Bad Elgar

At the end of October, to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Piatti Quartet give us Beethoven Op.59 No.1 and Elgar Op.83. The first written as Napoleon's glory was (as it turned out) peaking, the second just before the end of the first world war. I had never heard of the quartet, but BH thought that we had heard them before, which turned out to be the case, a Brahms flavoured series at Dorking. See reference 2.

During a wet start to the morning, the hour gained by putting the clocks back vanished without trace. Took our folding umbrellas, but in the event, they were not deployed.

A larger cement mixer outside the frame house going up near the junction of Ridgeway and Meadway than one usually sees on our estate. And not that unlike the antique captured on the outskirts of Ely back in 2018. For which see reference 3.

Something engineering works going on in the vicinity of Clapham Junction and Vauxhall. Which meant that we discovered that the automated announcement system could not manage the 'this train will not be stopping at Vauxhall' bit. It could tell you which stations the train in question was stopping at, but did not point out where it was not stopping. In the event, we were pleased to get to Waterloo without having the change trains or catch a bus.

This followed by what seemed like a long walk to catch what seemed like an ancient Bakerloo line train. For some reason, much quieter than we would expect the tube from Vauxhall to have been. This despite the Waterloo concourse being busy enough.

An engaging contraption in a ship window on the way up to All-Bar-One, with the white panels slowly flapping around. Looked quite expensive to me, never mind the arty component. Bing could turn up no website, but they get a look-in at reference 4. Google did rather better, putting reference 5 at the top of its search results.

But given reference 5 and reference 8, not clear what the division of labour was. Maybe the latter do the mechanical engineering piece. And there is some clever (if rather saccharine) stuff on their show reel.

For once, the service at All-Bar-One was very slow, possibly the result of our ticket getting lost under the coffee machine. BH not best pleased. But I was pleased to find a useful crash barrier at the foot of the stairs down to the former car park, now home to an additional bar and the cloakrooms. Handy for those full of Halloween cheer.

Onto the Hall, where the Beethoven was very good. But, unusually, I actively disliked the Elgar, which I shall take pains to avoid in the future. Perhaps the combination of old age (around 60), the new age in matters arty which had kicked off with the new century and the horrors of the war just ending were too much for the maestro.

I thought the first violinist (a lady) had tremendous poise, this even sitting down. I suspected her of having taken instruction. She swapped with the second violinist (a gent) for the second half. All four of them used tablets rather than paper scores, all mounted on music stands designed or adapted for the purpose. When they swapped, they swapped the music stands too, which surprised me slightly. But maybe they are personalised. Maybe musicians make side notes on their music.

Not for the first time, Wigmore Hall sherry did not agree with an empty stomach. Must remember not to next time. 

From there to the Bullingdon stand outside the Portuguese Consulate to make sure that my key was working again after the imbroglio noticed at reference 6. All was well, although BH declined to take the experience. So I did a quick run around Harley Street, while she admired what appeared to be a US couple on holiday cycling the wrong way along Portland Place, towards Chandos Street. The lady appeared to be in curlers. Perhaps they were off to the opera in the evening.

Next stop was intended to be the Nancy Silverton themed pizza joint opposite the Langham Hotel, the last visit to which was noticed at reference 7. Both it and the hotel were firmly shut and scaffolded up. So an unreliable place, more often shut than open, at least at the sort of times when we call. So back down Regent Street to Ponti's which is reliable. Where we wondered whether the elaborate birds would ever return to the hotel's front window.

Where we took our now usual meal. That is to say, for me, bread, pizza and dessert. Wine the reliable Fiano di Avelino I Favati. For a change, chocolate donuts for dessert, an opportunity to sample the famous Nutella chocolate spread.

More Halloween on the tube including a young family in full costume. Tattoos, laddered tights, the works. BH thought outward rather than inward as the makeup had not run, while I wondered where they might be going towards the end of a Sunday afternoon. Halloween extravaganza at Brixton?

Some odd poppy sellers at Waterloo in that they did not look ex-service at all but they did look not that long arrived, in any event of Middle Eastern appearance. One can only suppose that British Legion have subbed out the business of shaking tins. Not quite right to my mind, but they still got a note, it looking like we need a proper army again, at least for the next few years.

Visiting grandparents train from somewhere in India made Worcester (of Worcester Park) into Woochester. But, to be fair, I have heard English speakers make an even bigger fist of 'Ewell', pronounced 'Youell' rather than 'Eewellee'. And their children had done rather well over here.

The platform displays at Ewell West had turned from orange lights to white lights. Another spot of essential maintenance.

And to close, the taxi driver from Epsom station did not think it appropriate to put his clock on. Accident? Swindling the owner of the cab? Swindling the tax man? I did not probe, even though I do not care for either sort of swindle. Too keen on the quiet life by that time on a winter Sunday afternoon, say around 17:00.

PS 1: just before I started this post there was a lot of feeding activity in the firethorn furthest from the house. Otherwise, the red one rather than the orange one, although the winter light seems to soften the difference. The birds were great tits and redwings.

PS 2: no sign of scaffolding at reference 9. So what is going on?

References

Reference 1: http://piattiquartet.com/. 'The Piatti Quartet are one of the most distinguished quartets of their generation and are multiple prizewinners from the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition'.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=piatti.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/cement-mixer.html.

Reference 4: https://www.wefolk.com/artists/isabel-helen/information.

Reference 5: http://isabelandhelen.com/.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/off-air.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/treetops.html.

Reference 8: https://asylumsfx.com/.

Reference 9: https://www.treehousehotels.com/london.