Roy's observations

Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt would have been 200 years old on the 22nd October 2011.

As Chairman of the Marlow Budavár Town Twinning Association (Budavár is the Buda part of Budapest in Hungary) I organised two celebratory events for the anniversary.

On  Friday 2nd December I presented a lecture on the life and music of Liszt.   A great deal of book and internet research was necessary!   On Google images I was able to find 50 historic and artistic pictures tracing almost his entire life.   These were projected onto a large screen.  From my own extensive collection of L.P’s and C.D’s I organised 24 examples of his compositions from solo piano to orchestral and choral music.  These I transferred onto my computer and then “burnt” them onto 3 C.D’s to use during the lecture.  The lecture was well received, and the audience amazed at the number, brilliance and breath of his compositions.

On Sunday 4th December we held a traditional Birthday Party for Liszt at Vine House.  I discovered that it is possible to print colour pictures (using edible inks) onto flat icing sugar for the top of a cake.  My design looked very impressive.  The cake was excellent, made locally for us.  During the afternoon requests for Liszt’s music were played.

On Monday 5th December a 3rd event was organised.  A coach took 20 of us to the Hungarian Cultural Institute in London’s Covent Garden for a recital of Liszt piano music.  Unfortunately, just before we arrived, a catastrophic electrical fault had plunged the Institute in to darkness and the recital had to be cancelled.  The highlight of the evening became an essential visit to the candlelit lavatories of the Institute!

A silver tankard made by Francis Garthorne, hallmarked for 1694 with an engraved inscription containing the date 1697.  However, the central engraving with armorial bearings had very recently been abraded off.  Highly suspicious, let alone sacrilege. The sort of thing a thief or fence might do to stolen property.   The auction house had conducted due diligence to check this, but came up with no record of a theft or loss.  It might sell for the value of the silver (about £800), or . . .    So I joined in the bidding.  I soon had to drop out.  Finally it went for £5,000 (including the buyer’s premium).

Alex Fergasin, controversial manager of top international soccer club Marlow United has announced signing Wayne Looney for a reported weekly salary of £10,000,000.

Interviewed by Nudes of the World football reporter Slick Scribble, Wayne declared “It ain’t the money that attracted me but the honour of playing for the number one world club”.

SS – “But what will you do with all that money?”

WL – “I’ll probably buy me grannie a new coat”

SS – “Anything else?”

WL – “Naar,  the old girl is quite happy in her council house.  She plays a lot of bingo, so I’ll probably buy her a few pencils to mark her cards with.”

SS – “Mmmm, generous!  How about another fleet of luxury cars?”

WL – “Naar,  I’ve forgotten where I left the last lot.  Besides there are always blond bimbos in sports cars after me, so I can shaft them, er, get a lift with them.”

SS – “Had you thought of giving some money to help starving natives in Africa?”

WL – “No”

SS – “How will you . . “

WL – “By the way, where is Africa?”

SS – “South of Manchester.  What was your most embarrassing moment on the pitch?”

WL – “When I was badly tackled by David Bockham and his boot got caught in my jock strap and nearly catapulted my balls into the goal.”

SS – “Was it painful?”

WL – “Bockham had a black eye for three weeks, so I expect it was.”

SS –  “Do you see yourself as a role model for young people?”

WL – “Sure – I’ll have all the fine clobber and a few minders and go round opening new schools and pizza parlours.”

SS – “What would you say to sportsmen who were thinking of using drugs to improve their performance?”

WL – “Don’t get caught.”

SS – “Have you ever taken drugs?”

WL – “Sure – aspirin, antibiotics and a special cream for my balls after the jockstrap incident.”

SS – “Someone’s stolen my wallet complete with my train ticket.  Can you lend me £20?”

WL – “Piss off!”

© Roy Cadman.  2010

that someone out in cyberspace, or perhaps sitting in front of a computer in some den of iniquity should set in motion the hacking of my blog and recital website. I am most grateful to my dear friend Dee for rescuing and restoring them.

Dee – the bouquet is for you.

It must have been a chance in many million to discover a Pleyel grand piano in a local auction sale. Viewing on Tuesday, sale on Wednesday. There was no time to get my piano turner to cast his expert eye and hands over the instrument, and the Auctioneers knew nothing of its history or condition. However, all the notes worked, and despite it being well out of tune, it had a wonderful tone. And so it should, as the manufacturer Pleyel was France’s equivalent of Steinway and one of Europe’s grand marques, and had been Chopin’s favourite instrument.

And so on Wednesday I became the owner of a grand piano. The serial number indicated that it had been made between 1890 and 1900, a period when Pleyel produced outstanding instruments. So after five weeks of acclimatization to it’s new home, it could be tuned, but as yet, nothing else, for possible use at the Marlow Recital Society concert next day.

The pianist Christopher Sayles had a choice of the excellent Reid Sohn upright, used at all the previous recitals, or risk his reputation on the not-ready-for-a-recital Pleyel. To my delight he opted to play his entire recital on the Pleyel. Visit the website www.pianorecital.co.uk for details of his programme. Despite one high note almost giving up completely, Christopher worked wonders with the Pleyel and enthralled the audience.

Since then, a lot of work has been done on the piano’s mechanism, and it has been tuned twice more, the last time for Philippa Harrison’s recital. Again, visit www.pianorecital.co.uk for details. Philippa gave a truly inspired performance and the Pleyel responded magnificently.

The Pleyel grand is now a wonderful instrument to play. It has a very light touch and positively sings out its response. I find it difficult to keep my hands off it!

In July 2009 we welcomed Carole’s American cousins and their son and daughter on a trip to Europe. They began with a few days in London, followed by a short tour of the Midlands and West Country. The two ‘youngsters’ then returned to the USA and the parents stayed with us in Marlow, where upon we all set off for a lightening tour of Belgium, Germany and France. My tour aimed at visiting amazing places off the tourist track. We stayed in Brugges, went on to Trier in Germany via the Mosel Valley vineyards,

(the photo is of Piesport on the Mosel)

and on to the medieval town of Rothenburg (the first picture, we stayed in a small guest house just through the tower). Then on the the Black Forest, where yet again we were enveloped in mist and rain. The next stop was the ancient fortified wine town of Riquewihr in Alsace, dining at two of our favourite restaurants – The Frog (where, of course we enjoyed frogs legs), and The Corkscrew which specialised in game. Needless to say we sampled a wide range of excellent local wines.

(the picture shows a typical street in Riquewihr)

A visit to Colmar included the remarkable Unterlinden museum. Then heading west and homewards, we stopped off at Nancy to admire the gilded Stanislaus Square and on to Reims for the night. And so back to Marlow and our American friends back to Chicago.

In the Spring of 2008 we were amazed to observe blackbirds hopping through the open kitchen door and taking granules of cat food from the cat’s dish on the doormat.  The ‘Purina’ cat food is a complete nourishment type that, so long as the cat drinks water, provides every component of a perfect diet.

In due course, the blackbirds started feeding their young ones with the granules.  Word soon spread, and other birds came to visit the kitchen bird canteen.  In 2009 we had become the bird restaurant of choice, with pigeons, doves, robins and thrushes added to the list of diners.  All this despite having our own cat and a visiting cat as well. To reduce the risk of a catastrophe, we put cat food in a dish on a small garden table next to the kitchen door.  However, this simply doubled the places for them to eat.

A frog he would to auction go

On viewing day he was on show,

On auction day no hammer fell

The handsome frog just did not sell.

.

Oh lonely frog this cannot be

Now somewhere someone must love thee,

Oh joy! your fate’s no longer grim

Roy’s post auction bid secured him!

Late summer in my garden and the dahlias now take pride of place.

The red dahlia (bottom row on the left) has grown to a height of 12ft and the flower is nearly 10 inches across !