Photo from Angela Hewitt’s annual Trasimeno music festival. 

A poster from the Trasimeno Festival in Umbria Italy

Meeting with Angela Hewitt in Assisi

Loving classical music I combine the passion with training my brain to remember things.

Before I got to know and appreciate classical music I unconsciously did the same memory game as a teenager. What did I hear and which band was playing? The Beach Boys? The Kinks or the Animals? The Doors and Moody Blues and many others from the sixties. Then I also tried to hit the right name on the vocalist.

Before I became a health visitor working with families and babies I was also a nurse visiting old sick people. The  nightmare was to help old people still living alone, who were senile or seemed totally reduced to e.g. calling for their long dead parents or just able to say a few things like “give me a cup of coffee.”

I am convinced that a healthy lifestyle can help you to keep up your inner man, but I will share what I do . When ever I drive my car or hear classical radio at home I try to guess what I hear. Is it a symphony, a concert or chamber music and who wrote it?

When it is chamber music I ask myself:

“How many and which  instruments are involved? Again who is the composer?

I dislike to be mistaken about Haydn and Mozart or Debussy and Ravel.

If I am without a clue on the composer I think of the period it came from, Renaissance, Baroque, Vienna classical, the Romantic period or French, Russian or contemporary style. Then I can guess the soloists and it’s great fun to recognize Cecilia Bartoli, Andreas Scholl, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Kathleen  Ferrier, James Galway and many other fine soloists alive or long time dead.

A joyful moment was to be sure that I heard the famous violinist  Isaac Stern and I did. I am sure that what ever you have as an interest could be used to strengthen your brain ability too.

This interest in classical music can lead to many things. It was a great pleasure this summer to attend to six out of eight of the much varied beautiful concerts all by the excellent Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt in Umbria Italy.

I met her personally and she was so kind and knew my name from the mailing list!