Danny in Serbia – Bells in France

A government building. Mercury is on top -- naked.




















Novi Sad cathedral with snow on the roof.














As Evelyn wrote to say, “….at least you know where they are, and won’t find them in a few months in the lost luggage department in Dothan, AL”. I just hope they don’t bring them to me in a bushel basket with fragments missing.

We know from many calls to the airport in Paris that the bells are there, but they haven’t been able to get them here because flights to Belgrade have been cancelled because of bad weather. I think today is Thursday, and they have promised to have them in Novi Sad by Friday afternoon. Great. I’m going to work with my pianist today and just hum along as he plays so we can have some semblance of a rehearsal. These people are very serious about their music and aren’t interested in “oh, you know your part and I know mine and we’ll just throw it together before the concert”. Neither am I, but I’m probably more likely to take that attitude than they are.

I’ve been having lunch and dinner almost every day with Dorian and another of his guest artists who is a very famous pianist, Sergei Babayan. You probably don’t recognize his name (I didn’t and asked if he was here to enter the competition – Dorian was aghast), but he’s the artist in residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music and travels the world playing concerts and solo recitals. He’s playing “the Prokofiev Second” as they say it with the Vidin Philharmonic on the Gala Opening Concert on Friday evening. As they write it here “program: klavirski koncerti S. Prokofjeva, Sergei Babayan, klavir (SAD)” The laureate from the 2004 competition is also playing a concerto on the same program, but I forget which one.

Then the next evening I do my “dog and pony show” and I’m a little nervous about the comparison. If I get laughed off the stage believe me, none of you will ever know!