A Cello Today

Today my mind goes back to Dunoon in 1971. Castle Toward was a marvellous venue for the course.

As an aside, this also marks the debut of the moustache that I still have today – my top lip coming in contact with a cricket ball meant a trip to the doctor in Innellan and a few days off from rehearsals. 😁The moustache was grown as a result of that incident.

The piece of music I am sharing is the concerto from that programme – I didn’t actually play in this (only needed two horns and my lip needed the rest!!) – but it remains one of my favourite cello concertos. Obviously do not have a recording of our concert – but you can’t go wrong with Rostropovich.

As a result of my bruised lip I was also excused rehearsals for a couple of days – so spent a lot of time chatting with Noreen (the soloist). Turned out that she shared my love of Bruckner’s 7th Symphony.

Joseph Haydn : Cello Concerto in C

Comments :

Howard Evans

One learns something new each day!

Gordon Muir

You also got a black eye playing cricket at West Linton

George R McConnell

yep – and after that I learned not to play headers with a cricket ball 😂

Terry Hudson

I was there the following year – Prokofiev violin concerto, Wagner’s Tristan thingy, Romeo and Juliet Tchaikovsky, and Petroushka by Stravinsky. On the tuba, I spent most of the week, and the performance, counting bars 🤣

George R McConnell

With Simon Rattle on piano in the Stravinsky – one of the few years around then when I didn’t “help out” – was at the rehearsals and concert in the City Hall though

Terry Hudson

Was that really Simon Rattle?

George R McConnell

It certainly was – he was a student of John Carewe