"Last minute. Come!"

This time yesterday, we were looking forward to a quiet evening at home. It seemed a busy enough week ahead, and already the effects of a month away are wearing off. But who can resist an invitation to step into the shoes of someone who can't make use of their tickets for an Angela Hewitt recital? Her programme at Chipping Campden was hardly the usual one: it contained only one major work, but when a pianist's presence and virtuosity is so unusual, this becomes an irrelevance.

Late Haydn variations were followed by a sonata by one of his greatest fans, written only a couple of years later. For Caroline, the early Beethoven was the evening's highlight: I found the performance a little clunky. It has sent me back to Schnabel, who seems better at catching the sweep and lilt of this relatively inconsequential music.

After the interval, Bach's G minor English Suite was by contrast made to sound effortless, and then came Liszt's Dante Sonata, the most dramatic of antitheses. Somehow, Angela Hewitt had energy left for a rapt account of Strauss' Morgen, in Max Reger's transcription, and to sign autographs.

We drove home the quiet way, the last of the light prevailing against some inky clouds.

"Through a glass, darkly"

This is the title of a show just opened at our local Parabola Arts Centre - "a mixed-media exhibition of soulful work that speaks of mystery and struggle, peace, hope and love." Curated by Niki Whitfield, it brings together a handful of artists of contrasting styles, and runs in collaboration with a more overtly Christian art show at the nearby Christ Church Hub Gallery. I visited the Hub on Thursday evening: despite some interesting work, I found the juxtaposition of styles there unsatisfactory. At the Parabola however, a very different mood is created: in one room, Chris Hoggett's marvellous dream pictures opposite the burnished gold of Jake Lever's meditative hand works, and in the other Pam Crook's enigmatic reliefs alongside Claire Watson's very physical pottery - Niki has conjured up a degree of synergy that I haven't felt in a mixed exhibition for some long while.

Art presents itself as a gift for the photographer: less easy is it to find illustrations for experiences such as hearing, late at night, Angela Hewitt play Couperin, Rameau, Fauré - and Bach. I missed the live relay, but Listening Again I was mesmerised by the pieces Hewitt selected from this mainly - to me - unfamiliar genre. Catherine Bott's advocacy (as presenter) undoubtedly helped. You have four days left to catch it!

Sing East, Sing West

So taken up was I with Elizabeth Watts' excellent recital yesterday morning that I forgot to mention a splendid schools project - part of our Music Festival's education programme - which came to fruition on Monday evening in Cheltenham Town Hall. 250 or so primary school children packed the stage to listen to and give us an hour of music celebrating the Jewish Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions, along with Judeo-Arabic songs and klezmer-influenced American music. A joyous occasion for all, including the parents in the audience, who took their own singing lesson (at the end of the concert) with due seriousness!

And yesterday evening, for something completely different, we listened to the sublime Angela Hewitt, one of those who make strong men weep.