Songs

At the end of April a novelty concert at the Wigmore Hall, novelty in the sense that it was madrigals from Monteverdi, not something we usually go in for, the occasion at reference 3 being the exception that proves the rule.

Management decision that we would move off the Vauxhall route in favour of Jubilee Line from Waterloo to Bond Street, on grounds of proximity to Olle & Steen in Wigmore Street, which has taken over the snack before concert slot.

Where we both took Kløben buns. I took mine with expresso and orange juice, BH took hers with decaff. All very satisfactory. In the margins, I admired but failed to compute the chimney-scape opposite, while BH admired the passers-by, some of whom were quite interesting. Not what we are used to in Epsom at all - not least because some of them appeared to spend a good deal more on their clothes than the average punter in the market square in Epsom. Never mind the Wetherspoon's. There was also at least one real cigarette.

On into the hall via the Bechstein Room and the back door, snapped above. The back door having been used for entry during the plague, when we lined up in Welbeck Way outside.

The other side. From where I associate to once reading in one of the literary reviews an essay hung off a book about the back doors to big buildings. Apparently all big buildings have them and there are architects who specialise in them. And thinking with my fingers, I imagine that fifty years ago it would be have been easy enough to get into most buildings through their not very carefully guarded back doors. What with people having fag breaks, loading bays, stuff coming in and out and one thing and another. Not sure about studio doors at the backs of theatres, the thought there being that there is usually a door keeper in a little wooden box, keeping an eye on comings and goings. A chap who will take message for chorus girls from hopeful gentlemen. A thought which probably comes from films of same.

The concert was very good, with several of what I call throat-blocking passages. Five singers, with at least one of them usually sitting out. Some very light accompaniment from a small organ and a big stringed instrument - the sort with what I thought were a battery of drone strings - called a chittarone. Wikipedia tells me at reference 5 that this is another name for a theorbo, which I have to say is the word which came to mind when I saw the thing. On the other hand, I was quite wrong about the drone: it seems that all the strings are played, but they are tuned in an unusual way, although the explanation at reference 6 is a bit deep for me. What I think I did grasp was that it was a bigger and beefier version of the lute, better suited to the sort of bigger singing that was coming into vogue at the time of Monteverdi.

The only downside for me were the musical introductions offered by the organist & director. All a bit too much like what the Radio 3 presenter used to offer at St. Luke's for my taste.

Usual problem with the words. I settled for a quick read beforehand, then not attempting to follow them on the page during the performance. I dare say I am missing out, but this is what seems to work best for me.

All that aside, it can still surprise me how a single voice can fill the hall. At least that is how it sounded to me, perhaps ten rows back.

Afterwards, we almost called in at the Be-at-one to wind down with a little something, but in the end settled for the All-bar-one a little further along, which was quiet enough and was fine. 

But before we got there, we got an inside track on the construction of one of the grand, stone fronted buildings thereabouts. I think what is snapped above is a door opening which has been enlarged for the convenience of the builders doing some kind of a refurbishment. So three or four of inches of stone out front, backed up by a good deal more brick, somewhat obscured by some sort of box girder which might be something to do with the doorway or which might go all the way up. Be part of the frame of the building.

Regular Acrow prop of a sort that was around when I was young, right in the snap above. I wish now I had taken a closer look while I could. Perhaps BH was getting impatient for her lunch.

Getting back to All-bar-one, I was pleased to come up with an answer to the paella problem, the problem of one portion paella not being enough and two being a bit too much. Take a flat bread with cheese to pad out the paella: it only comes with a few thin slices of cheese, not great gobbets of toasted cheese, so it does not fill you up too much, leaves plenty of room for the paella. A bit like taking Yorkshire Pudding to fill yourself up a but before tucking into the roast beef.

It struck me as odd that one of the biggest pubcos in the country was run by a couple of brothers from a Muslim family (of reference 7). But thinking a bit more, I thought that they would not necessarily practise, any more than a couple of brothers from a CofE family would necessarily practise. Births, weddings and funerals yes; otherwise no. And then I remembered that All-bar-one was not part of the Stonegate family at all, but part of the Mitchell & Butler family. But Stonegate did have All-bar-one. I had thought, following reference 8, that the two went together. Whereas, maybe, I had conflated the Snug & Lettuce and All-bar-one brands. So much for brand awareness. But then, I am not young, so I guess the pubcos do not need to worry too much. Not something that I remember YouGov testing, despite brand awareness seeming to be their main business.

The next thought was that maybe, instead of throwing a lot of money at Ruanda, we should give it to the Irish next door. They have a lot more space than we do. But that one was not much of a runner either.

Tube pretty busy. Train to Shepperton, which gave us a visit to the platform library at Raynes Park. A reasonable haul, with 'Fosset's Memory' proving to be be an interesting find, which I shall report further on in due course.

While on the right we have a children's book about Schubert and his merry friends, published in 1947, a time when buyers were expected to be able to read and play music as part of reading to their children. There are quite a lot of these musical samples scattered through this short book.

In the same series we have Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Beethoven and Foster. This last being, according to Wikipedia at reference 9, the father of American music, the writer of many songs popular in the nineteenth century, with some of them still being around. A nod to someone from the US on the board of Faber & Faber at the time? Or an attempt to muscle into that market?

Old enough to include one of those little bookshop stickers inside the back cover: Barker's Library & Stores of Bexhill on Sea - for which the power of Google turns up the snap above.

I close with a few snippets from the March number of 'the drinks business'.

There is an upcoming wine fair at Olympia towards the end of the month. Swallowing the ticket price of £30 or so, I tried registering, but they seem fairly keen to exclude people such as myself. I dare say I could have blagged my way through, but I couldn't be bothered.

Sainbury's are trialling smart cupboards for their posh wine. I think the idea is that some clever computer program does things like take your picture if you are suspicious or locks itself if you are very suspicious. A cunning attempt to deter shop lifters without putting off genuine customers too much. All without doing anything so old-speak as going to a counter with counter-hands and machines for collecting your money.

Diageo are big enough in the shipping business for someone to be able to phone up the captain of a ship carrying some of their containers and suggest that maybe the Red Sea route is not very clever this week!

And lastly, a commercial court in Bordeaux has ruled against a couple of négociants who were paying a vigneron less than what it cost him to make his wine. Or perhaps grape juice. Either way, I would have thought that you are getting into tricky territory when a buyer has a duty to cover the costs of a seller. What happens when there is a fire sale or a glut? No doubt the writers of the EGalim law did think about all this. The snap above being turned up by Bing at reference 10.

A reliable magazine. Always something of interest.

PS: the Google advertisement generator is still awake, still firing on my various notices of my fine clasp knife from Laguiole. With this one turning up in my mail this morning. They can't be expected to know that I am not that keen on foie gras and am unlikely to spend this sort of dosh on servers for it. But I do remember from the dining experience shops in Luxembourg back in the 1970's that continentals are happy to spend a great deal of money on table furniture.

References

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

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudio_Monteverdi.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/04/sebastiani.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/vespers.html.

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

Reference 6: https://youtu.be/eVabz8LneI4. All about the theorbo.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohsin_and_Zuber_Issa.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/indecision.html.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster.

Reference 10: https://www.connexionfrance.com/.