Like last week, the rehearsal was held in the Ettore Mazzoleni concert hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music.  David and John's instruments had been stored there since the last rehearsal, and when we showed up at 1:00, they were set up on stage, with the hall pianos, ready for us to work.

As I said in the Elora entry, we were going to have a killer day, since after the rehearsal, we had to drive to Newmarket for an 8:00 p.m. concert; however, both Jim and I agreed that we should take as much time as we needed to rehearse the Bartok, and not squander the luxury of working with great players like John and David just because of a tight schedule.  The bottom line is that by about 3:00, the piece felt... I hesitate to say easy, but that is what most immediately comes to mind.  Easy, and incredibly intense, if that is possible; and this was on the hall pianos, which don't match all that well, not the two Yamahas we were to play the next day.  Anyway, we all felt great, and agreed that the rehearsal the next day (concert day) would really nail it.