Every last day of August is special at Ramon's house. It is the day the owner of that house celebrates his day, his patron saint's day. On that occasion, neighbours and friends of this man, about whom I will tell you a few words, gather to enjoy this small but tasty party, always accompanied by a little concert.
I met him for the first time one summer night, in front of the town hall. My son and I had a musical performance at a social meeting that commemorated the victims of domestic violence in that town. We played voluntarily, we didn't charge anything, but it was a real honour for us to bring our musical notes to that square, in front of the town hall. Passersby stopped and paid their respects too to the victims; people lit candles and placed them on the sidewalk, stood in silence and listened to the music, as well as the text that a woman from the organization of this event read. It was truly emotional...
It seems that Ramon was also there with his wife. When we finished the performance, and while I was packing up the piano and my son was packing up his violin, he came over and said how much he liked our music and asked me if we would like to play in his home, in his garden to be exact, on that last day of August. That was a really nice surprise! We agreed to meet and talk about the details before that day would come.
And so it was. A week before the party, we visited them and it was more than nice and pleasant to get to know him and his wife better, with the cold lemonade they served us. So attentive and pleasant people... Ramon and his wife were both teachers, but are now retired. Now he paints and writes books, and his wife likes music. She told me that one of her dreams was to play the piano and accompany her son, who would play the violin. It was just her dream, as she had never learned the piano, but there we were, a pianist and her son, playing together. A coincidence, maybe.
The last day of August arrived. I had some work to do (prepare our instruments, the repertoire, outfit etc) but in the house of Ramon, the preparations were much more demanding. They had to prepare the place where we would put the piano so he also made a little improvised stage between the conifer trees. This was still in the phase of preparation.
The benches were also improvised, but no one fell while listening to the concert. Many people were also standing around and behind these seats.
As it was in the garden of the house, with trees and plants, I made a little tour through it. We could find figs, almonds and peacock feathers growing on the trees!
The peacock feather growing on the tree was just a joke. 😉 It was part of the decoration of the stage.
The party had three sections!
The first part was the reception of the guests where all the homemade cakes that Ramon and his wife prepared were presented and served! They baked all of these by themselves! I think I tried the majority of the sweets, well, we were all encouraged to try a bit of everything, and as good guests, we had to listen to our hosts! 😁 (what a shameless behaviour 😂)
The second part of the party was a surprise. When he invited the guests, his neighbours and friends, he said that we would give a concert but the surprise part was a presentation of the book he wrote. After the sweets we went there, to the stage, I started to play one piece and then, as we agreed, I slowly played it softer and softer and he started with the presentation of his book. It was made in a very spontaneous way! A real master of words, that is Ramon - everyone listened with full attention!
Our concert started after he finished with the presentation of his book and it was one of the most pleasant performances we had. Zero stage fright, just enjoyment. The guests loved all the pieces and sent back the same love as the music gave them.
Home-made sweets, a book presentation and a little concert - all this in one garden on a summer evening? I think it was worth remembering this event for this edition of Throwback Thursday.
If 3speak works, I will upload a short video, just a part of one piano solo piece by Ludovico Einaudi. Sorry - the upload didn't work, so without video. 🤷♀
