Wednesday 22 March 2017

Postcards from the Piano: From Paris to London.

March 23rd. 2017.

I talked about my lessons in Paris and what a great teacher Marcel Ciampi was. During my 7 years I developed a wonderful musical relationship with my teacher---we often communicated through the music, knowing what each was thinking about a particular interpretation, a particular aspect of tone, the shaping of a phrase and at times the changing of actual notes!! What I found fascination was how he had performed the Saint Saens Concertos with the composer conducting and of his friendship with Debussy and Ravel. How privileged I felt to be able to study with this great musician.
I was working well and hard and it showed in my technical playing and in my ability to express the music with the required style and with a touch of originality. So much so that concerts were arranged for me. But they were not to be.
On a New Year Eve I fell down a long flight of stairs and damaged my left shoulder. There would be no practice for 6 months. Of course I felt sorry for myself but at the back of my mind something was brewing. Firstly I told myself to stop mopping and then I told myself to use the 6 months to get back to composing. True to my word I had stopped composing to concentrate on my lessons and to prepare for the concert platform. Now the way was clear to go back to what I loved--composing.
A good friend, a professor at the Sorbonne came up with a suggestion. He had always wanted to write a musical and since the student riots in Paris had just made their mark he wanted to write a musical, a love story based around the riots. Anything to do with love suited me!! And we all know my music would suite such a theme---so we started work. And my goodness the script!! Put it this way, it was certainly written by a professor from the Sorbonne. It was heavy. So heavy. I instinctively knew it was too dull to be a musical, however, we carried on writing and when finished sent it off to London and eventually through a contact  was received by Helen Arnold, a well known producer in London.
Then came my trip to London and a very exciting time was in store for me.
But before we get there I must tell you about some friends I met in Paris and of my trip to Spain and Morocco. This will be for next time. In the meantime I will post on my blog my Postcard of Barcelona and Marrakech.  


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