Message from Europe

I heard from the violinist in Germany. Remember him? He is sending me the Pennario clip from French TV and he also sent me that adorable picture which, I posted it up above.

I did not have that picture before although I have seen versions of it on some of Pennario's record albums.

Look at that hand he has draped over the piano. That is my favorite thing about the picture. I love that hand. That is a pianist's hand if I have ever seen one.

I cannot wait to see that TV recital. I will keep everyone in Blog-O-Land posted because I know you are sharing my suspense!

This is nice, the pace the violinist and I have going. I send a message to him and wait and think and then he sends me a message back. It is like my favorite comic strip, "B.C." 

This is funny. Remember, the last email I sent this violinist was in German. He wrote me back in English. He wrote, "I thought you wrote you were born in Germany."

Hahahahaa! I guess my German straightened out that misconception pretty darned schnell!

I learned most of my German through operas and Schubert songs and I have a vague idea it is kind of archaic. Once in Vienna I asked directions or something, I forget what, but I remember this gentleman kind of looking after me amusedly as I went my merry way. That was when it crossed my mind I was probably speaking the Kaiser's German.

Pennario's German was better than mine. Well, they loved him in Germany.

Anyway, this TV recital, this is good news to share. Also I had a long conversation yesterday with this record producer who worked with Pennario. He had a lot of interesting things to say. One thing I love, I love when someone gets on the phone with me to talk about Pennario and thinks he or she will be off the phone in 10 minutes. Ha, ha! That is a good one.

We were on the phone for two hours!

That poor guy!

But I had fun, is what counts. Oh, this is interesting too. This violinist, I had been explaining where my family was from, which is Baden-Baden. That is where my father's family is from anyway. All this time I had thought of Baden-Baden as being Bavaria. But now I stand corrected.

It is not Bavaria.

Quoth my new German friend, and I will cut and paste here because I do not know how to do umlauts: "Baden-Baden isn't Bavaria but Baden-Württemberg (former Königreich Baden)."

Live and learn!