Because the hall (the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium at Dalhousie University) has two pianos, this was one concert where Jim and I didn't have to worry about transporting the instruments, though frankly, we did miss having our own to play.  They were both nine-foot concert grands, but quite different, since one was a bright Yamaha (mine) and the other a not-bright Steinway (Jim's), and even though the audience enjoyed the performance, we had to work to make the instruments work.  Because of the duality of the writing, blending them was not as much of a problem as it might have been if we had been playing anything where unity of sound were crucial.  I had the brighter piano because, more often than not, during simultaneous passage work, my part (piano one) is the higher of the two.  The acoustics of the hall worked well for Mozart: not a lot of reverberation, but enough to make for good projection and an expressive sound from the instruments.

The rest of the programme consisted of Capriol Suite, by Peter Warlock (first, before the Mozart), and after intermission, Schubert's Symphony # 5 , and Pulcinella Suite by Stravinsky.  I didn't hear much of the Warlock, as we were busy preparing ourselves for the Mozart, but I listened to the 2nd half, since the Schubert and Stravinsky are two of my favourite pieces.  Both performances were superb, and the audience gave Pulcinella a rousing ovation.

This morning (the day after), we met Michael Baker, the timpanist in the orchestra, for a pleasant round of golf at his club (the course, Brentwood, was designed by Donald Ross), had a quick lunch, and took a taxi to the airport, changing out of our golf clothes before leaving.  However, when we got to the airport, I found to my horror that my laptop was nowhere to be found!  Needless to say, I went ballistic, so we called the cab company right away, and they promised to send the taxi back to the airport as soon as the driver was contacted.  Well, he arrived about ten minutes later, but when we looked in the trunk, no laptop.  It was then that the driver told me "oh yes, I saw it sitting there in front of the clubhouse."  I resisted asking him why the #%#@!* he hadn't picked it up, and instead called the golf course on his cell phone.  Yes it was still sitting there; when could they expect me to come and get it?  I stammered something about our plane leaving in an hour.  At this point, the driver said he'd call another driver who was in the area of the golf course, and that he would pick it up and bring it to the airport.  Thank you very much. 

Half an hour, and another thirty bucks later, I had my laptop back, and Jim and I boarded the plane for Toronto, still glowing from the performance last night, in spite of the last hour's scrambling.  It was the first time we'd played with either the orchestra or Jonathan and we certainly hope we have the opportunity to do so again. 
 

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