Today's concert is the Claude Bolling Suite for flute and piano, and the Faure Piano Quartet. The Faure has mysteriously erased several of its problems since we last played it, and seems to have partaken of that odd process whereby unconscious work is done on it in the intervals between rehearsing it, in this case an interval of two weeks. Certain of its tempi, previously a subject of dispute, have settled down, and the direction of many of the phrases, which remained obscure to use because of the peculiarly French hingeing, have clarified. It was thus a pleasant experience to perform it, though afterwards several people said that the piano had been too loud, which is the opposite of what the audience said when we performed the same piece at Harrow. It seems to be generally the case that people sitting on the right side of the dome (with the back of the piano facing them) find it too loud, whereas people sitting on the left complain that the hear too much of the strings. This problem is probably more extreme in the dome than in a normal hall. The Bolling is a great success, with people clapping between the movements. We decide that we should put at least one 'up-tempo' piece in every programme, and everyone notices that if the audience has been entertained or seduced by something cheerful, they are more willing to make the effort of listening to something serious at the end. << less