Old Friends, Old Machines and Old Times

What a magnificent way to spend a long weekend. Around here the May long weekend can often cough up great weather, and this was a superb example. Add to that the fact that it takes very little to get us to Stanthorpe anyway because it is one of our favourite places. So an invite to meet up with an old music teacher of mine on acreage outside Stanthorpe for some music making, and we were off.

Three ex-student families gathered one by one as we escaped from the Saturday activities in Brisbane. I actually spent more time driving on Saturday morning in Brisbane than I did driving to Stanthorpe.  Not really much time to do more than setup, cook and eat. Cold weather was promised for Saturday night and did it deliver! A healthy frost in the morning explained why we were so cold overnight. The first frost of the year, so a real Stanthorpe experience.

Sunday, the local markets beckoned, but to avoid needing to take three cars, I stayed home and helped with a few chores. I was richly rewarded for my efforts. With a captive audience it didn’t take Paul too long to offer rides in his collection of ancient motoring machinery. While he might be getting on in years, the ex-racer still has a twinkle in his eye and is eager to please.

Having taken a sizeable collection of instruments down ( a novelty for a camping trip I must say) I was keen to play. On Sunday we did smaller stuff, and buoyed by the experience, arranged for some local musicians to join us on Monday to mount an assault on the Spohr Grand Nonette http://www.encoreccm.org/pieces/309. This was one of my better memories from school and it turns out our hosts had a copy. She had attempted subsequent attempts at playing it at schools but our performance remains the only one achieved. The wide range of instruments required make it unlikely you will equipped to play it at any time, and then, as this time, some substitution was the order of the day.

We must do it again one day. After all, an enjoyable day like that is what all those years of hard work is about.