(Oops) I Did It Again

Perhaps you are thinking - what is this non-sequitur? What, if anything might this baroque fop have to do with the fallen princess of pop?

As far as I'm aware, there is no connection between Britney and Domenico. It's all to do with what happened on Saturday.

Some years ago, I took part in a Scarlatti marathon at the Bath International Music Festival. That involved the performance of all 555 sonatas over 2 weekends. I did it again this weekend but for a charitable cause. It was something organised jointly by the students of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music plus various volunteers such as myself. This time it was done over a single weekend, starting Friday evening and will end this evening. My "slot" was yesterday afternoon and my allocated sonati were
Kk 301 to Kk 310.

As some of you will know, I've essentially "retired" from playing music in public after I completed my term as Organ Scholar at university. I briefly came out of retirement 2 years ago at my cousin's request to be the organist for her wedding but have until this weekend, returned to retirement. I was persuaded to do this by some old school friends on the basis that it would be a good laugh and at the same time raise money for various charitable causes.

The run up to Saturday was anything but a laugh. I spent many hours practising on a piano for a harpsichord performance which was less than ideal. I only managed to get some practice time on a harphsichord during the middle of this week but fortunately, I didn't need to make too many corrections.

Saturday itself was a very relaxed affair, which became even more so when I got my 10 sonati out of the way. After that, my friends and I went out to dinner followed by a screening of Spideman 3. More about my thoughts on the film in a separate blog entry.

I don't know how much was eventually raised for the various charities. Will find out next week.

Every time I come of retirement, I swear to myself it will be the last time but I never learn my lesson. As far as I know, there's not going to be any family weddings in the foreseeable future so I shouldn't be asked again, any time soon. It'd be difficult to say no seeing as I'd agreed to do one a few years ago and I don't want my cousins to think that I love some of them more than I do the others.