Munro Smith Berlin and Dean NZ tour

On Monday 22nd October my piano quartet of Ian Munro, Brett Dean, David Berlin and yours truly arrived in Wellington for a 12-day paid holiday/adventure, at least it almost felt like that with the rigours of daily life left behind and only one thing to focus on, delivering eight concerts up and down NZ. We rehearsed at the University on arrival then made the most of our free night in Wellington by going out for dinner with some old friends, Vicki and Ed, Gill Ansell, Diedre Irons and our boss for the 12 days, CEO of Chamber Music NZ, Euan Murdoch and his wife, Shelley. The food was great and the company even better - what an auspicious start to our trip.

The only opportunity to hear the NZSO and say hi quickly was at their Tuesday morning rehearsal. They sounded fantastic playing Strauss Ein Heldenleben. At 12:30 Richard Hardie from Chamber Music NZ drove us to Palmerston North for our first concert. We stopped at the cafe at Paekakariki for a snack. After the concert there was a very nice reception for us and local committee members at the home of old friends, Ian and William, whom I hadn't seen since my NZ String Quartet days.

We drove to New Plymouth in the morning and enjoyed the local scenery. It was obvious who my best posers for the trip were going to be. Mount Taranaki appeared in all its glory especially the following morning as we flew over it at close range on our way back to Wellington. A feature of the tour was how beautifully we were looked after by Chamber Music NZ and all their branches including wonderful accomodation everywhere. New Plymouth provided us with the Nice Hotel, a lovely boutique Hotel owned by a keen chamber music supporter and sponsor.

Wellington was our third concert on consecutive nights with the added pressure of a Radio NZ live broadcast so we spent a quiet day focusing on the job to be done. I did manage to see Jenny (Peter's sister) for lunch. Jenny, Nat and Alex came to the concert and joined us for a reception at the hall. Unfortunately I didn't always remember my camera until it was too late on this trip so there are some gaps in the photographic evidence. Alex accompanied us back to the Intercontinental then took Brett, David and I to very nice bar up a dark alley off Courtenay place for a nightcap. Sunday in Wellington was our first day off and we were lucky to have beautiful weather. Ian and I had breakfast at the hotel with Judith Clark and as I suspected they hit it off. Judith had heard Ian win 2nd prize at the Leeds Competition many years ago and they happily rabbited on about all sorts of piano stuff. I rented a car for the day and went to our old nanny Faye's place. In order to catch up with her and fit in a visit to Makara Cemetery I took her with me. We left flowers for Mum, Dad and Lenny. I went back to the hotel to pick up the boys then we picked up our Melbourne colleague, Graeme Evans, MSO Principal Horn who happened to be over playing 7th horn in Heldenleben with the NZSO. Because he wasn't required in their Napier concert he was in Wellington with a free day too. I drove them around the bays to Scorching Bay where we had lunch at the Chocolate Fish cafe, famous after being often frequented by Lord of the Rings people during filming. On the way back we detoured up Mt Victoria to make the most of the beautiful day. Wellington was at her sparkling best.

Napier the next day gave us the opportunity to see dear friends Michael Houstoun and Mike Nicolaidi. Michael had been touring himself so they couldn't come to our Palmerston North concert which would have been closest to home but drove to Napier instead. We caught up at the onstage reception after the concert and Brett and I also went out for breakfast with them the next morning.

After flying to Auckland from Napier we were able to enjoy our 2nd concert-free day. We'd arranged to meet Barb Glaser and Dick Panting for dinner but before that I spent a lovely couple of hours with Janetta MacStay/Newhook. On concert morning I had a fabulous time catching up with Bryan Sayer and David Guerin, two very entertaining and stimulating pianist friends. I hadn't seen David for years and years and it happened to be his birthday that day so I felt privileged to be included in his celebrations. After that it was a quiet afternoon to get ready for that night's performance. One of the blissful things about being on tour like this is the ability to focus so completely on the concerts while being looked after and pampered which in my case meant being able to have a decent nap every concert day. After the concert we had drinks back at the hotel with some friends and rellies. Aunty Tina and Charleyne came and were in fine form but had left by the time I remembered to get my camera out. Sarah Hart (from Auckland University student days) and Mary O'Brien (Auck Uni violin teacher until recently) also came and we all heard about Mary's huge European excursion, two walking tours she and Bryan Sayeer had just returned from. A highlight for me was seeing my old classmate going back as far as Normal Intermediate, Susie Farrelly, and another friend of ours, Jackie Gilmore. Susan and I will be attending the 40th anniversary reunion of our form 2 class in Auckland in January so this gave us a head start.

Nelson was next which is the home of Mary Allison's Mum, Jocelyn. (Mary is my Kiwi buddy in the MSO.) Jocelyn is being looked after by Mary's sister, Ruth at the moment and the other siblings are all taking it in turns to live with her in Nelson. They had been planning to come to our concert and had even gone as far as getting their glad rags on but in the end Jocelyn was too tired to manage it. So in the morning before we left for Christchurch I walked the 10 minutes or so to her beautiful home surrounded by bush and trees and had a breakfast visit with them. On the way back to the hotel I wandered past the little cottage we stayed in once years ago when I was playing in the summer festival thing there and the kids were much smaller. I remember Donald and family were there at the same time and the combined kids were clambering all over the dear old Jeep.

Our third concert-free day was in Christchurch although it was not entirely work-free. David, Ian and I gave a masterclass that evening for primary and secondary kids attending some kind of academy run by the university. We gave Brett the night off because he had given the pre-concert talk in Auckland. I caught up with the usual suspects, Chris and Grant, Uncle Frank and Aunty Diane, sister Caroline, Kirsty and Uncle Jack but with the exception of these two fine gentlemen I forgot the camera till it was too late.

Dunedin was our last stop and here the accomodation reached its pinnacle. Our rooms were sponsored by the bass-playing chamber music afficionado who happens to own Corstorphine House, a magnificent boutique hotel featuring eight individually themed rooms surrounded by several impressive living/sitting/dining rooms and beautiful gardens overlooking Dunedin. Mine was the Egyptian Room. We were like kids in a lolly shop checking out each other's rooms. Euan Murdoch was travelling with us to our South Island centres and he was given the impressive Scottish Room where we suspect Prince Charles was holed up once. It was a suite of 3 rooms, 2 of which were bathrooms. One contained just the bath (and a nice rug and sound system) and the other had the toilet, bidet, and a selection of showers. The owner said my room had the best bed, some fancy slatted number from Italy (very comfortable I can vouch) and David, who had the Japanese room, had the best bathroom. He had the biggest selection of showers (including the "rain" option, a long contraption in the ceiling) and said he reckoned he could get all areas of concern at once. Cheese and wine provided by the new wine sponsors who were in attendance at the reception in the conservatory after the concert completed the evening. Breakfast was naturally superb and we flew out of Dunedin feeling thoroughly spoiled.

We were flying back to Melbourne from Wellington and had a few hours to kill there so Peter Walls (CEO of the NZSO) came and met us for lunch at the Lyall Bay Surf Club cafe. All told, an absolutely wonderful trip, musically, socially and culinarily. The next blog, Howqua Term 4 and Open Day will follow very shortly.