RAoM

A couple of weeks ago to a lunch time concert offered by the Royal Academy of Music at the Wigmore Hall - with the Academy taking the option of hiring the hall but doing most of the rest of it themselves. An option which only remember the Endellion Quartet (now retired) taking in the past. As far as the punter is concerned, the difference seems to be that the slimline programme offered says Royal Academy on the top rather than Wigmore Hall.

With the aforementioned programme using a typeface which was rather too light for reproduction by telephone in electric light. Lack of experience at the Academy.

The programme being Yuzhang Li giving us Beethoven's Op.101 piano sonata and Rachmaninov's Op.23 preludes. The Beethoven had been heard at least once previously, as noticed at reference 1, along with some Tippett and given by Peter Donehoe - a chap who only took to the piano relatively late. See reference 2. And this being back in the day when St. Luke's was more into what I would call mainstream programming than they are now. I put it all down to their losing their government grant. And would happily pay more to get them back again.

I did not particularly notice the Beethoven on that occasion, but on this occasion I thought it wise to do a bit of homework beforehand with my Claudio Arrau vinyl. I found I rather liked it, even detecting something of the organ about the loud bits.

But to start at the beginning, it was rather wet on the day, but I still took my riding gear in, just in case. The fallen heritage wall at the top of Meadway was still down and still blocking the path. Riverford vegetables - which we know from their organic restaurant near Staverton in Devon, as noticed, for example, at reference 5.

There was a large M&S trolley on Station Approach. And the solicitors' van noticed at reference 3 was there again. Small flock of sparrows passing through the bushes over the rails from platform 4. No black wrinkles, as noticed at the end of reference 3, on the new rolling stock.

It seemed dry at Vauxhall so I continued to Waterloo, where it was wet. Far to wet to pedal across the bridge and up to Oxford Circus. So I took the long walk to the Bakerloo Line, which a long central portion being served by a travelator, alongside which I walked. Once there, the Bakerloo Line, which I don't use very often, seemed terribly old-fashioned.

But there was a striking girl on the tube, sitting opposite me; a pity that it was not appropriate to take her picture. From the bottom. black and white trainers. Shiny black trousers. Black hand bag from Guess of reference 4. Fancy, pale mauve nail extensions. Matching folding umbrella. Expensive looking black puffer jacket. Narrow face with prominent ears, with ear furniture, including white plugs. Long hair drawn tight over the head, presumably tied at the back of the head. Perhaps some kind of model on her way to an interview or an assignment.

Still wet at Oxford Circus, so I had made the right call.

Took wine and a couple of croissants downstairs at the Wigmore Hall. No butter offered, but I dare say they would have come up with some happily enough had I asked - but I thought they were fresh enough not to need it. The hall itself was more than half full, which I thought not bad for a concert of this type.

I thought she took the loud bits a bit loud - but then she was young - and, overall, the Beethoven was very good, improved, I think, by the homework. But not of the organ flavouring noticed above.

As far as I was concerned, Rachmaninov's preludes were not up to those of Chopin or Shostakovich. Perhaps homework would have helped here too, had that been possible. YouTube on our smart television - which probably has better sound than my laptop - not occurring to me.

Encore good; possibly a short piece from Beethoven.

Still raining on exit, and I thought that a little something at the Brass Rail, in Selfridge's food hall would be the thing. Got a table in under a minute, and found myself next to a table containing two ladies with hats. Not something one sees very often these days. Although to be fair, one of them came off after a while.

White bread was poor, and I should have stuck with rye. Salt beef OK but nothing like as good as that from the Nosh Bar of old. Maybe they are not charging enough at £9 for a sandwich to be able to use decent beef. Lutke good - good enough that I had a second. Gherkin missing. Wine fine. Lemon tea served in a cup - despite asking for a glass - and much too strong. I think tea in a glass may have been code for an iced tea. I also think that I may have been mistaken for a munificent geriatric by the waitress, a lady who was not so young any more. Current thinking is that I won't be back: maybe I will try one of their other eateries.

Treated myself to another 750g of kabanosi. Again, not the same as those of my youth, but a lot better than those offered by Waitrose. And no sign of chicken or cheese anywhere.

On to pull a Bullingdon in North Audley Street, to find Park Lane pretty bunged up. But that did not stop me getting a bit of an adrenaline rush as I swept around Hyde Park Corner and into Grosvenor Place at the bottom. The bridge end of Vauxhall Bridge Road all bunged up. Delivery riders all over the place, as usual. But it certainly helps to know the route; all much more hairy when one is not sure which lane one is supposed to be in.

Paused at Raynes Park to inspect the small new bookcase which has appeared in the waiting room there. Two magazines, including an art magazine slightly older than I am, and a book of poems by the Nobel Laureate for Literature of 2020, one Louise Glück. Not the first poetry book I have picked up there - not that I am really a poetry reader - so there must be a real one who passes through.

I have turned the pages of the art magazine to find out about people who, instead of collecting Sung pots, collect the saggars in which Sung pots were fired. The snap above, from the University of Michigan Museum of Art, turned up by Google, gives something of the idea, even though the lid which, inter alia, enables stacking in the kiln is missing. A snip at 10/- net.

Drinks business offers a report about the Pope giving an audience to some Italian wine growers in connection with an annual wine jamboree held at Verona. The very same picture offered there is to be found at reference 7. Not quite the Sistine Chapel, but a few notches up from the Excel Centre in East London. Could our new King be persuaded to offer something of the same sort at Windsor Castle to the Licensed Victuallers Association?

I learn that the Hambledon Wine Estate (aka Hambledon Vineyard PLC) has been sold to a joint venture involving Berry Bros. & Rudd of St. James, to be found at reference 8, people from whom I have occasionally bought wine. Their online shop offers 5 products from the Hambledon estate, Hambledon being a place for which we have had a soft spot ever since we lived there for a few months back in the 1970s, with our landlord being on the same dinner circuit as the chap who founded the vineyard. Senior military gents both. We were not, I hasten to add.

We also get a long piece about the important business of closure choice, with lots of arty pictures, with closures making an important contribution to the characteristics of a wine. Important that the people making the booze take proper account of the business of closure right from the conception (inception?) of a new product. I have yet to study the piece properly, but as far as I am concerned there is a lot to be said for the convenience of screw top, not least because you can put them back onto a half empty bottle. Must better than one of those funny stoppers you can buy. There is also the matter of declining upper body strength: some corks are a bit of a struggle - the point where one might do oneself an injury. Something of the flavour of all this can be had at reference 9.

Poetry yet to come.

On this occasion, the disruption caused by a signalling problem at Waterloo worked in my favour, with a late running train pulling in just after I had sorted through the library.

Trolley still there on Station Approach, capture already noticed at reference 6. Celebrated by taking a beverage at Wetherspoons, after which I walked home. Continuing to wean myself off taxis.

PS 1: at risk of offering too much information, I might say that the gents at Raynes Park has been upgraded with one of those multi-person, white hand-washing troughs that you have been getting in the better class of public house for some time now. Bing offered lots of them, but none of them quite what I recall.

PS 2: and regarding drinks business, I wonder how different it would have been in the days that one was allowed to combine the advertising of booze with sex. What would happen to all those tasteful pictures of mountains, vines, corks, barrels and stuff?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/11/tippett.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Donohoe_%28pianist%29.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/double-paella.html.

Reference 4: https://www.guess.eu/en-gb/homepage. Well over 500 shops, probably French, not particularly expensive.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/orgo-day.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-637.html.

Reference 7: https://fiereitaliane.it/en/2024/01/23/veronafiere-e-vinitaly-2024/.

Reference 8: https://www.bbr.com/.

Reference 9: https://www.masilva.pt/en/homepage/. All very glossy.

Reference 10: https://www.masilva.pt/wp-content/videos/neotech-en.mp4. A noisy video to go with the Neo Select ® part of reference 9. Both agglutinant (with vegetable origins) and ecological (without microspheres).