The organist librarian

Two wonderful Proms. Schubert quintet beautifully played and Pittsburgh SO under Manfred Honeck Mahler 1. Anne-Sophie Mutter played the Dvorak. I took party invites to mosaic group. Had to make do with chocolate cake instead of fruit tart at Peter Jones. Sketching at V and A and David Owen Norris on nature in music - he is brilliant. Saw Colin Hartley.

Lovely visit to Christmas at Kew in pouring rain with  Louise Maher   Tom Maher Bruce Woodhouse  Ciaran and Sean. Really enjoyed it especially the carousel! New Year's Eve concert live from the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon and Anne-Sophie  Mutter on great form. Massenet, Chabrier, Ravel, Saint-Saens and Poulenc. Met Sue and Brian Carroll. Good meal at Strada Clapham Common.

Tuesday swam 30. Clearing up and checking wills and Heythrop money form - £1050 a year. Both of us to pre-Prom talk - Petroc Trewlawney interviewing the chair (horn) and director of the orchestra. Their chair of board of directors gave $42.5 million, another couple gave $5 million so they could tour to promote the city .They are accompanied by a team encouraging businesses to move to Pittsburgh which is now an attractive place to live. The orchestra took a 9.5% pay cut and donated $1000 each. They work in hospitals and schools and every primary school child in the city hears the orchestra at least once a year so truly a community project. Our orchestras have much to learn! Fascinating and the prom was stunning. Lohengrin prelude Act 1 - those gentle strings showing the German origins of the orchestra, Wolfgang Rihn played by Anne-Sophie Mutter like the cheese on the vegetables to get the kids to eat the veg (not to my taste). A wonderful memorable Mahler 5 (with score). Again 2 encores...