day seven.seven

Funny how things work out. I caught the first half of the fantastic ZUM tonight at the Garrick - brilliant musicians with excellent comic timing. Malcolm Creese, who was depping for regular bass player Jani Pensola, leads tomorrow's Acoustic Triangle. David Gordon, the pianist and composer behind ZUM, is performing harpsichord for tomorrow lunchtime's Division Flute. I met a violinist from the Britten Sinfonia who stayed overnight to play this evening with La Serenissima. These are little things, but are indicative of what a Festival should be about.
We have three quarters of the Elias Quartet fresh up from Cheltenham and Marie-Elisabeth Hecker has just arrived into Lichfield Trent Valley.
La Serenissima's repertoire is sounding glorious in the cathedral, despite the relatively small audience. So great to see the wonderful Roger Montgomery playing natural horn up the back. I remember Adrian Chandler's and my original discussions about La Serenissima's performance at this year's festival, and the date was fixed around Roger's Royal Opera House schedule over a year ago. I haven't seen Roger since we worked together at the Australian National Academy of Music nearly a decade ago.