The day after my concert in Szczecin, I took the train down to Wrocław. Being a Sunday, it went at a leisurely pace and the trip that passed near several places that I would have liked to visit if there had been time and a very small magic carpet.

Last September I had the most wonderful fortnight in western Poland with concerts in Szczecin and Wrocław. After the wettest weekend in Berlin that I have ever experienced, made more miserable by Lufthansa losing my luggage, I set off by train to Szczecin, which is only about an hour and half north east of the German capital. Almost as soon as I left, the sun came out and I was lucky that my suitcase arrived about ten minutes before I checked out of my Berlin hotel. My gloomy mood lightened with every mile along the way!

Giving and receiving books as Christmas or birthday presents can sometimes be a bit dicey. Too often, you either get books that you have already read or ones on subjects that hold no interest. But last month, my father-in-law, Edmund Bowles, gave me two absolute winners. I am still reading the second one but the first, The Club by Leo Damrosch, had me captivated from start to finish.

I recently visited Dartmouth College for the first time, and was delighted to have time to visit the Hood Museum of Art on their campus.

In September, while in London, I had to pay a visit to my UK Tax accountants close to St. Paul’s Cathedral. I arrived a little early and so was able to explore a part of the old City of London that I barely knew. Situated off Cheapside, is Wood Street and there, next to my Tax Accountants’ office stands, what is reputed to be the oldest tree in London.

About a month ago, some good friends in Beverley, Yorkshire, alerted me to a monograph which identified an ancestor of mine as the subject to a painting by a favourite artist of mine, Joseph Wright of Derby. The full title of the painting is A Philosopher lecturing upon the Orrery and it dates from about 1766.

Last May and June, I made two trips to Germany and had the most wonderful time. Not only did I enjoy myself musically, but I got to enjoy their delicious seasonal food and drink as well. These days, when one can buy anything all year around, even if it has flown across the globe, it is terrific to know that everyone in Europe looks forward to and relishes the local delights that each season has to offer. Springtime in Germany is particularly rich in vernal specialties, and I was lucky to be able to enjoy many of them on my jaunt.

After a night in York we headed out for some more sightseeing. Our first port of call was the charming village of Coxwold about twenty miles north of the city. In the mid-18th century it was the home of the extraordinary and eccentric writer Laurence Sterne, who is most famous for Tristram Shandy, most of which he wrote there. The vicarage, which he renamed Shandy Hall, is still in private hands and is usually closed to the public but I was lucky to have visited in 2015. 

Earlier this month David and I went for a week to northern England to visit friends, see the sights, and to be present at the opening of an art exhibit of works done by one of my ancestors. We drove down from Scotland, sometimes in driving rain, to travel to Hartington on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border. On the way south, we passed through Cumbria which is famous for two wonderful treats, Cumberland Rum Nicky and Westmorland Pepper Cake.

Over the past two years, two great friends who were also terrific cooks have passed away. Both were splendid European ladies who never met, but they were both survivors of bleak times in their home countries who found love and happiness in the United States. As it happens, both shared their recipes for almond cakes with us and so I’m delighted to post them here as a tribute to them.

Hungary in the summer is particularly delightful, especially when one is also lucky enough to be making music. In the second half of June, I was fortunate to spend a week recording Haydn Symphonies with the wonderful Capella Savaria and staying in the Eszterháza Castle, which really is Haydn Central! Even better, we did the recording in the newly restored Marionette Theatre. It is an amazing experience to think that Haydn worked there and actually composed the symphonies just down the road. The inspiration behind the restoration of the theatre is the present head of the family, Prince Anton (Antál) Esterházy. Here is a jolly photo of him, Monica Huggett, and me taken after a concert in Sept. 2016. It is hard to believe that he is 80.

April was a Rameau month for me. A whole troupe of singers, dancers, actors and orchestral musicians from here and France came to Berkeley. We put on a production of Le Temple de la Gloire, an amazing opera with music by Rameau with a libretto by no less than Voltaire. The story about who is a real hero and real ruler has a nice modern ring to it, don’t you think!

OK. I’ll admit it, I am not very fond of the modern Christmas. I simply can’t get into the spirit of Santa, Rudolf, dinky elves, even the whole story of the shepherds, angels, and nasty King Herod, behind which there is hardly a scintilla of truth. Also, the ‘Festive Season’ seems to start earlier each year turning Shopping Malls into Jingle Hells well before Thanksgiving.

“British-born conductor Nicholas McGegan is as a frequent visitor in Toronto. He last led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra through Handel’s Messiah in 2012, prompting John Terauds to call it the best he had seen in 12 consecutive years.”

A couple of weeks ago I had the great pleasure of revisiting Vienna. I had been there often in the 1970’s when I was playing in a piano trio in Austria run by my great friends the Gameriths. Since I was last in that magical city, so much has changed. It seems that the whole city has been given a facelift and now looks bright and very spick & span. The best things however seem unchanged, especially away from the slightly kitchy tourist traps. One of my favourite places has always been Hawelka’s, a superb coffee house.

“…as a nod to the Mendelssohn “Scottish” Symphony, which is part of the August 7 concert repertoire, he is pleased to share a Scottish recipe that is one of his favorites.”

Nicholas McGegan and Performance Today host Fred Child try the secret ingredient that Frederick The Great used in his coffee…and it’s not half bad.

“Being serenaded while you have a picnic is a tradition that goes back centuries. Classical music adds to the atmosphere and to the sense of occasion. It’s great for younger audiences who don’t want to sit bolt upright in a chair and be totally silent, like, “You will listen to this and have a miserable time. Put them outside on a blanket, give them an ice cream, and listen to the music.”

I love picnics and not just because I really like the name. For a Brit, the chance of eating outdoors without getting rained on is of course a risk but one always worth taking. The food tastes different, the atmosphere is more relaxed and one has the joy of going somewhere beautiful to spend time with friends; a solitary picnic isn’t much fun. Nowadays, a picnic can fill me with nostalgia: afternoons while at university when a group of us would take a punt up the Cam instead of studying for our exams. We chaps wore boaters and stripy college jackets and the girls were in their flimsiest Laura Ashley. The wine was kept cool by sticking the bottles in the river but I suspect that the food was not very original because none us had kitchens. But it was obviously good enough for us to be attacked by hungry swans once, who must have found our sandwiches more interesting than their usual damp fare. One of them actually snatched something right out of my hand only inches from my mouth. I have been wary of them ever since and am glad that once I helped to eat one.

Ireland and Scotland both produce some of my favourite mashed potato recipes. Having spent last week in Dublin and since I am writing this in Glasgow, it seemed a nice idea to share some of them. All of them are solid fare and have oodles of butter and even cream. One can always reduce the quantities of either in the interests of gastronomic virtue, I suppose!