Concierto de Aranjuez and the Stray Piccolo

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are preparing yourselves for the New Year festivities.
In the lull between events the sound of music has been filling the house.
After a month without live music permeating every corner of our home it has taken some getting used to.
Particularly as Robin is rehearsing the fabulous, 'Concierto de Aranjuez' at the moment, and playing along to a recording at high volume.
More than once I have had requests from the children for Daddy to turn the music down...

Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez is an incredible piece and one that places huge demands on the soloist.
Robin has performed it many times over the years, from huge venues with over 3000 people, with Carl Davis and the Liverpool Philharmonic, to small more intimate settings with local orchestras.

He relishes any performance.
It is a piece that requires frequent practice in order to deliver an authoritative and exciting performance.
I was once talking to Paco Pena and I asked him, as Paco de Lucia had just recorded and performed the work, if he had ever contemplated doing the same. He informed me he hadn't recorded the piece as it would require him to take at least a year out to learn it.
That's how hard it is.

But Robin is ready. After many years he finally feels he is in the position to record it.
He has a performance later this year, hence the current preoccupation.
So we are listening to various recordings and interpretations at the moment.

Actually, I was quite proud of myself, (and it shows just how well the wife of a musician gets to know any piece of music they are playing) when listening to one recording I said, "The orchestra played a wrong note there..."
We listened again, and sure enough I was right. One wrong note...in the piccolo department.
I said I had a good ear.

So, if there are any orchestras out there who are planning to perform or record this piece, now is a good time to approach us.
Otherwise we may have to take the recording overseas...