PARIS!

Bonjour!
I am sitting, unbelievably happily, on the couch in our home for the next half a year, in the beautiful Marais district of Paris.
It is the end of an epic journey, having talked about this for 7 years, but finally we are here.
The plan, in case you wondered, is to learn French, spend as much time with our friends in Paris as we can, and to generally enjoy being in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Today, apart from being notable for our relocation, also saw a new US President. This seems slightly less important than the fact that I just ate a whole pack of French brie while Maya unpacked boxes but it is notable nonetheless.
I can't believe he messed up the words during the swearing in. Brilliant. He can make a 20 minute speech without hesitation but got stressed repeating 40 words. I can understand though, I got confused about the words at my wedding.

Go Obama...

RECORDING PHOTOS

2008 was a good year for recording, and there are now two things ready for release in 2009. The first was a children's project, called 'Fairy Tales and Goblins' Dances'. It has on it my wife Maya, (also playing violin) and two of my very favourite pianists in the world, Martin Roscoe and Alex Taylor.
We recorded in Champs Hill, amongst lots of splendid paintings and fattening food...





I think Martin is laughing at my intonation...





And secondly, in June I made my first concerto recording- of Kornglold and Rozsa concertos, both written for or premiered by Heifetz but I'm hoping nobody is going to remember the recording he made of them both...
I recorded them in the amazing Tonhalle in Dusseldorf, with the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker and Yasuo Shinozaki conducting. The sessions were incredibly tiring but great fun- perhaps the hardest part was the walk from the stage to the recording box which included around 9000 stairs I believe, and which nearly saw several members of the team rendered useless due to chest pains. We survived though, and the record comes out in Spring.












I told you the box was high up- this was taken from inside...

ARSENAL 1-0 BOLTON
One of my very favourite places to be is watching the football. As long as it's Arsenal, and as long as they are winning.
Yesterday was the coldest I have ever been, anywhere, in my whole life. (Someone behind me said it was -30 but I think it may not quite have been.)
And it took 84 long, shivering mintues for the goal to come...
I think the cold weather had an adverse effect on the usually good natured, polite and patient crowd. The level of swearing went up several notches where I was sitting- I found myself shouting words I had never previously deemed acceptable for public use.
Brilliant fun.

Hello!

As it's new year, I've resolved to start writing a blog. I can't promise it will be of any more than the lowest level of entertainment value but I'll give it my best shot.
I just came home from Spain, where I spent a week on the beautiful, sunny and absolutely freezing island of Menorca. The fabulous Orquestra de Cambra Illa de Menorca let me loose on them for a Christmas programme, made up of all sorts of things ranging from a Bach concerto to Carmen Fantasy, in front of two of the friendliest audiences I have met in a long while. The first concert was so cold several of us nearly died from frostbite but we pulled through and it ended up being brilliant fun.
Why are the Spanish so friendly? I would be too if I lived somewhere with such nice weather but it's more than that.
I was shown around a wonderful little fishing town by three members of the Felix family, all of whom play in the orchestra. Everything there was tiny- the houses, the steps, the pathways, I was led to believe the people were tiny too but that turned out not to be true.
I miss it already and I can't wait to go back.

Now I'm at home, surrounded by boxes, preparing for our temporary move to Paris.......