Last Sunday was the last lesson before the Easter break:

Zimble play. Zimble good. Da.

All went quite well yesterday. The Brahms is still a problem. Apparently some people can't stand Brahms. I don't think I mind it but it is difficult.

Tomorrow night Steven Osborne is playing at the Conservatorium. Looking forward to that a lot. It's terrific that people like S.O. come to play here. One day I'd love to hear someone like Lang Lang or Argerich. I think perhaps they don't know how much an Oz audience would appreciate them or maybe they think we would clap between movements.

Overall, a bit better week.

The Brahms Rhapsodie Op 119 no 4 still has me stumped. It seems to me he changes register and inverts chords just for the sake of it. I'm sure it isn't just for the sake of it but at present I don't see the rhyme or the reason. Perhaps the answer is in the definition.

Rhapsody:

1. an enthusiastic...

(Wow, "rhabdomancy": the use of a diving rod. Didn't know that one. Too long for scrabble though.)

...or extravagant utterance or composition. Well, that's right: it is that.

2. a piece of music in one extended movement, usually emotional in character. I'll give it that too but it doesn't say anything about the tearing out of the hair.

Brahms and I shall battle on.

I should mention last Sunday but I've been trying to block it out. Nothing went well. When I panic, I cannot sight read and the score appears to me as though it's written in a foreign language. I no longer hear the melody in my head. It doesn't happen like this all the time and that's part of the problem : the unpredictability of it. I can start a piece just fine then it is as though something flicks a switch in my mind and I go blank. On the positive side of things the neck is better.