Cornwall: County 21

Touring the country has certainly improved my geography of it! Cornwall is the first of the ‘extremity’ counties in the project (Cumbria, Northumberland and Kent still to come), and whilst I obviously knew it was the far corner of the South West, I hadn’t appreciated what a vast county Cornwall is. The brilliant Hilary Webster, having already previously organised my Hampshire performances, madly volunteered for another round, and made the Cornwall leg happen – coming up with a beautiful variety of venues, audiences and pianos which made for a rewarding and busy couple of days, and involved her, my designated chauffeur, driving well over 200 miles in the process.

As someone who always works constructively on train journeys, and with this weekend coming in the middle of a particularly busy few weeks, I was glad of the four and half hours from London to Truro to cross some things off my list (although I couldn’t resist gazing out of the window at the most scenic parts of the ride; the coastline is just wonderful). People often assume that the demanding part of being a freelance performer is learning all the notes, or dealing with nerves, or being away from home a lot: but in fact the most challenging aspects are often sheer admin and logistics! That is multiplied in taking on a project like this without an administrator (– and therefore, HUGE thanks to people all round the country who have taken on so much of the admin related to each set of performances). Today’s little challenge was getting the crucial online donation page up and running again, which had (unbeknownst to me) reached the end of its timeframe just ahead of these performances. If you want people to donate you have to make it as easy as possible, and having both buckets for cash and easy links for donating online seems to improve the chance that people will be persuadable to support the fundraising of the project in a way that suits them…. So getting this fixed was important. And there was a deadline, given that the first performance of the trip was in a matter of hours (how does technology always KNOW?!).

A couple of frustrating hours of train wifi / website crashing / technological ineptitude / audible cursing later, a functional new fundraising page was up and running! (It’s here, if you’d like to check whether it works by making a little donation…). Knowing that the programmes for the weekend had already been printed, and that I’d just created a crucial donation page with an entirely different web address and QR code, my first task on arrival in Truro was to see whether there was a printer anywhere! A short bit of googling and quick phonecall later, and One Stop Printers, on the elegant Lemon Street, came to the rescue, producing a neat stack of update slips for me to distribute over the weekend, as I dragged my suitcase into the print workshop. It’s all glamour, in this job…

After reunion hugs and natter with Hilary, a quick bite at the lovely Cornish Vegan, and some battles with carpark payment machines, we were on our way to venue number one: Chycara House. Surrounded by the sorts of plants you only find in sunny climes and near the coast, the venue is often used for weddings, but is perfect for a concert too – something they do, particularly with jazz events. Anything with this many fairy lights gets an instant thumbs-up from me, and having the audience seated around tables, with the bar open beforehand, created a great atmosphere. Having spent all day in transit it was great to knuckle down to some actual piano playing, and the audience were delightfully receptive to the evening’s thirteen preludes and fugues. Several people exclaimed in surprise that I was willing to talk to the audience during the interval and afterwards – but for me it’s been one of the joys of the project, meeting the range of people who are encountering this music, sometimes with great prior knowledge, and sometimes with absolutely none!

A convivial glass of wine or two followed, and delicious cheese, with organiser Tim Smithies (of the Roseland Music Society), owner David White (himself an esteemed clarinettist), and their utterly delightful guests. The black kitten caused hilarity climbing the pot plants, and we could have settled in for a long evening – but tracks had to made. Greetings and gin with Colin (husband) and George (dog) followed back at Hilary’s, in front of the roaring fire, and sleep was much needed (though annoyingly tricky as I was wired – the post-concert curse).

The next morning’s venue, for the next ten preludes and fugues, was a converted school, in the picturesque village of Stoke Climsland – a decent drive away across Bodmin Moor. The team organising had been to wonderful lengths, putting on a magnificent spread of cakes, the tables beautifully decorated with daffodils. The piano had been generously provided by Clive Pinkham – who claimed that he hadn’t yet finished making it!! – but it was a lovely instrument nonetheless, mellow and sweet. This may have been a small venue but it was packed, with a really welcoming atmosphere. The Old School seems to be a really wonderful (and well-used) resource in the village: activities there range from book clubs to osteopathy to IT clinics to dance – and of course, live music. It was great to hear that their in-house concert series, the Classical Club, is getting going again after the inevitable hiatus of the last few years.

Back in the car and off to Blisland – one of the shorter journeys of the tour – where the spectacular beauty of Lavethan awaited. And, crucially, a delicious lunch (excellent soup, thank you Simon) and roaring fire (spot the recurring theme. It may have been March but the sun didn’t get the memo). Krysia Osostowicz, violinist with the Brodsky Quartet, and her husband Simon, bought Lavethan a few years ago – an ancient manor house set in extensive grounds – and promptly set about converting a barn into a concert hall. The conversion has been very beautifully done, and the concerts they hold here are clearly a popular fixture in the area’s cultural calendar. Krysia and Simon had generously offered that audience members could explore the gardens beforehand, and whilst only a few hardy souls took them up on this given the chilly wet weather, the (indoor) cream tea was enthusiastically received. Some determined audience members had made a day of it and been to both Bach performances, making the most of Blisland’s pub in the lunch gap! This programme comprised another twelve preludes and fugues: working out the right running orders for the Cornwall version of the 48 had been a particularly intricate jigsaw puzzle, with the combinations of timings needed in each venue, but I think they worked nicely! It was perhaps unsurprising that the second concert in the day (indeed, the third in 24 hours) was the one where my playing felt the least tidy. Only a few days earlier I’d featured on a podcast in which I’d spoken about the fact that wrong notes are absolutely not the most important thing in performance: sometimes we have to remind ourselves of these truths as much as we remind other people…

The advantage of doing two daytime concerts in one day is that the evening remains free – and the much-needed pub visit feels well earned! Hilary and Colin’s local had kindly reserved us one of the best tables, and had been sure to put good veggie options on the menu in the knowledge that I was coming. They had also helped the project in advance by printing the programmes for the weekend – thank you to the Maltsters!

The final day dawned, pretty much as grey and rainy as all the others(!), but in such a beautiful part of the world it didn’t seem to matter. Off to Penzance we headed, for the final stop of the trip. Navigating the A35 road closures, we traversed the county, Hilary’s directions on the back of a Christmas card and mine on googlemaps on my phone combining to get us where we needed to be, against the odds! I’ve played concerts regularly in buildings that remind me of this one – Southwell Methodist Church in the Southwell Festival, Toll Gavel United Church in my own festival in Beverley, Upper Chapel in Sheffield earlier in this Bach project – but Chapel Street Methodist Church is a particularly lovely example of the genre. Light, spacious, welcoming – this immediately had a good feel to it. Tim Dean recently retired down here having been Head of Opera at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and has clearly been making some fantastic things happen musically in the town, particularly in the guise of Chapel Street Music. There was a sizeable audience of 70 or so, of whom a significant number stayed to watch the masterclass after an already substantial concert of eleven preludes and fugues (including some of the longer ones – the numbers of P&Fs don’t necessarily correlate to the length of a concert!). The piano here is loaned to the chapel by Falmouth University – and is part of a clever scheme, Piano Go Round, which provides a high-quality instrument in rural parts of the country. I love hearing and seeing the creative schemes people come up with all round the country to make things happen.

After my own concert I had the joy of listening to and teaching three local teenage pianists, all at an impressive standard, playing music from Chopin to Beethoven. I was so struck by how receptive they all were to trying out new ideas – not easy anyway, but particularly so in front of an audience! Thank you, all three of you, it was lovely to work with you – and congratulations to teacher Paul Comeau who is clearly doing a fabulous job. After we finished, I played the last two remaining preludes and fugues to complete the Cornwall 48 – and with that, I was done! Congratulations to the numerous audience members who were there for the 3pm concert and still there at almost 7pm to hear the last two – that is some serious stamina!

Despite the torrential rain I had been determined at some point in my Cornwall weekend to see the sea, so Hilary (equipped with ABRSM umbrella) and I (equipped with green hat) had braved the elements after my practice time. However, by the end of the day’s proceedings, it was now dark and I was tired, so a gin at the bar next door seemed a more appropriate way to recover!

Despite the many, many miles I cover by train every year doing this job, I have somehow never before taken a sleeper train, so when I realised I needed to be back in London the following day, the answer was right in front of my eyes. I had fully anticipated boarding the train and glamorously sitting in the on-board bar all evening, but of course in reality was so exhausted that the moment I shut the door of my cabin, my pyjamas were going on and I was going nowhere! There is something oddly comforting about the cosiness of the cabin, the hypnotic click clack click clack of the train on the tracks, the occasional station sounds as we pass somewhere new. We pulled into Paddington at 5:07am but I of course took full advantage of not having to disembark until 6:45. And so, back to the real world, and on with the day. 

Early on in her planning of the weekend Hilary had persuaded Carn to Cove to publicise and ticket the performances: a fabulous rural performing arts scheme, they promote music, theatre, comedy, poetry and more in all sorts of local venues. I was really struck over the weekend by how much is going on creatively in Cornwall. All of the venues where I played are currently building the music performance programmes they run – either from scratch, or building back up post-pandemic. There was clearly a large, busy network of dedicated and skilled musicians and promoters in the area – lucky culturevultures in the region! Thank you all for letting me be part of it for a weekend!

Anyone who organises any county of the project has my greatest respect and gratitude. But Hilary has organised TWO (glutton for punishment) and it has been a joy to reconnect through that. I was so touched by the way she really ‘got’ the project, taking so much time to find the right, interesting venues, and getting everyone on board and organised. I’ve said it before but this project really could not happen without people taking it on and making things happen in different parts of the country. So to Hilary and all those she drew in in Cornwall, thank you. 

Across the four performances, ticket sales were very healthy and extra cash / online donations were generously contributed. So in total, after covering the necessary expenses, the weekend raised £1,587.98 – making Cornwall one of the most successful counties of the project so far in fundraising terms, and gratifyingly also tipping the running total past £29,000 and well on its way towards £30,000! A happy thought indeed. Kernow bys vicken!