Back in 2019, when the world was normal, we attended a wonderful concert by two guitarists at the top of their game. The concert was at Hindhead Music Centre and was brilliant. Of course, the pandemic caused live concerts to cease to exist so the centre hasn’t had anything on since then. Tonight, however, everything was back to normal. Almost.
I say ‘almost’ because one audience member sat outside for the whole thing, having arrived with a mask and a folding chair. Her husband has brain cancer and is undergoing chemo, so she can’t risk infecting him with anything she might get infected with. Remarkably, he’s had brain cancer for 20 years.
I’m not sure how much of the concert she heard, given she was sitting outside, and the windows were closed, but she seemed to enjoy it. At any rate, she did last for the whole thing.
She’s a good friend of David, Mirinda’s guitar teacher. He’d organised tonight’s concert, as well as their final concert on the Isle of Wight. We think he was a bit stressed.
Eduardo Martín is a Cuban guitarist/composer and, quite simply, amazing. Playing with him was the incredibly beautiful Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, who is also no slouch with a guitar. Hindhead is the penultimate concert on a far reaching and sizeable tour.
Before they started playing, and being seated in the second row, I had planned to take a couple of photos of them (like last time) but they mesmerised me and the idea just floated away on the notes created by their magic fingers.
The rest of the day basically led up to this taste of Cuban music and the genius that is Eduardo’s imagination.
Of course, I went shopping first thing, and, because Mirinda was busy all day with work, I took the girls to the park.
The morning had been wet, but the sun came out after lunch, and we had a lovely romp among the trees and benches. Actually, Emma romped while Freya and I sat and watched from the safety, and relative comfort, of a bench.
