Schumann

The other week, we went slightly off-piste, taking in Schumann Op.41 No.3 at the Wigmore Hall - but rounded out by Beethoven Op.18 No.6.

With the Arod Quartet being very nearly new to me, their only appearance being in the references at the end of reference 1. But they are to be found at reference 2.

On the way to London, we puzzled about the absence of lights in the tower blocks in and around Vauxhall Station. Despite it being a reasonably dingy morning, there were very few lights in the windows, far fewer than could reasonably accounted for by people taking a lie-on on Sunday morning. So who owns these flats, who lives in them?

Our Olle & Steen buns - called cardamon and almond rather than klöben on this occasion - were on good form. And we amused ourselves by the rapid fluctuation of the lengths of the two queues, one for solids and one for liquids; a real life example of the interesting workings of queueing theory. Something, with hindsight, I might have taken an interest in, although, to be fair, it did not become fashionable until shortly after my time as an undergraduate.

Amused to see a barmaid busy with the Brasso on the brass work outside the Cock & Lion, complete with distinctive tin. Not something I have seen in action for a while.

I guessed £50 for the rag doll, BH £25. Inspection of reference 5 yields 'Madame Constance Les Parisiennes - Moulin Roty - £70.00'. Just under 65 euros at the horse's mouth, so the shop in Wigmore Street is not adding a huge handling charge. Took me a while to find at reference 5 as it counts as a doll rather than a soft toy, with the former being dearer on average than the latter.

The Steinway upright in the back bar of the Wigmore Hall. I think it has been scored, although I cannot presently put my hand on any post to that effect. And purists might argue that you cannot score if you cannot see the keyboard, Steinway branding notwithstanding.

But actually snapped for wondering about how the trays of glasses (for sherry) were moved above. I would have thought that the tray was heavy enough as it was, without filling the glasses up. Then could a trained barman pour of whole bottle of sherry in one go, as it were, keeping his arm extended the whole time?

A fine concert. I liked the Schumann more than I expected and I finally realised why 18.6 was performed much more often than 18.4 - my having had a bit of the thing for this last back in the early years of new millennium. To the extent of nipping up to Cambridge for the day to hear it. I don't remember much about the concert - which does not seems to have made it to the archive - but I do remember sitting in a small pub near the river to talking to the north American lady who managed the place about the likely impact of the upcoming smoking ban on small, city-centre pubs without scope outside for a smoking den. So probably in 2007, after bloglife had started, but it failed to make the cut.

While at the present concert the chap sitting next to was up for the day from somewhere in Oxfordshire. Which I now know means Marylebone, a station I have only rarely used.

I might have enjoyed the Schumann more than I expected, but that did not block my suddenly seeing the heads in front of me as so many gourds or pumpkins - the green and grey sort rather than the yellow Halloween sort. An illusion which probably only lasted a few seconds. Very odd: was it some obscure derivative of the pumpkins we had passed between Bond Street tube and Olle & Steen, snapped above?

Afterwards, we thought we would go to Ponti's for lunch, having not been there for quite some time, not since the last day of last year if search is to be believed. In any event, we were remembered, even to the extent of remembering the wine we used to take. Too bad I have moved onto lager!

A good bread basket and a much better oxtail soup than I had thought likely.

Followed by crab flavoured pasta parcels for him. Good, even better when I learned to avoid the seeds in the red peppers. BH had something involving mushrooms.

The fad for oranges and grapefruits has spilled over into taking the occasional ice cream or sorbet in restaurants, something I have not done for a long time. I put it down to all the furosemide I am taking. With this sorbet being taken down with a spot of grappa made from Greco di Tufo grapes - grapes which make wine which I rather like when I can get it. Not carried by many of the restaurants that we use.

What seemed like a good haul from Raynes Park. Heritage left for BH, drinks business centre right for me. Plus some nearly new, quite well made comic books in French, which I thought might do quite well for bedtime reading. Perhaps after a spot of Calva.

But, in the event, I did not get on with them at all. Part of my problem was reading comics in such a grand format, a bit like reading Maigret in the luxury Pléiade Edition. 

At least our collected Maigret - broadly defined - are a fairly cheap job, coming in today at around 15 euros the volume on eBay with postage. I think I bought a couple of bundles and a few singles to make up the set, quite a while ago now. A satisfactory compromise between a proper book, suitable for bedtime reading, and the sort of lurid paperback which probably made up most of the (huge) sales.

While our collected Agatha are a cheap job from Heron Books from even further back. A cheap job which would have done better not to have attempted illustrations, which I find tiresome.

So books for a child but wrapped up as if for a adult? Maybe I am the wrong age? Maybe the colloquial, modern French was too much of a barrier? Maybe I should have read the Wikipedia article at reference 7 before I took off?

Not as cheap as I had thought: maybe we got ours cheap as a few volumes were missing from the set. Prices vary a good deal, but I think the set snapped above is going for around £300 on eBay.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/simply-quartet.html.

Reference 2: https://quatuorarod.com/en/.

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

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-last-day.html.

Reference 5: https://strawberriesandcream.com/.

Reference 6: https://www.moulinroty-maboutique.com/moulin-roty-poupee-madame-constance-parisiennes.html.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fables_(comics).