Priests and Pyramids

Many thanks to all of you who have emailed in over the last year, asking where my blog has gone. I promise to start writing more regularly again, but just in case you are wondering what has been happening in the meantime, (and are really bored with some time to kill), I will tell you the story of the last 18 months. They have included 150 concerts, 70 towns visited, 24 new pieces learnt, 14 countries, 49 different beds slept in, over 50 hours in recording studio, a Quartet baby, some dolphins, three priests, two rock stars, one Pyramid and me running off stage mid-concert in St David’s Hall, Cardiff; but more of that later…

Just after my last entry, our Quartet played as part of a group called Wired Strings, for a Paul Weller concert at the BBC. My brother came to watch, and managed to get on camera more than us, much to my parents’ amusement. During the rehearsals, Weller not only made the tea, but even ran off to buy us ice cream from a passing van; how to keep 12 girls happy. Here's a link to one of the songs on YouTube. If you look very carefully at 2mins20, there is a close-up of me (!).
I then played with him again shortly afterwards, this time just a part of a quartet, for a BBC Hub session at Maida Vale studios. He was joined by Adele for some duets. Paul Weller and Adele

I played in the orchestra for an Ian Fleming gala at the London Palladium, hosted by his two daughters. I got to see Roger Moore and a whole host of old (literally) Bond girls. I even had a brief chat with Daniel Craig, who had his arm in a sling, after an accident on the set of the latest Bond film, before he was dragged off (by his bad arm) by his girlfriend, who looked as though she could have done with a good square meal.

Our Pavao CD with Victoria Hart, ‘The Lost Gershwin’, was released. Click here to buy it from HMV; We performed some tracks from it at a launch party in Madame JoJo’s in Soho, and also performed it on This Morning. I had always wanted to meet Fern and Philip!

We did a performance of the whole album in Café de Paris and then left to go on a cruise to the Caribbean the next day. I stayed up all night trying to pack and do my laundry, using my music stand to dry my underwear, and trying unsuccessfully to steam the creases out of my concert dresses in the bathroom.

It’s always precarious playing on a cruise ship; you are scared to lift your bow off the string, as you can’t guarantee you’ll make contact with it again, due to the motion of the ocean. But our recitals were a success, and in between we got to go on all the trips. We went snorkelling with turtles (I accidentally sat on one when it swum up underneath me; I don’t know who was more startled), snorkelled over a volcano which gives off ‘champagne’ bubbles and swam off a yacht to the famous Barbados beach where the celebs all go (apparently Pavarotti used to do his vocal warm-ups whilst taking his morning stroll!). I also went on one of the famous Madeira wooden sledges, went on a boat ride and spotted whales, we trekked through the rainforest (trek might be the wrong word as the average age of our group from the ship was 75), swam in a waterfall and sunned ourselves on top of a yacht. And most exciting of all; we swam with dolphins!!
Although, even after all that, playing the Brahms piano quintet was the best bit…I love that piece.










Just after the cruise, we went off to take part in the Tromp festival in Eindhoven, Holland. Upon our arrival we were presented with a festive ‘Santa sack’ containing all sorts of goodies including a large ‘P’, for Pavao, made out of chocolate, and immediately decided we loved the Dutch. There was even a set of playing cards featuring every musician in the festival. It snowed very heavily …


I went shopping one day; I was delighted to find clothes with sleeves and trouser legs long enough for me, as all Dutch seem to be tall. However, when trying to pay with my credit card in one shop, they would not accept it without my passport. I didn’t have it with me, but they insisted they needed proof of ID. Just as I was about to give up, and leave without my shopping, I had a brainwave. I reached into my handbag and showed them my photo on a Pavao CD instead - and it worked! The 2 shop assistants laughed and said they were going to listen to our Quartet on MySpace when they got home!

When we arrived home, it was Christmas 2008 and we had a bunch of Pavao Quartet Christmas concerts..in a barn in Oxfordshire, a church in Belfast and an arts and crafts gallery in the Lake District. Back in London we performed for the Chelsea Women’s Club, gave a Christmas concert in a church in Chiswick in aid of the Congo victims and took part in the 9 lessons and carols at St Georges in Hanover Square with Judi Dench. Adele also put on a Christmas concert at the Roundhouse in Camden, and I played in her band. Here’s a photo of her band all wearing santa hats.

It’s unusual for me to accept work on New Year’s Eve, but this one sounded fun; I went to Castle Leslie in Ireland and played as part of the Wired Strings group for Enya. It was a live broadcast for Japanese TV, and we had to have our hair and make up done at 7am, ready for a noon broadcast in which we were miming (pizzicato!) to the middle section of one of Enya’s songs, as it turned midnight in Japan! We got to stay in Castle Leslie, (although haunted) and still be back to London in time for the evening.

2009 started with a spate of Quartet recitals for music clubs, in Letchworth, Newton Abbot, Dillington, Teeside and a packed-out lunchtime concert in Kendal Town Hall, in the Lake District. We were declared heroes for making it there despite the snow.

Tugging the Heartstrings

On the recent infamous ' White Monday', a couple of days before their engagement as guests of the Kendal Midday Concert Club, it seemed that the Pavao String Quartet would be marooned in London; cancellation was suggested. But they came and they conquered: the capacity audience was enchanted by both the performance and the appearance of the four young women, visiting Kendal for the first time.
Mozart's Dissonance K465 Quartet was their first offering. Playing old instruments on extended loan to them by the Royal Academy of Music, they achieved a most appealing tonal blend; the balance, too, was ideal (superior to that of some recent eminent ensembles); there was a finesse of phrase, subtlety in the shaping of melodic lines; every note, every chord had an all-important significance. The faster movements, rhythmical precise and sparkling with a delightful vitality, contrasted effectively with the warm and elegantly lyrical slow movement.
Bax's String Quartet No 1, a work unfamiliar to most, if not all, provided the perfect foil. Tunefully attractive and possessing a wide variety of unusual textures, it provides a technically-demanding challenge to any quartet. The secure ensemble work so consistently evident in their Mozart served the players well here. The frequent fluctuations of tempo, the swings of mood, the ever-rotating scoring combinations, the subtle inflections of dynamics, the rhythmic complexities – all were consummately managed. There was a perpetual emphasis on beauty – especially so in the wonderful slow movement.
An encore – Moon River; charm, nostalgia, good taste oozing from every bar – brought the hour to its all-too-early end.
Brian Paynes Westmorland Gazette 02/09


Our Pavao concert schedule continued incessantly until the spring, interspersed with concerts with Sir Willard White, All Angels, and the Henri Oguike Dance Company (not all at once!!), and covering venues from a living room in Haslemere to the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, to the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank. I managed to fit in an Inauguration Party for President Obama in my flat, where I served hotdogs and champagne whilst we watched his speech. Everyone had to recite at least one line from Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, before they were allowed in. Bryony also had her 30th birthday party, where she took us all to a blind restaurant; you are served by blind waiters in the pitch dark!

I received an urgent phonecall from another quartet, whose second violinist had cut her finger. It happily co-incided with 2 free days, so I joined the Callino Quartet for concerts in Galway and Manchester, playing the second violin part for Schubert’s Rosamunde and the Mendelssohn F minor.

Back with the Pavao, we did a lunchtime concert in St George’s, Hanover Square, then had to rush off to Bury St Edmunds to perform Shostakovich 9 with the dance company that evening. I then stayed that night with my parents in Ipswich; I had gone from playing Beethoven op. 59 no.1 in a church, to Shostakovich surrounded by the stamping feet of dancers, to playing a piano duet version of the Planets with my Dad on a dusty old upright!

We had another enjoyable trip to Jersey. When we did a tour of the Channel Islands a couple of years ago, I was delighted to find a basket full of knitting in one of the tiny airports. The idea was that you picked it up and knitted whilst you were waiting, then left it in the basket for the next person to continue! The completed blanket would go to Oxfam! We had some time off one afternoon on this trip, and I spent two hours in a fairy/witchcraft shop buying crystals! The security guy at the airport on the way back picked the wrong bag to search; it revealed 30 crystals, a book of spells, a Brahms score, 15 old concert programmes, a broken violin E-string and a half-eaten Mars bar…

Next stop was Liverpool, and I realized to my horror that I had forgotten my music! Luckily my flatmate was at home back in London and ran to the nearest internet café to scan in the first violin part of Shostakovich’s 9th Quartet; not usually part of her daily duties as a barrister. We found that, unusually, all four of us were sharing a rather large hotel room in Liverpool; well 4½ as by now Jenny was expecting a baby!

For much of the following two months, I was on tour with Russell Watson, playing as part of 6 violinists in his band. This was very good fun, and we enjoyed dressing up and putting on false eyelashes every night. I found some special ones for the last night..but discovered when I got on stage that I couldn’t see through my lashes to read the music properly, but at least it made Russell smile in the middle of Nessun Dorma! The low point of the tour was getting the sleeper train from Plymouth back to London after one of the concerts, as I had to be in Abbey Road Studio 1 at 10am the next morning with Andrew Lloyd Webber. I was playing in the orchestra, recording the album for Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera.






Just as Spring arrived, I played in Haydn’s Creation in Kensington. However, the sun was shining so brightly through the window, that an orchestral hat had to be passed around in the rehearsal; not to collect money, but to shield whichever player the sun was shining on in that moment, so they weren’t too dazzled to see the music or conductor! One of the singers turned up to the rehearsal with ‘The Pocket Guide to Psychology’ tucked into his back pocket; how apt for a singer…

A varied week saw me taking part in recording a new opera of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ at the Yehudi Menuhin School, then playing in the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Albert Hall for a concert of the 80’s pop band ABC. It was really good fun, but I have to say that in rehearsal, after the 6th rendition of ‘Poison Arrow’, I did question my 80s pop devotion.

Back with the Pavao, we gave a recital in Hertford, and I was slightly concerned that the semiquavers in the last movement of Mendelssohn’s op. 80 would send Jenny into labour. We did a very enjoyable 70th birthday concert for John McCabe, getting to learn his piano quintet and one of his ‘Rainforest’ pieces. Jenny didn’t take part in this, as it was too close to the birth and too far away from her hospital. We were delighted when we heard a couple of weeks later that she had given birth to a baby boy, Benjamin. With pianist Alison Farr, we all knitted him a ’blanket of love’, doing a few squares each. I tried really hard to stick to the neutral and blue colour scheme, but managed to sneak one pink square in there!!














While Jen was recovering we went on another cruise in June; with Bryony’s sister taking her place.

It was a Baltic cruise and we visited St Petersburg, but by far the most exciting thing was performing the Elgar piano quintet with John Lill. It was a great pleasure performing with him, and we would love to do it again. I was playing a few solo pieces too on this trip, and was suddenly frozen with fear at one point when I realized I had to perform a solo piece in the same concert as John Lill. I couldn’t help feeling I should have been practising rather than being lost in Helsinki.

This is us playing at picnic in July for Bryan Adams, raising money for his foundation.


Also in July, the Pavao performed again on Friday Night is Music Night, Live on BBC Radio 2. Here’s the playlist

If you listen very carefully you can hear me sneeze in the March of the Siamese Children. The very next day we headed to Ipswich to give a recital in my home town, and do an interview on BBC Radio Suffolk.

Our Wigmore Hall recital, playing Dvorak and Brahms piano quintets with Marco Fatichenti, was a huge success. Jenny and I gasped when we walked on stage, because we couldn’t believe how many people had come along. We had three curtain calls before the interval! We would love to do another Wigmore, but it is very expensive to hire the Hall, so please let us know if anyone has any ideas for sponsorship.

The huge number of performances I had taken part in over the previous months seemed to suddenly take their toll the day after our Wigmore, as I was taken ill on stage. We were giving a concert with Sir Willard White in St David’s Hall, Cardiff, when I started to pass out. With only 30 seconds left until the interval, I stood up and wobbled off stage, only just able to locate the door. I then discarded my violin onto the floor and, very glamorously, collapsed in the gents’ toilets. Yes, I was passed out cold in some gents loos in Cardiff. Not my finest hour. Poor Jenny had to sight read the first violin part for the rest of the concert, with the second violin part by her feet in case she needed that too!

I know Willard is supposed to have a powerful effect on women, but this was a little extreme. The doctor diagnosed ‘exhaustion’ and recommended staying in bed. We had tickets to see Michael Jackson the next day, but circumstances, although obviously unfortunate for Michael, meant I could indeed stay in bed.

When I eventually got out of bed several weeks later, I went on holiday to Washington D.C. I like the way people are so helpful in Washington, that all you have to do is open a map, and someone literally runs across the road to help you. Such a contrast with Glasgow, where I find you get such convoluted instructions for something that’s actually just 200 yards down the road, and China, where the directions are just plain wrong, but they don’t seem to be able to admit they don’t know where something is.

The Library of Congress is an amazing place. It was rebuilt in 1815 with the help of 6,487 books from Thomas Jefferson, after we had (ahem..) burnt the ones they had previously. I could have spent many weeks in that library; it’s hard enough trying to leave the one in West Hampstead. But I think the highlight in their collections, has to be the Mozart action figure doll I found in the Shop.

On a tour round the Capitol building, I was amused to see there was a statue to the man who had invented air conditioning
I kept seeing posters on the trains saying this: ‘Women without health insurance are 2.5 per cent more likely to develop late onset cancer.’ How does that statistic possibly work? Somebody please explain.















I then joined my friend Anna in New York.





















We had violin lessons with the fabulous Joey Corpus, then rewarded ourselves for practising so hard in the sweltering August heat, with a weekend at the Hamptons, where I was indeed rewarded, by spying Jon Bon Jovi on the beach. (Wait; that makes three rock stars.)






































I wasn't sure I was stylish enough for the Hamptons.







On my return, I set off to Arundel to stay in a barn for a week. I was joining some friends to play in the Arundel Festival. I learnt James MacMillan’s wonderful clarinet quintet and performed Ravel’s Violin and Cello duo in an Organic Café!

I took my niece to Amsterdam for her 13th birthday



















Fixed grin, whilst trying to maintain control of pedal boat.






My 30th birthday came and went..

















And the Pavao went off to Holland for one night, to perform for Boosey and Hawkes some works from their catalogue. This included giving the Dutch premiere of John Adam’s ‘Fellow Traveler’, which I really hope we can play again. Our (very posh) hotel had a giant rotating Faberge egg outside our window!


The Pavao played again in the 2 Moors Festival. It was a church crawl; we visited three churches and gave a concert in each, throughout the day, performing Ravel, Debussy and Elgar. I was interviewed about it for Classic FM






Another cruise, this time to Egypt.
We were joined by the lovely Ruth Funnell as second violin. We sold out of CDs almost immediately. ‘It was like Primark!’ declared the slightly unnerved Entertainments officer who had been selling them, ‘people were elbowing each other out the way and the CDs ended up all over the floor!’. We got to visit the Acropolis in Athens, and the Pyramids in Giza. We even got to clamber inside one. Nick Bailey, from Classic FM, was the host on this cruise, and would very kindly give us a wake-up call when it was time to leave for the trips. It was strange getting an alarm-call from a radio presenter; I kept expecting him to say ‘It’s 7.30 and time for some Vivaldi’ and not ‘It’s 7.30 and time to get out of bed’!

Nick and I were invited to be on the Captain’s team in ‘Give Us a Clue’. The ballroom was packed, and I ended up trying to re-enact the entire video for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ without making a sound. They finally got it when I did a Royal wave… I think the Captain was appreciative that I guessed it was ‘How to Look Good Naked’ before he got to the last word…

I loved the patriotic sailaway party we had whilst leaving Gibraltar. I joined in ‘Rule Britannia’ from the jacuzzi whilst enjoying a cocktail, but lost my Union Jack at the bottom.

By the time we got back it was Christmas. I played for ‘The Priests’ on the Jonathan Ross Show, and witnessed firsthand the unlikely spectacle of three real Catholic priests having a snowball fight with Jonathan Ross. Also played with the Wired Strings on the Andrew Marr show. We were playing ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ live with Ronan Keating, but I also inexplicably ended up giving Rory Bremner a violin lesson. It was all a little much for a Sunday morning…

During our last Pavao concert before Christmas, I announced Leroy Anderson’s ‘Sleigh Ride’, saying we had not brought any sleigh bells but people were most welcome to join in with their car keys if they liked. Before I had even sat down to play, the whole of St John’s Smith Square was filled with jangling car keys!


The highlight of my Christmas was watching a version of Peter Pan, where Tinkerbell turned out to be a tutu-wearing male brandishing an illuminated Barbie doll on the end of a stick, and most of January has been spent with my boyfriend attempting to circumnavigate any wool shops or department stores to avoid my hyperventilation and panic attack at the sight of the magic words ‘wool sale’.


I am currently playing in ITV’s ‘Popstar to Operastar’ show.
In the first week, I stopped off to buy pencils on the way. Not so much for marking bowings in the music, but more so I can mark which line of my knitting pattern I’m on. (There can be a lot of waiting around in TV). I already frequently get tangled up on these shows, what with an earphone lead and microphone lead (no standing up suddenly), and now I have my wool protruding from my handbag too. Last week, I had to play unexpectedly; my wool got caught around violin and was threatening to strangle me with every up-bow. I really hope my desk partner doesn't mind me marking what row I'm on, on our music.

It amuses me that just in case the set or performances leave you in doubt as to which genre the singers are attempting -the words ‘OPERA’ are in massive figures along the back of the set. I have extreme faith in the competence of all who work at ITV, as there are two enormous chandeliers hanging over my head. I’m hoping they are plastic, and therefore no chance of breaking one during the Queen of the Night. Next show; live at 9pm on Friday.

In case you’re not asleep by now, and in true ‘Have I Got News For You’ fashion, I would like to leave you with a photo from a recent recording session our Quartet did. It was for a pop band and the song was called ‘I Saw the Dead’. However, the way the parts were printed was rather unfortunate…