Solidarity

A couple of weeks ago now, to the Wigmore Hall for a display of Uko-Russian solidarity, in the form of a concert given by Alena Baeva (from Russia, on the violin) and Vadym Kholdenko (from the Ukraine, on the piano). Although, what got us there was the promise of a Beethoven Sonata, Op.96, and a Schubert fantasy, D934. 

With what we took to be a stocking filler from one Valentin Silvestrov, a pianist and composer from Kiev, with a long list of compositions to his credit. To be found at reference 3.

A bright cool start to the day, to find that the leak in the land that the new frame house was sitting on appeared to have been plugged, leaving behind a long smear of light brown mud down the hill. It has taken them some years to get around to it.

Spotted a tall tree to the west at Worcester Park. A Wellingtonia which we had hitherto failed to score? Reference 4 suggests not, rather prompted by a sighting in the course of a similar outing to the present, but maybe we should double check, it not being as if we get to Worcester Park very often.

No proper stopping at Vauxhall, so we pushed onto Waterloo and picked up the Bakerloo Line. Coming across various left overs from the night before along the way.

Pit-stop at All Bar One for the regulation coffee and tea. Still thinking about taking lunch there, but we still have not made it. Maybe next time!

In the Hall, to be greeted by red and green floral displays topped off with something like the top of an overgrown foxglove, in green and white. Failed to find anything convincing, despite several searches, but yesterday, quite by chance, came across the tuberose in a book promoting a brand of perfume. A flower which has a strong smell, but perhaps one would not notice in this context.

I liked the stage presence of the violinist and I liked the Beethoven. But I was not so keen on the next piece, during a good part of which I nodded, hopefully not annoying the person behind me too much. Furthermore, I think we got the whole deal, which pushed Schubert off the menu, leaving us with a short encore. I was not best pleased, but rest of the audience seemed very enthusiastic. Maybe there were a lot of ex-pats there. One curiosity was the page tuner turning out for the score on the pianist's computer. Not something that I had realised could be necessary.

To John Lewis where I took cous-cous, a slice of (rather sweet) lemon meringue pie and a glass of red. I forget what BH had, but we were both quite happy with what we got. The Place to Eat is certainly a handy place for a light lunch on a Sunday.

A quick peek at the computers next door, the laptop on which I am typing getting a bit old a tired now, but all the ones on offer had rather small screens. Whereas I want something which is quite big and only fairly portable. I don't need to be carrying it about, working it while standing up or riding on the tube. But prices seems to have shot up since I last looked, looking to be of the order of £1,000 for what I want. Maybe it will be back to Tier1 to see what they can do again.

BH declined ladies' fashions, so down the hole again and off to Waterloo, where we just caught a slightly delayed train to Dorking. A much better outcome than just missing it and having to wait half an hour, which can sometimes seem like a long time.

PS 1: on the way to Waterloo, a young lady was very quick to offer me her seat. The sort of offer I no longer decline.

PS 2: we shall see what state a disc containing the Schubert from eBay, from Germany, arrives in in due course. Not dear, in any event. For some reason the brain confused the gramophone, where there is CD player, with the television, where there is no longer a DVD player, and bought a disc rather than a CD. A combination of natal carelessness with senior moment.

References

Reference 1: https://alena-baeva.com/.

Reference 2: https://vadymkholodenko.com/.

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

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/03/wellingtonia-70.html.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_amica.

Reference 6: https://tier1online.com/.