And I ended up playing the Enescu Cantabile because I don’t like awkward silences and it was clear that nobody else was going to volunteer. More fool me as I didn’t play well at all – numerous wrong notes and rhythms, and it was clear I hadn’t spent enough time on the piano part.

Otherwise, Trevor’s feedback for the day was pretty good. I offered the carol Il est névas or warm-up tune, which went down quite well. By providing the tune, we then get to dictate most of the warm-up exercises, and so I was able to pace things in a way that avoided me getting too flustered with memory!

Similarly, my Dvorak Symphony No. 8 excerpt was generally approved of, though I need to be more precise with some rhythms and would need to be more expressive at the start of the excerpt in an audition context. Trevor talked a lot about breathing with this one, and suggested that we use some judicious cutting of slurs after the first quaver of bars near the end to mask where we take a breath. Though sight reading an excerpt from the Grieg piano concerto wasn’t fun, I found this part of the class really useful, and a good reminder of just how high the orchestral standard is.

After class, we went on an impromptu trip to Waitrose in Ashford, mostly so that Trevor could get Christmas supplies for those that are staying over the break. Left to my own devices, I had a pleasant wander round choosing a few Christmas treats for my family and marvelling at some of the things they had in stock.

Rehearsal tomorrow, concert Saturday and a short class on Monday, then it’s holidays!