Smetana

Just over a week ago to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Smetana Trio give us Dvořák (Op.65) and Shostakovich (Op.8), a reversal of the advertised order which, in the event, worked well.

A trio whom we first heard 18 months ago or so, as noticed at reference 2. Which also reminds me about the silly mound erected at Marble Arch at about that time.

On the way, the place of the frame house has been taken by a huge makeover further up Meadway. A house which started life as a modest dormer bungalow, albeit on a large plot, was subject to a major extension some years ago and is now the subject of what appears to be a huge L-shaped wraparound, taking up one side and the back of what is there now. Not altogether clear whether the present roof will survive or whether the occupants are still there. It rather looked as is if they were: perhaps they are spending so much on the makeover that they cannot afford to move out for the duration.

Thinking with my fingers, one wonders why they didn't just knock the existing building down and start over, but perhaps this would have been more than the neighbours, in what might be a conservation zone, could stomach.

We had worried a little about trains. Would they have recovered so early in the morning - 09:45 or so - on a day after a strike day, but in the event, all was well.

A wagtail on the way in to the station and a very large herd of young people - say teens - on the platform, together with their minders. There was a flavour of organised outing about them, but I didn't spot a likely looking person to ask before we slipped up to the hopefully quiet country end to board the train,

All Bar One at Regent Street was quiet and the service - including a New Model teapot - was fast. Cool weather notwithstanding, the various, obviously more cool, outlets on the way from Oxford Circus, were doing much better business, both inside and out. Thought again about taking lunch there, to give them some return for all our teas and coffees, but were uneasy about the seating, a lot of which was high stools, which we do not like.

The daffodils were doing well at Cavendish Square, but sadly the box trim to the borders had been devastated, presumably by the same caterpillars which did for ours. See, for example, reference 4. Caterpillars which seem to be rather capricious about the places that they attack.

I also learned about how daisies can get established in a weak or weakly managed lawn. I suppose the flat rosettes of leaves  mostly survive lawnmower attack. In any event, I rather like them - see, for example, reference 5 - but I have to allow that there may be other views.

Wigmore Hall was into queueing for returns for once and pretty full inside, with just a few gaps for the halt and the lame, which are only to be expected given its largely older audience. Enthusiastic on this day and we wondered whether the London Czechs had turned out in force.

The music worked very well and we had what I think was a jolly Haydn encore which put me in mind of Brahms' first piano quartet, a quartet which I once had a passage with, started on the occasion noticed at reference 3. 

For lunch, we actually made it into All Bar One, having talked about it for a while, not very busy on this occasion and we had proper seats, not far from the windows. Sparkling water, a carafe of Picpoul. Some kind of exotic salad for BH and paella for me. BH was pleased with her salad and I was pleased enough with my paella, which seemed to stand the boil-in-the-bag treatment pretty well. But it was not really enough, so I went for a second portion, which made it a rather expensive dish. I was also rather full.

The musak was subdued, just about right to provide a bit of privacy, and the ambience was pleasant, more café than the restaurant that is Ponti's just down the road. A pleasant change.

Some additional entertainment in the form of a Muslim lady of middle years, wearing a big red coat with a matching head scarf. The whole set off by a lot of make-up, including bright red lipstick, matching nail varnish and a lot of jewellery on her hands and wrists. BH says she had quite fancy shoes too. So clearly dressing up is not completely off-limits.

Back at Vauxhall, we supposed that this bright yellow handrail had been strapped on top of the heritage one to provide support for the shorter passenger. Paint aside, will it last as long as the heritage one has?

We were also struck by the narrow appearance of some of the elements of this tower, the one with the crane. The things developers will do to shoehorn some volume into a small and oddly shaped footprint! One supposes that a more authoritarian regime than ours would have ignored property rights, bulldozed what was there before and built a nice tidy series of identical blocks - which can have its points despite the bad example set by many post war housing projects, both here and abroad. I must make time to explore at ground level and find out what there is for all these thousands of flat dwellers to do when they are not holed up in their flats. Assuming that is, that all these flats are actually occupied.

Scored some aeroplanes while we were waiting and another at Raynes Park. Not helped by low cloud which the aeroplanes were popping in and out of.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/03/carducci-two.html. The day, as it happens, that I first saw media notice of our explosives problem. While today, there is talk of ramping our armaments industries back up onto what now appears be a prudent level. The era of peace after the cold war has turned out to be rather short-lived, not helped by our triumphing over the fall of the Soviet Union and our generally tactless behaviour subsequently. But, to strike an analogy of sorts, recognising that a hooligan might, on a good day, have been headed off by more help during his (or her) formative years, does not mean that punishment is not now appropriate. Mitigation perhaps, exoneration no.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/via-sutton.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/04/adaptations.html. Which, having muddled up Brahms with Mendelssohn, took a while to turn up.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/caterpillar-control-episode-1.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/03/trolley-559.html.