Trios

A couple of weeks ago to the Wigmore Hall for some Sunday trios, from the Shaham Erez Wallfisch Trio, named for the three members. Two of the three are affiliated to the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, while the third is a London man. For all of which see reference 1.

Beethoven's Op.1 No.3 and Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor. Where the Op.1 is slightly misleading in that while an early work, is not the first published work. But it was the first work which Beethoven thought fitted the bill as his first proper work.

We were pleased that it was a bit cooler. I noted the presence of a large Waitrose trolley on Station Approach but never went back for it. While the trains, for once in this time of strife, were all present and correct.

At Vauxhall we learned of something called T-levels. Yet another major shift in the way in which we organise secondary education? A rebranding of the qualifications offered by what used to be called Technical Colleges? The sort of place where you could go to get yourself qualified as a shorthand typist or a pharmacist.

A quick look at reference 5 reveals that this might indeed be the case. A project which appears to be driven by Lord Sainsbury, a great grandson of the founder and sometime boss of the modern Sainsbury's, and by his Gatsby Foundation. A one-time Labour man who has given a very large amount of money to charitable and other causes. So maybe there is more to T-levels than a bit of Tory rebranding.

We made it to All Bar One in good order where, for a change, I took water rather than tea. Perhaps I took too much tea while I was getting up to want any more.

The Hall was pretty full and we liked the way that the trio turned themselves out, suited but not flashily so. Sober, serious musicians with a job to do. The Beethoven was as good as expected. The Ravel was much better, given that it was a relatively modern work which I did not know at all - written just as the First World War was starting. Beethoven's Allegretto by way of an encore, which did very well. A piece numbered WoO.39. That is to say one of the 200 odd works which Beethoven excluded from his canon of works with Opus numbers. 'WoO' being the initial letters of the German for 'without opus number'.

Out to head off to Selfridges and the Brass Rail, first visited a few months ago, to find that the Cock & Lion was shut. The website says all day on Sunday so perhaps there was something special about this day.

Chicken soup and regular salt beef sandwiches at the Brass Rail. The soup was interesting, in part because it included my first encounter with Matzo balls, something like one of our dumplings. But the soup proper was a bit peppery for my taste, not very chicken broth at all. Beef sandwiches satisfactory, if nowhere near as good as those I remember from the long gone Nosh Bar in Great Windmill Street. Reference 6 tells you something of the place, even it it completely fails to capture the flavour.

We took a look at the butchery department which was rather better than I expected, if a bit light on customers. Quite a good variety of meat on display, including a shoulder of lamb with most of its bones still present. There were also a tongue and a couple of pigs' trotters - so clearly the idea was to offer a good range. Lots of beef, probably dear.

While I fell for half a dozen or so Kabanos, again not what I remember from my youth, but a good deal better than the Waitrose offering - if twice as expensive. And there were carraway seeds.

Various interesting strays from London Fashion Week hanging around outside and I was on the point of investigating what it took to get in to see some more when the No.39 bus turned up and we did that instead. A quick run to Victoria, just catching a train to Dorking, although we had to get a move on as it was the second train at the platform. These ten coach trains are quite a length when you are in a hurry!

PS 1: Thursday: it seems that I have got a bit behind. While I only learned about T-levels (just three (Tory) years old) a fortnight ago, they are now for the chop, along with A-levels (more than 70 years old). Our rich leader having just announced that they will be replaced with a shiny new Advanced British Standard. A quick peek at Bing suggests that secondary schools are in for yet another ten year programme of change. No wonder they need all those chief operating head teachers, executive head teachers, assistant principal head teachers and so on and so forth. Read all about it at reference 7.

PS 2: it always irritates me when we have pretensions to World Class. When will we shed our glorious past and just accept that we are an aging, middle sized country whose place in the world is going to get smaller rather than larger as time goes on. Time to settle down to a comfortable old age. Think Portugal, who have had centuries to live down their glory days.

PS 3: A-levels came in with a fair amount of controversy, in particular allegations that they were elitist, designed for the chosen few. A fair number of people did not like tying schools and teachers to public examinations at all. And the experts have been having a go at them ever since. For all of which see reference 8.

References

Reference 1: https://www.sewtrio.com/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_(Ravel).

Reference 3: https://www.cockandlion.com/.

Reference 4: https://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/features/services-appointments/london/restaurants-bars-cafes/the-brass-rail/.

Reference 5: https://tlevelinfo.org.uk/.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nosh_Bar.

Reference 7: A World-Class Education System: The Advanced British Standard - presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Education by Command of His Majesty - October 2023. CP 945.

Reference 8: Feature: the long history of the A-level - William Stewart, TES - 2014..