Part One -- Spring 1983
Chapter one -- Allegro, ma non troppo
Most people would have considered 19-year old Alice to be very fortunate. Intelligent and hard-working, she had excelled at school and after her final exams took the Oxbridge entrance papers and obtained a scholarship place to study modern languages at Oxford, specialising in Russian. She was an accomplished violinist, spoke fluent French as well as Russian and lived comfortably with her parents in a leafy suburb of London.
In the spring of 1983, however, there was one thing missing from Alice's life -- a successful relationship. She was an attractive girl, around 5ft 6, slim and fit, with shoulder-length blonde hair and a pretty smile, and though she was self-conscious about her small breasts ("I'm so flat-chested, Kat!" she complained to her best friend Katharine), she still received more than her fair share of attention from the young men in her area. Somehow nothing really worked out, and although she had had one 'serious' boyfriend, and even lost her virginity to him, the sex had been disappointing and they had split up soon afterwards. Now she felt like she was killing time whilst waiting to go to university in the Autumn, though she was excited about the music course she and Kat were attending that April, more than 40 years ago.
The ten-day residential string quartet course was for exceptional young musicians from the whole of the UK and was being held at a boarding school in the south west of England. The standard was known to be very high and the course leaders were members of a successful quartet, supported by young players from several top British orchestras. Participants were chosen following auditions and they had both been delighted to be accepted, having tried unsuccessfully the previous year.
Kat played the viola and she and Alice had asked to be put in a quartet together, so they were relieved when they checked the noticeboard in the entrance hall on arrival and saw they were in a group with a violinist called Charlotte and Felicity, a cellist. They had been told to arrive by 4pm and were directed to the dormitories where they would be staying, to unpack and meet some of the fellow course-members. Alice and Kat were a little nervous, but were pleased to find that two of the other four girls in their room were indeed Charlotte and Felicity -- though they introduced themselves as Lotty and Fliss -- who were also friends, from York in the north of England.
The four of them hit it off immediately and had a quick look around the school and its beautiful grounds before joining the rest of the 80 or so students for dinner in the Great Hall. After the surprisingly enjoyable meal they found the room where they would be rehearsing and were met there by their coach, a good-looking young man with longish curly dark hair who introduced himself as Ivan and said that he would coach them for the whole course, but not all the time as he had two other groups to look after. Ivan was a viola-player from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, though he looked barely older than the four girls. He gave them the music they would be working on -- a Haydn quartet, Schubert's 'Quartettsatz' and a contemporary work by the composer Michael Tippett -- and suggested they read through the Haydn to get to know each other and their playing styles.
Lotty and Alice agreed that they would take turns to lead and they started the first movement of the Haydn with Lotty playing first violin. Ivan sat quietly in a corner, listening carefully and taking notes, and he let them play through the first movement, then suggested things they could work on before excusing himself to visit his next group. The rest of the rehearsal passed quickly and they headed back to the dorm to chat.
"Ivan seems nice" Lotty said as they were changing for bed, "Do you think he is really in the Liverpool Phil though, he looks about 16!?"
"I know what you mean but actually I saw them playing in Leeds at Christmas and I remember him then, he was being modest when he said he's in the section, he's on the front desk!" Fliss replied, "I noticed him because he does look young but he looks like a great player, and I really liked what he told us."
Alice and Kat agreed and Kat was especially pleased to have a fellow viola-player coaching them. Alice kept quiet because she didn't want to admit that she had been really taken with Ivan and was more than excited about seeing him again in the morning.
...
The course was intense, with three two-hour rehearsals each day as well as a session when the players were split into two large string orchestras, but there were breaks and some social events built into the ten-day schedule. They quickly settled into the busy routine, and enjoyed the progress they were making with the music as well as getting to know each other and their fellow students.
Alice also liked the fact that Ivan seemed to be spending more time with their group than the others he was coaching, or at least that's what she told herself, and she had managed to spend a few minutes chatting to him at the end of a session. Kat, who had known Alice for most of her life, realised very quickly that her friend had a growing crush on their coach, and gently teased her about it, whilst also hoping that Alice wouldn't be upset if, as seemed likely, nothing developed between them.
After the afternoon rehearsals they had some free time, and one day towards the end of the course as they were packing up their instruments Alice plucked up the courage to ask Ivan if he wanted a coffee from the canteen as she was just going to get one herself.
"That would be great", he said, "And in return I will get you one of those delicious chocolate muffins."
They walked together, talking about the Tippett quartet which they had just been working on, and Ivan told Alice that he had met the composer a couple of times; he was clearly a huge Tippett fan and Alice could see how much this meant to him -- she was secretly pleased that Ivan had shared this with her and none of the others in the group.
They sat with their coffees and cakes and Ivan asked Alice if she was going to music college.
"No, believe it or not I'm going to study Russian at Oxford, though I certainly hope to continue playing whilst I am there."
"That's amazing, and I didn't go to college either, though I did read music at York -- but you can certainly follow a career in music after uni if that's what you do end up wanting to do. Or you could become a spy like most people who study Russian at Oxford!"
"You're not the first person who's said that to me, and I'm not brave enough to be a spy, even if I wanted to, plus I'm a terrible liar..."
"Sorry to be unoriginal! What made you choose Russian though?"
"We had an amazing teacher at school so we could do it for A level and I have even visited a few times, and stayed with a Russian-speaking family in Greece last summer which really helped. It's a beautiful language, and very musical in its own way."
"I wish I was better at languages, I did do French at school and a bit of Spanish but I'm not a natural which you must be..."
Alice almost blushed at the compliment, and tried to turn the conversation towards Ivan himself, asking him how long he had been in Liverpool, in the hope that he might reveal whether he had a girlfriend or, worse still, a wife.
"Nearly two years now, it's a great place to work and I've made lots of friends, but I'm not sure if I will stay forever -- it's a bit complicated."
"Liverpool is, or your job?"
"Neither really, I have a girlfriend but she's working abroad and it's not easy -- that's the complication. I don't want to leave the orchestra but..."
He paused and Alice stayed quiet for a bit, then said:
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."
