Jackie on sabbatical: October 2011

I'm sitting in deepest Somerset, crackling fire, falling leaves, pyjamas, watching England play Montenegro on mute listening to Britten Sinfonia live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall... Mozart D major violin concerto with the fabulous Henning Kraggerund. I must watch football like this more often. Some more impressions from July August and September... (Ashley Young just scored. Brilliant cross from Theo Walcott). A strange feeling watching England's legs running around after the ball in real time whilst my dear friends and colleagues are working hard....their arms moving ferociously wielding bows....all this activity and me here completely still.

I arrived in London from Harris mid July to make an album with two friends; Kuljit Bhamra, tabla, and John Parricelli, guitar. The idea was for us all to write some tunes and bring it all together and record it! I guess we just all felt comfortable with each other... because until we met to rehearse for a couple of days we really had no idea what we would produce. I wrote two pieces on Harris...and they are both inspired by the landscape and also the time I have spent in Morocco... anyway... it's always a shock being suddenly in the city after the island. A little plane plucks you from the sandy shores and deposits you in Glasgow....then a big grown up plane to Heathrow and straight on to the tube... you can imagine after 3 months on the island this is confusing and it takes a while to get the armour back on that is required to survive. I felt like a lychee in a spiky forest. Not frightened, but very open and exposed. Back to the streets of Shepherd's Bush... no heather here, but spit and gum and rubbish and concrete and dog shit... happy street life, and unhappy street life... deals being made on corners, many languages filling the warm air. I remember hollyhocks shouting out of front gardens..joyful and bold......and roses spilling over brick walls. Lovely staying at Louisa's comfortable colourful loving house.....a different magical island glowing secretly at the end of the street near the Loftus Road football stadium.

So we made our album in Kuljits studio at his house in Southall. We played and played for hours, only coming out in to the light to devour delicious curry from the 'Brilliant' and 'Roxy' restaurants... both HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I've always wanted to have the freedom to improvise but as a classical player the chance doesnt often come up... so it has been great just to take the plunge with these brilliant musicians... they are less comfortable with the written notation and very happy just to see 12 empty bars with the word 'solo' written. Its been fantastic to enter a different world and to write music from my heart.
We are doing some gigs this autumn and the album comes out soon. It will be called Postcards from Home.

So after this we went to the Ligurian Maritime Alps to rehearse more Beethoven Quartets for the final two concerts on Harris. It was very very hot which was unexpected as the house is very high 1300 metres . It was actually difficult rehearsing because it is so beautiful and its pretty impossible not to drink a lot of wine and eat delicious food and then I just wanted to sleep...but we did manage to play and we gave a little concert of Op 135 and half of Op18 no 6 and some operatic arrangements in the square to about 30 locals and a dog. Maybe I will write more about Italy later....so much to describe ......crystal clear starry skies and mountain tops, alpine pastures, hillsides quivering with thousands of butterflies, wild raspberries, Strauss Alpine Symphony played full volume, violent storms, wild boar, lizards and snakes rustling in the dry grass... on and on.

Back to England early September and up to Harris again.

These 2 final concerts each had a Razamovsky quartet in. Numbers 1 and 3. So difficult and demanding and so brilliant. The house was shuddering with us all practicing really hard......Beethoven has been all consuming in my life for 6 months now. I miss it. My lovely mum came for the first of the 2 concerts and we had a beautiful day with her on Luskentyre beach. Some dear friends came up for the last concert and it was a powerful event with readings from the end of Beethoven's life and the Grosse Fugue to finish. It was a difficult day for me as I had a terrible headache that no normal drugs could shift......thankfully Kath had some migraine tablets and it just went in time....... We started with Raz 1. Wow!!!! Then Op 130 with the original Grosse Fugue finale. I totally love this piece. It gets some bad press. I think its the essence of him pushing pushing breaking through barriers ...an immense life force with a tender tender inside. I want to play it again and again. I want to play all of them again and again. I have learnt so much. Much champagne was drunk that night.
So... we were lucky enough to be taken for delicious meal to celebrate at Scarista House by John Wreford (Thanks so much John)

Wrung out the next day. Then to Leeds to settle my youngest at Uni. Then Southall again to mix the CD.
All in all a whirlwind of richness. I'm 6 months in to my year. I'm SO glad I took this time. I'm SO lucky to be able to I know.

Now listening to Death and the Maiden end of slow movement.......so very beautiful. It would have to be Schubert who sails with me to heaven if I could only take one. (shhhhh don't tell Beethoven) More soon xxxxx J

Some photos from recent weeks:-