A day's work

Final weekend of rehearsals before the concerts next month. We are being accompanied by four young pianists studying at the Conservatoire in Carcassonne, and their teacher Martine. Young Mathieu in this photo is playing the fiendishly difficult accompaniment to Borodin's Polovtsian Dances with Olympian calm, handling the stopping, starting, and frequent replaying with aplomb. Most impressive. By the end of the day we managed to sing the whole thing without stopping for the first time. It's not that the notes are that difficult, but singing fast passages in Russian is something of a challenge ...