Rain doesn't stop play at Fairlight Hall

Concert-goers undeterred by the weather

Glyndebourne has a lot to answer for.  It has spawned the English fashion of summer musical events in the countryside at which stoical Brits are encouraged to defy the vagaries of the weather and listen to music in the open air, with a picnic before or after the event, or in the interval.  Earlier this summer we experienced the best way in which it can work out, with an idyllic evening at Glyndebourne.  Yesterday we had the other end of the scale at Fairlight Hall.

Not that you could blame either the music or the organisers.  The occasion was a recital by the South Korean pianist Taek Gi Lee, winner of the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition earlier this year.  The main patrons of the Competition, David and Sarah Kowitz, generously host a recital given by the winner each year.  It takes place in a former stable block at the Kowitzes' home, Fairlight Hall.  The horses' quarters have been converted into a music room with the courtyard wall glazed and folding back on itself so that those sitting in the courtyard have the full benefit of the sound, while the musicians are under cover.  A degree of shelter is given to those in the courtyard, by three giant parasols.

All seemed fine to begin with - the mesmerising Taek Gi played a Bach Prelude and Fugue rather mechanically, limbered up with a Haydn piano sonata and then gave us the full percussive works with some Prokofiev.  In the interval we stood around in the beautiful grounds of Fairlight Hall, admiring the view and sipping Pimm's, before returning to the courtyard for Rachmaninoff, Schubert and Lowell Liebermann.

The Rachmaninoff - Variations on a Theme of Corelli - was great, but when it came to a Schubert Impromptu the rain began and the music was drowned out for those in the courtyard by the drumming of rain on the parasols.  Brits being Brits, there was a bit of shuffling of seats to get under the parasols, but no protests.  The Great and the Good were safely banked under cover in the music room, but Sarah Kowitz had elected to place herself in an exposed position in the courtyard.  As a result, some of us felt a tad uncomfortable at seeing her get wetter and wetter as the Schubert proceeded.  

The Lowell Liebermann piece was appropriately titled Gargoyles.  You may recollect that gargoyles are grotesque figures with spouts, designed to convey rain from a rooftop without it touching the walls.  The full irony of this piece was clear when I looked up at the parasols, where each prong was illustrating the music's theme with total success.  Our hostess was now sitting with a waterproof on her knees, though she had managed to ease her head under the parasol.

We all enjoyed it, needless to say, and trudged back with a degree of self-satisfaction through the magnificent grounds of Fairlight Hall to the inevitable field where our cars were parked.  The picnic-goers had done their best to pretend we live beside the Mediterranean.  No gain without pain, as the saying goes - particularly when it comes to culture in the countryside.

Antony Mair