Quartet

On the last Monday in May, to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Škampa Quartet, our first quartet for a while. A quartet we have heard maybe three times altogether over the last 15 years, with the last occasion noticed at reference 3. A day which I had thought - along with my telephone - to be a bank holiday - and BH explaining to me on several occasions that the bank holiday had been moved to accommodate our Queen did not sink in as well as it should.

A more or less mask free day, ourselves included. The train from Epsom was quiet, Vauxhall was very quiet, but it was busy enough when we emerged at Oxford Circus. Busy enough to include an ambulance and team of police officers parked up on the north eastern corner in anticipation. Of what, we never got to find out.

All Bar One was up and running, and the smarties supplies had got through, with the stash snapped above. I wonder this morning about the arrangements for getting them into the shot glasses in which they are delivered to tables. Is their a little ladle? Would the hygiene people approve?

I decided, not for the first time, that I did not really like the earthy taste of their 'Not your Grandma's' Riesling, from Australia. All I have to do now is remember not to buy it.

But they did buy enough retro clocks to decorate their bars to get their name onto the clock face. But fake in the way that the clock noticed at reference 3 was not. That one was the real thing, even if it did not say 'Balham' on the clock face.

On into the hall, where the flower arrangements flanking the stand were very striking, compositions of red, green and white - and involving the red anthuriums that the flower contractor used by the Wigmore Hall seems to be keen on. BH thought that the arrangement was for the Jubilee, but I was not convinced in the absence of blue. And one of them was partly obscured by something, probably a camera, on a large tripod. In which connection, I might say that the gentleman doing the Radio 3 bit was much less intrusive than the ladies who do the job at St. Luke's. Much better.

An engaging quartet, who seemed happy to be at the Hall and seemed happy to be working with each other. I was reminded of the high regard in which the place is held by those who perform there. Much interaction between the musicians during the course of the two quartets. Plus a short but very rousing encore. I found that while I though I knew both quartets quite well, there were lots of passages which I did not remember. In any event, it all went down very well.

Out to 2 Veneti, the second visit in less than a week. Same wine and grappa - the bottle of which was by then something over half full, having been newly opened on the last occasion. Salt cod to share to start. Then veal and mash. Then a sponge based almond tart for me. Good, but rather sweet and needed the ice cream to cut the sweetness a bit. Odd how one adds even more calories to cut the calories which are already there. Altogether a good place, which does not shut in the afternoon, which means that one does not have to rush after a 14:00 start.

Out to John Lewis to investigate Platinum souvenirs (mug variety), to learn that they had been sold out for a month. Perhaps sir would like to try Selfridges or Harrods, who might have something left? In the event, on getting back home, sir tried Amazon which did the business in short order. BH entirely satisfied.

Scored a two in the west at the aeroplane game, from the carriage, at Clapham Junction. The first for a while, in the carriage or on the platform.

Scored a nicely produced book about Hiroshima at the Raynes Park platform library. 'The Light' or 'Portraits of the Hibakusha', the product of a collaboration between Hiroshima City University and Kingston University, and consisting of 100 portraits of people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Including a few children of same. Plus curatorial wrapping, not parallel text, but mostly supplied in both English and Japanese. A timely reminder of the stupidity of war, particularly of the nuclear variety.

The day closed with a shower at 18:00. Having, luckily, held off all day.

PS 1: in the course of chasing up the quartet, I was reminded that at one point, some time ago now, I thought that the bridge end of the (black) tail piece of their cello was cut at an angle, rather than the usual straight. Which it is not now. At the time I did some chasing around, confused this quartet with the the Pavel Haas Quartet, but never really got to the bottom of the matter.

PS 2: I was also reminded that Windows search is more forgiving that Word search, searching indifferently for Škampa, škampa, Skampa, skampa and kampa. While Word does not care about case, but it does care about accents. Neither cares about word boundaries and both include part word results. While Blog search cares about both words and accents.

References

Reference 1: https://www.skampaquartet.cz/.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/beethoven-250.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/08/clock.html.