The Tooth Tattoo(21)

‘How soon will you be up to concert pitch?’

‘We need to prepare,’ Ivan said with all the earnestness of Noah before the rains came. ‘Weeks, maybe months.’

‘Why don’t you fix up some gigs and tell us?’ Cat said to Doug. ‘Give some focus to the preparation.’

‘I have a few ideas already,’ Doug said, and any half-decent manager would have said as much. ‘I was thinking of letting you in gently. There are various festivals coming up in this country – Cheltenham, Cambridge, York. Their programmes will already be arranged, but I can’t see any of them turning down a chance to slot in the Staccati at short notice.’

Ivan was shaking his head. ‘Too soon.’

‘Tucson, Arizona? That’s an awful long way for a single performance,’ Cat said. ‘Doug, I think you’ve got it. Better still, how about trying for a residency? Would you care for that, Anthony?’

Anthony said, ‘Cool.’

‘That’s two of us, then. Mel, are you on board?’

‘If there’s half a chance, yes.’

‘Three.’ She turned to Ivan. ‘We’d get paid to rehearse in a practice room. Isn’t that better than weeks and months squatting in Doug’s house?’

He still looked doubtful. ‘I suppose if it could be arranged …’

‘Sponsors, endowments. There’s money out there. That’s why we employ the best manager in the business.’

Doug almost purred. ‘No promises. I’ll do my best.’

With that settled, and the sandwiches all but gone, Ivan suggested they should rehearse another quartet while Doug went off to make phone calls.

Another quartet? Mel’s heart sank and it must have been obvious.

‘No sweat, kiddo,’ Cat told him. ‘When we rehearse, we take the thing apart, bar by bar, as if we never played it before. We’re all learning together.’

‘I didn’t bring any other music.’

‘You see that printer over there on Doug’s computer desk? It’s also a photocopier.’


Not long after, they were back with their instruments. They worked on a Schubert quartet familiar to most chamber musicians. Cat’s reassuring words on a first rehearsal were borne out. The playing was in fragments, every phrase open to analysis. Strong views were voiced, but the arguing was of a different order from the debates on how the group was managed. These were points of interpretation and nuance, each player speaking with the authority of the score. Anthony found his voice and made clear that the term ‘second violin’ is misleading. He was not subordinate to Ivan or anyone else. And Mel, for his part, made sure that the viola was given its due.

Quite when Doug returned wasn’t clear. By then the concentration was pretty intense. He must have been standing nearby for some minutes waiting for a break. He wasn’t fussed. He was like the cat with the cream.

‘Sorry to interrupt. Breaking news, as they say. You asked for a residency and I may have got one, a university with a substantial endowment for a series of masterclasses and concerts. They are willing to engage us for six months when the new term starts.’

‘Who are?’ Ivan said.

‘Bath Spa University.’

‘Bath.’ Ivan spoke the word as if it were Lubianka Prison.

Cat overrode him. ‘Not a bad place to spend half a year. Is there enough for us to live on?’

‘Approved lodgings, all meals found and twenty grand each plus concert fees.’

‘I could survive on that. When do they need to know?’

‘I said I’d give them an answer today. It’s a fantastic deal. To sugar the pill I said you’d also make a recording in aid of university funds.’

Cat looked at the others. ‘Any objections?’

Anthony said, ‘How many concerts?’

‘You’re going to like this,’ Doug said. ‘What they suggest is a series of soirées, fortnightly musical evenings in private houses, chamber music as it was originally performed. The audiences will be limited to the size of the venue and in most cases this will mean twenty-five to thirty at most. There are some beautiful houses around Bath. I can picture you by candlelight in gracious rooms of the sort the composers themselves must have known.’

‘By Jesus, you’re a wicked salesman,’ Cat said.

‘That’s what you pay me for.’

‘I’m in. How about the rest of you?’

Ivan was straight to where the shoe pinched. ‘Fortnightly, I think I heard you say. With a new programme each time? That’s a tall order.’

‘What I’m suggesting is no more than one string quartet per evening, followed by a champagne interval and then some solo pieces. How does that seem?’