Nyckelharpa-player Torbjörn - whose booking it was really, I was only there to accompany him - is very welcoming and it's a great privilege to play with a world-class fiddler, and to show up well alongside him - they'd even put me first in the programme, which must be taking academic precedence too far; he also seems to respect, value, even adopt all my suggestions touching both interpretation and my standards of subtlety, e.g. how much we pay attention to details; when he occasionally suggests such things himelf, they make sense to me so there's a lot of saying ’yes' without the need for any discussion, which all helps things along smoothly of course ...

Sound taster: Johan Helmich Roman's Sinfonia in F, as we recorded it with a band of six in 2002: more details here

hi-resolution, 1.1 Mb

low-resolution, 356 Kb

I love the atmosphere here in Umeå: at home after 20 years in a remote rural area I know half the people in the shops and everywhere I go, but here people actually smile and talk freely to me, a stranger, like the girl in the supermarket, when I said that one could think of more fun things to do at 8pm on a Saturday night than cleaning out a meat counter ...

And it's lovely that I have the freedom of Torbjörn and Mia's house, she's a master shoemaker, they're interesting and fun and I feel ... 'known' ... and completely accepted (I did their joint web-site, here).

But it still demands a certain mind-set to stay in someone else's home when they have a nervous dog while you're used to a thoroughly relaxed cat at home, they drink Nescafé while you're used to ecological filter-coffee at home, their choice is young 'household' cheese while you're used to a mature 'quality' variety at home, they buy white bread while you're used to baking your own wholemeal at home, their 10-year-old daughter comes back from her friend's and wants a new toaster and a TV in every room while at home you're used to a five-year-old who after the house burned down says 'I don't really need lots of things as long as I've got you' ...

Still, I'll soon be home and back to something real, I'm going to the circus with Karin and Lonny's children this afternoon ... ;-)

Sunday, 5 Jun 2005