Back to Bach

It was with a little trepidation that I made the journey back to London this year to resume my career as a professional trumpet-player; normally I would have a pretty full diary to return to, but this year wasn't looking so promising. However, I was no sooner back in Blighty than the phone started to ring and work came in. Since late May I have hardly had time to draw breath in between projects.Highlights of the past couple of months have been a tour of Europe with Sir Simon Rattle (conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) playing the music of Debussy and Ravel. A further tour with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists included a visit to Leipzig to play Bach's Mass in B Minor (perhaps his greatest piece) in the Thomaskirche. This church is where the great man himself was the Kantor of Music for the best part of his career. Bach is also buried in this church and his grave seems to be a place of pilgrimage for musicians from all over the world. It was also great to meet up with a couple of my lovely Dutch ski clients, Evelyn and Josein, who came along to the concert with Rattle in Rotterdam. Indeed at the beginning of May, ten of my clients came along to a concert where I was performing at the Barbican in London.Being a typical Gemini, it seems that I have two halves to my life, that only intersect every so often. I find it really difficult to think about skiing when I'm away from it and conversely I find it difficult to imagine playing music in the winter months when I'm skiing. This probably serves to ensure that I remain fresh and enthusiastic when I again return to the mountains in December.Well, better go and get the dress shirt ironed ready for tomorrow night's performance; it's Debussy's Pelléas et Melisande at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. It's a long way from pressure, edge and rotation on the Altiport piste in Méribel!Mike