Reviews

'As always, it was sheer pleasure to observe Robin Hill's remarkable fluent technique: everything looks easy when he plays it.' Colin Cooper- Classical Guitar Magazine ----- 'Wonderful for their (Hill & Wiltschinsky) precision, touch and clarity of sound... refined virtuosity, the achievement of a long interpretive process.' Il Giornale D'Italia (Rome) ----- 'I loved your CD and thought your technique and performance were fabulous...' Rick Wakeman

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Dancers' Dilemma

Well I don't have any pictures of Cartagena to show you as Robin didn't make it into the town.
This highlights the amount of committment required to perform in public at such a demanding level.
Rehearsal and practise always comes first.

Just before he was about to head off into town, to have a look around, the cruise director called.
The forecast for later that evening wasn't good.
A storm was brewing out at sea.
The show scheduled for that night was a group of dancers.
They can't perform if the sea is too rough. Dancing is difficult enough when the stage is stable, never mind if it's pitching and rolling in an alarming manner.
At least a guitarist is sitting on a chair...albeit a moving one.
So the cruise director put Robin on standby, to swop his concert from Saturday, to Friday.

Consequently he didn't go into Cartagena, even though it is one of the rare occasions that it is a port he hadn't been to, and, had told me earlier, looked very interesting.
Instead he stayed in his room, and cranked up the practise, to concert day level.

He didn't mind.
In some ways he was ready to get the first performance done.
It made for an uncertain day though.
Am I performing/aren't I performing.
He was told he wouldn't be informed until about 7pm local time.

The last I heard from Robin the sea was calm, but the decision hadn't yet been made.
He was assuming things were back to plan A, and the dancers would dance, and he would go through the whole pre concert preparation again tomorrow.

I haven't heard from him yet today.
But I guess that when he gets up, he will be getting on with some serious practise.
Even though Crystal Symphony is going through the Panama Canal today, he will just have to look at it through his window, as he gets on with his scales and arpeggios.

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