Painted Viola

Tonight we went to a fabulous gig by the lovely James Rhodes! It was great to see him (and hear his wonderful playing) and also to catch up with the lovely @hopbarn and @orchid99.

The last movement of Beethoven's Waldstein was truly "hairs on the back of neck" stuff, and the Toccata from Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin was absolutely breathtaking! Add in some Bach and Chopin, and it was a truly memorable evening. It was also the very first time I'd seen someone perform while reading the score from an iPad - how cool is that? I did take a couple of shots of the rather nice Fazioli on which he played, but they were a bit dark for blipping!

An added bonus was an exhibition of painted string quartet instruments. This most colourful viola really caught my eye, and turned out to be very photogenic too. The instruments are all being auctioned off during the Cheltenham festival - the Wonderspouse has told me quite firmly that if I'm tempted to bid he'll be straight on the phone to my shrink alerting her to a manic episode!

However, I was allowed to take pictures, and this was probably one of my favourite instruments. I am NOT planning on giving my viola a paint job though - this may look well funky, but I'm not sure what sort of sound it would make these days!