Sunday 24th April, the centenary of the beginning of the Easter Rising, saw Michel Stas and myself continuing our Schubert Journey in the refurbished Kevin Barry Room of Dublin's National Concert Hall. In every respect an improvement: sound-proofed, air-conditioned, unobtrusively lit, beautifully polished. The new Steinway B however is not an improvement on the older, bigger model. Such is life. Dominating this programme of shortish songs was "Die Nonne", another ballad a

Final preparations for Sunday's Schubertreise in Jodoigne, the eight in that series. Unhappy with the turnout last time, I decided to take publicity into my own hands — printing and distribution of posters and flyers in Jodoigne and hinterland, with the help of my wife Myriam. Time-consuming but not a waste of time, if it means more numbers (we shall see). It also gave us an opportunity to visit out-of-the-way places such as Jauchelette, picturesque Mélin, Lathuy, St. Rémy-Ge