Happy Labor Day to our friends across the pond!  Here in Europe we keep
working hard on this day, which for me today meant going to the dentists
and having a tooth pulled.  The upshot of that is that I was feeling sort
of poorly and didn't go to Deia tonight to hear Suzy play with the Walasek
Quartet, so instead of being out at the post-concert party in a restaurant
eating steak or something chewy I am sitting at home nibbling analgesics
and plugging away on another installment of the Serafino's Trio Notes.

We returned a few days ago from a trip to Mao, Menorca.  Mao, also written
"Mahon" is an ancient town on this tiny ancient island, perched on a
cliffside looking over the second-largest natural harbor in the world.
(The largest is Pearl Harbor, you can look it up.) The town has had a
large British population for hundreds of years, and it is reflected in
the architecture and the culture, and there are still a lot

of rich Brits lolling on their yachts in the harbor. The British
influence is even present in the local dialect; the word in Menorquin
for "window" is "windo".

The occasion for our concert was a music festival that included a
composition course with composer/conductor Salvador Brotons.  The idea
was that we would have a couple of sessions of masterclassses with the
composers on Saturday and Sunday then play the concert on Monday.  So we
go to meet Salvador Saturday morning, he's left, not a composer in sight.
We leave messages, send off carrier pidgeons, finally we get through and
it turns out everybody had gone home to eat, and this evening was the big
fiesta in the neighboring town, and maybe tomorrow morning.  So Sunday
morning we go back to the messages and the birds and finally get through
and turns out all the composers are all pooped out from their efforts and
all the Sunday classes are cancelled.  Fine.  Great.  Suzy was a little
upset at having to be there so long before the concert because she was
missing her family visiting, but the fact was we were all pretty happy to
just have a couple of days to relax.

We also had 2 good rehearsals on Sunday, nice solid work, slow, controlled,
fixing details.  We also learned the little pieces by the student composers
that we had to play on the program.  One piece was kind of fun, an overture
with some quirky little harmonies and some turns of tune that refused to
leave one's head for hours afterward.  The other piece was by an
18-year-old pianist, really quite a haunting melody very much in the style
of Chopin.  There wasn't much there to work with but we sort of had fun
putting them together and giving them a little Serafino treatment, and in
the concert Monday they worked pretty well.

The other works on the program were the Shostakovich, the first performance
we'd done since recording it.  When you record a piece you REALLY get to
know it; other than looking at some individual technical things we just put
it together effortlessly and the performance was very effective indeed.  We
also played Carl Mansker's piece (now available on mp3.com) and it went
very well, perhaps the best yet.  Audiences consistently like this work and
I hope we get a chance to record it one day.  Then we finished with the
world-famous Foote trio which, as usual, knocked 'em dead.  Such a cool
piece, and we know it so well now we just kind of press the button and it
comes out.

The audience was not large; we were competing with the Academy of St.
Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, and there are only so many
concert-goers on Menorca, but they were friendly and enthusiastic There
was a reviewer there, and we got a fax a couple of days ago with his very
nice critique.  Reviews are for musicians what polls are for politicians.
Nobody admits giving them importance but it sure does feel good when they
go your way.

So now we're back, another travelling experience behind us, and heads up
to the program on 6 October.  With Martinu 3 and the Dvorak Dumky it is
another huge, difficult program and we have only a month to learn it.  The
Dvorak sure is a wonderful work, and it is going to be a very enjoyable
month working on this great music!

David Runnion
Trio Notes Archives --
http://www.serafinotrio.com/serafino/trionotes.html