Mainly Schubert

Near a couple of weeks ago now to hear some Schubert at the Wigmore Hall, with the draw being the D.899 Impromptus. The pianist being Alexandre Tharaud, whom it turns out we have heard at least twic before. Once, in 2014 doing these very Impromptus, as noticed at reference 2. But I should say that I had forgotten all about these earlier outings.

Impromptus which I first came across, more or less by chance, at an Imogen Cooper concert at the Festival Hall, more than ten years ago now, noticed at reference 1. One of those things where second and subsequent outings never quite capture the magic of the first occasion - but they still do pretty well. I  think it was a lady writer who first pointed up for me the impossibility of repeating a first experience, a writer whose name presently escapes me, but I do remember thinking at the time that it is not always like that. Sometimes several outings are needed before I really get into something - or perhaps before it gets into me.

Our regular male beggar was present at Epsom Station, doing the crossword in his paper with a bottle of cider to hand, and not actually begging. No mound of rubbish either. While our regular female beggar was present at the top of the stairs down to the tube station at Vauxhall and she certainly was begging.

At All-Bar-One in Regent Street, table service only works if you can work the app, so I was reduced to ordering at the bar. This despite the fact that the (unmasked) waitress was known to us. I suppose there are worse things that could happen.

On to the Hall to find a Yamaha piano, instead of the usual Steinway. Which I found a bit harsh at first, but had stopped worrying about by the time we got to the Impromptus, which sensibly came last, rather than first, as advertised above. Tharaud used a page turner, whom I supposed to be a student from one of the nearby music schools. Not for the first time, I thought good training for a wannabee performer: you need to concentrate on the music, on the needs of the pianist and not to be bothered by being on the stage. And you need to be self effacing. Although, as far as I could see the pianist was not giving her the nod, this young lady seemed to manage all of the above.

As I had expected, I got on better with the Impromptus than with the other two items - the Rosamunde having been transcribed by the pianist, the original score having been turned up, many years after the composer's death, by George Grove and Arthur Sullivan. A turning up noticed at reference 4.

A nicely chosen encore, something short and light. I thought perhaps French from the 18th century.

Out to inspect the woodwork on offer at Margaret Howell, a couple of doors east from the Hall. A mainly clothes shop which we had never been inside before - although we had passed another branch nearby, their sale shop in Margaret Street, not many days previous. The draw on this occasion was woodworks by Brian Willsher, a prolific chap with an unusual background for an artist, who died in 2010. Sufficiently unusual that according to reference 6, he was declared to by trade rather than art by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, which resulted in his work attracting 40% manufacturing tax, whatever that might have been. This resulted in him going bankrupt and much protest from other artists, eventually leading Her Majesty to recant. But this denial of status left Willsher rather upset and he did not exhibit again for some years. I rather liked his work, which for some reasons reminded me of some of that by Barbara Hepworth, noticed at reference 7, but I also thought that some of it was not sufficiently finished. He had not, in particular, got rid of all the saw marks, not even all the ones that you could see.

Ebay offers just the one piece of his, described as a hardwood puzzle, and offers are invited in the region of £800. Probably rather fun, both as a toy and as a conversation piece, but a trifle dear for us.

From there to the top of John Lewis to find that they were not offering any hot food, citing supply difficulties. Not clear whether these were short or long term. In any event, that reduced us to baguettes, which turned out to be rather good. Better, for example, than the recent offering from Gail's Bakery at Earlsfield. Cheaper too.

I also admired the table top, made out of a sort of plywood which is very strong, but which is not usually shown off in this way, with naked edge.

Christmas decorations very much in progress, as was Christmas stocking up. Clearly moving into one of the times in the year when real shopping has to wait. While careful inspection of the coloured glass panels around the escalator well, revealed that the colour was indeed plastic film, carefully cut around the various fixings. A much neater job than I could have managed.

From there to table linen, which we eventually found with the help of the smart young lady manning the information desk at the main entrance. Nothing much in the circular department. If we chose something from the fabric department, could we get one made up? This question resulted in the appearance of a very superior shop man, the sort of man you might once have got in the late Lester Bowden's of Epsom. Sadly, he explained that they did not do that sort of thing, and even if they did it would be rather expensive. You would be much better going to one of the tailors, once again to be found in our high streets. There is one, for example, in Ewell Village. But I think BH will draw the line at paying £50 or so for someone else to do something which she could do herself - but probably won't! On which I ought to add that I am much the same about my jobs, for example outside painting.

Last stop of the day was Raynes Park where I, for once, failed, while BH succeeded. I forget with what.

While back home we learned that our up and hopefully coming designer-developer was getting his name about a bit more by sponsoring the giant firework display in Hook Road Arena, something we have not been too for many years, and about to kick off for this year as I type. Sold out.

Confusingly, the website (reference 10) pointed at by the fireworks website (reference 8) is Talon Property Solutions, who have clearly taken over most of Zestan's work in Epsom. And while Zestan is still Bing-visible, its website is not, so presumably it has been rebranded. Do I smell a spot of tax evasion or even a bankruptcy? For previous notices see reference 9.

References

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2009/12/fresh-nutlet.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/07/mozart-and-others.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Tharaud.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/09/sullivan.html.

Reference 5: https://www.margarethowell.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://www.bada.org/object/untitled-1981-brian-willsher-1930-2010.

Reference 7: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/09/more-hepworth.html.

Reference 8: http://www.epsomfireworks.com/.

Reference 9: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=zestan.

Reference 10: https://www.talonproperty.co.uk/.