German tourette

A return visit to the splendid small town in Germany, Pirmasens...
Once again bringing Christmas cheer to people in the new Arts Centre there.

Three nights there... and lovely it was.  We were looked after splendidly - hotel, food on tap etc -  & people were very kind, even when we mentioned Brexit (tho' some sniggered!)

Delightful to be joined on the last night by German agent Peter Martin Jacob & his husband, Sasha...

Here is the Town Hall Advent calendar - a glorious European tradition:-

In the bottom left-hand corner you can also see the top of the wonderful crepe stall, which served me the excellent After-Eight Crepe (hyphen is their addition) - glory!

Then it was north to Hamminkeln for a concert in a church - with such a fantastic acoustic... marvellous it was... A lovely Festive atmosphere, with two great friends, Carole & Birgit in the audience, along with newer friend Stefan.
Organisation terrific and attentive.
Hotel was also terrific, tho' we had to leave it very early - getting up at 6.25AM... probably normal to many of you, but pretty dawn-ish for me!

Now we prepare for our Christmas concerts in Belgium... home on Christmas Eve!

Glorious Midsummer (no murders)

No need for Inspector Barnaby in leafy middle England last night, as we performed in the beautiful Chapel at Sarsden House, Oxfordshire, as part of the Dean and Chadlington Festival...

We were invited by the Festival director, guitarist, Craig Ogden, who we have known for several years. Delighted with the invite; what a splendid chap he is!
You may have noticed his new CD is already top of the Classical Charts...

We were very well looked after at Lord and Lady Chadlington's house... with its quite stunning gardens; many of our audience for the evening were enjoying tea and cakes there when we arrived (this was part of their ticket:- glorious).

and

oh, and bee heaven...

So having eaten like royalty... (Mike helped get some things out of the oven...)

...it was off to Sarsden House... with more spectacular and wonderful views...

The Festival puts on the same concert twice on these evenings, as they are so popular, and it was no different for us.... two packed houses of enthusiastic and excellent jolliness...

Splendid to have Carole Sterckx & Tim Newton sharing the evening with us too...

Excellent to chat to so many of the audience after the shows.

A thoroughly enjoyable time, and such a shame to have to leave... but as we could get to our own beds.... well, why not!?

The Chadlington's dogs were also very welcoming...

...and then one fell in love with Carole...

...but eventually...

Trip away,

Make no stay,

Meet me all by break of day...

New CD at Barnes Festival

A first outing since the appearance of our new CD, Songs of Love and War at the opening concert of the Barnes Festival on Saturday... Only in its second year, it is already growing! - and a delight because of the hard work of Daniel Turner and Andrew Summers and their team.

We were introduced by that irrepressible local boy Gyles Brandreth & once he'd had his say, a lovely crowd in St Mary's Barnes welcomed us to the festival & it is a pity not to be able to see some more of this, as we are off abroad from tomorrow for a while...

We had the splendour of firstly giving, in the afternoon, a masterclass to the six St Paul's Boys School pupils who make up vocal group Motley Croon and then singing together with them in the rarely-performed 1913 piece by Gustav Holst (setting poetry of Walt Whitman from US Civil War time) - A Dirge for Two Veterans; also needing the talents of three trumpets, side drum, bass drum, trombone and bass, all also from St Paul's.  Thanks to their Director of Music Mark Wilderspin for his great help in preparing the guys for the performance. 
Very moving indeed it was...

Excellent to not only celebrate local boy Gustav Holst, but also Sir Tim Rice! (..and we did feel the love that night...)

We were joined on piano by the ever-excellent Chris Hatt.
Our rendition of Richard Stilgoe's bathetic celebration of the English cricket fan was all the more poignant as I was informed onstage that we had capitulated helplessly to New Zealand only a few minutes earlier!

All the more festive it was, as our dear friend Carole organised a party for our more dedicated followers before the concert... & so the church was not only full, but with many old friends there too...

Off to Ankara for a concert Wednesday, and then 8 concerts in Germany...