player with the Halle Orchestra. She later stopped playing horn and went onto the violin when her front teeth became damaged (not uncommon problem for horn players).

The journey home was nice. Solbritt and I got a lift with Rosemary back to Fleet where we played, together with John, David and Jean, the Schubert double cello quintet, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. All this while Rosemary made lunch! We ate lunch in the garden in the sunshine, then Rosemary took us to the airport. A very nice way to break up a journey!

Thanks Rosemary and everyone else who helped make Grittleton 2010 yet another fine experience.