Violin - or out?

You may find the comments on this BBC site interesting re the problems musicians are now facing because they're not allowed to carry their valuable and delicate instruments on to the planes. The security guard who says 'if you don't like it, don't fly, there's more to life than music' is rather missing the point: music is a musician's livelihood! Get real yourself, Laura.

Dear friends who play violins, violas, or anything else that normally flies as hand baggage - please write in and tell us your experiences about travelling over the past few days? What are you going to do? I haven't heard any reports that terrorists are planning to blow up planes using fiddles, which are not liquid, but the blanket ban on hand-luggage nevertheless is playing havoc with musicians' plans. I sincerely hope that the Musicians Union will be able to tackle the airlines and work out something sensible, and fast.

UPDATE, MONDAY 11.45am: this is the latest on the hand baggage situation here in the UK - seems to be easing a bit. As far as I can tell, this means that flutes, oboes and, I hope, violins will be OK, but not sure about violas, cellos and tubas.

Literature for this day

This is from Ian McEwan's SATURDAY (published by Vintage Books):

There are those rare moments when musicians together touch something sweeter than they've ever found before in rehearsals or performance, beyond the merely collaborative or technically proficient, when their expression becomes as easy and graceful as friendship or love. This is when they give us a glimpse of what we might be, of our best selves, and of an impossible world in which you give everything you have to others, but lose nothing of yourself. Out in the real world there exist detailed plans, visionary projects for peaceable realms, all conflicts resolved, happiness for everyone, for ever - mirages for which people are prepared to die and kill. Christ's kingdom on earth, the workers' paradise, the ideal Islamic state. But only in music, and only on rare occasions, does the curtain actually lift on this dream of community, and it's tantalisingly conjured, before fading away with the last notes.

Questions and answers

A few answers to a few of the more colourful Googles that have provided links to this website:

CLASSICAL MUSIC TO MAKE YOU SMILE: May I suggest the following: Mozart Symphony Nos.29 and 39 to put you in a good mood, or 'A Musical Joke' if you want to take things to extremes; Faure & Messager's piano duets 'Souvenirs de Bayreuth' (the world's most brilliant Wagner take-off); Facade by William Walton; Saint-Saens 'Carnival of the Animals'; and Haydn 'The Creation' for the transcendental kind of smiling. Hope this helps.

HOMEOPATHY RSI: I took Rhus Tox when I had RSI as a student (too much Revolutionary Etude plus extension exercises) and it worked when everything else had failed. The nature of homeopathy, though, is that not everything works for everyone: it's about you as an individual. That remedy suited me but may not be right for someone else. So do consult a qualified homeopath.

a certain amazing pianist GAY: he's not. Bad luck, mate.

NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER GIRLFRIEND: Not me (sigh).

When Steven met Clara...

Here is Steven Isserlis's take on the Schumann, Clara & Brahms story, from yesterday's Guardian. Today, in Aldeburgh, he and Simon Callow will be giving their music-and-words account of it. I can't make it to Aldeburgh myself (I'm currently closeted in my study, in the last throes of finalising the manuscript of ALICIA'S GIFT), but would be very interested to hear from anyone who does. Please write in with your comments! I will post any newspaper reviews I find.

TODAY

A quick reminder that this afternoon, Saturday, from 2pm I'll be at Waterstones in Richmond (2-6 Hill Street), Surrey, signing copies of RITES OF SPRING.