Mabel, my Ian Ross Cello
Mabel is strong, feisty, sonorous and sings like an angel. She is strong yet girly, delicate and kind too, and is the most beautiful extension of my body and soul that I could ever have wished for. However, Mabel can be tenacious, and, particularly in her lower register she will soon tell me if I ask of her anything that I do not play correctly, for Mabel is also contrary and in being the best I could ever have wished for, she seeks to be played with the utmost passion, yet respect and care. Play her without due care and passion and she will respond like a naughty schoolgirl, or as on one occasion, by snapping her A string in a most temperamental manner, in an outburst very unlike myself.
So in some ways we are quite different. Her feistiness is offset by my calm, gentle and more placatory demeanour. For, although Mabel, is my musical doppelgänger, those points of difference in our personalities make us the dream team. She is sweet and striking, pretty and handsome all in one, intoxicating and sublime and a master of the most amazing tone. Me, I’m just the very proud cellist that plays this most beautifully crafted instrument created by Ian!
One seeks a cello throughout a lifetime that just ‘is’ part of you, an extension of ones physical and mental persona and Mabel is me, my alter ego, my life partner, lovingly created by Ian without me ever knowing, only for me to find her by chance one very lucky day when we came together, and although there were many other possible Mabel’s who tried to come between us, we knew we were made for each other! Thank you Ian. Mabel and I will spend a life time creating music together.