I am very sorry that we have a) skipped July entirely and b) that this, the August newsletter, is so late. This is entirely my fault.

Some of you, who are active on social media may have seen posts regarding my antics towards the end of July, but for those who missed out, read on.

Taking advantage of the children’s stay at their grandmother’s, Camilla and I decided to take the day off and make the short journey to Wales for the day. Having had lunch in Monmouth, we then set off into the Brecon Beacons for a walk – it was a beautiful afternoon.

Unfortunately, at a stile overlooking the Tal-y-bont valley, I caught my walking boot on the top bar and fell, landing on my right-hand side, severely injuring my foot, leg, stomach, arm and face. Most of my injuries would heal, but as I was unable to lift my bow-arm, I went to see a shoulder specialist in Oxford to get to the bottom of the matter.

The MRI scan showed that I had severed one tendon for which the only possible course of action was to undergo surgery to my right shoulder. In fact, whilst under the anaesthetic, the surgeon saw that a second tendon was also severed. The operation undertaken on 15 August has hopefully re-attached the tendons and removed some of the rotator-cuff muscle, which was damaged beyond repair. The surgeon hopes that I will be able to return to playing in late November. All fingers and toes in our household are duly crossed.

Four days after my fall, we were due to be playing a concert in Wiveton, Norfolk, for ‘Music in Country Churches’. At this point, I did not know exactly what I had done and was labouring under the severe misapprehension that I still might be able to play. In the end, I had to settle for making my conducting debut (left arm only) which felt rather odd. To add to the surreal nature of the event, King Charles III himself turned up and sat just to my right, as a kind of guest of honour in the cello section.

You couldn’t make it up…


The surgeon saw me last Friday, three weeks post-operation, and gave me permission to start removing my sling (which had not been removed since the operation). I am now starting to return to mundane tasks; this newsletter is the first time that I have spent any amount of time at a computer keyboard.

I haven’t been wasting my time, however, as I have learnt all sorts of new tricks, such as how to put my socks on with one hand, how to open a bottle of beer with one hand, and – the best of the lot – how to open a bottle of wine with a waiter’s friend corkscrew (the last one took a degree of patience).

Once we’d got our heads around the situation, we turned our attention to the concerts and recording due to take place in October and November. Both Camilla and I felt that it would be wrong to cancel everything as this would disappoint promoters and audiences as well as – most horrifically – depriving our players of a large chunk of work (particularly at a time when diaries are not as full as they once were).

We will therefore be playing all the concerts though I will once again be directing with my left arm. As a necessity, two concertos in which I was supposed to be involved will be exchanged for an orchestral suite by Brescianello, but all the superb music for mandolin will still be present, played by the wonderful Raffaele La Ragione. The concert in Cambridge, originally supposed to be a feast of violin concertos, will also be the programme with Raffaele.

Though I am devastated not to be playing, I think these concerts will be really uplifting, so do come along and cheer us on.

Hopefully, you won’t see me conducting ever again after this!

All best wishes
Adrian

P.S. If you’d like to witness my short-lived career as a left-handed conductor, you can find all our upcoming concerts here.