More madrigals

As advertised at reference 1, ten days ago to the Queen Elizabeth Hall to hear some madrigals: Monteverdi, Book 4, a musical publishing sensation from the very beginning of the seventeenth century. As it turns out, we had been to some madrigals earlier in the year, as noticed at reference 2, which I had forgotten about. There is a modest amount of overlap.

As it happened, a cold wet day which we kicked off with porridge - not because of the weather, rather because of the bread baking cycle. Followed by a light lunch, after which we headed out to Ewell West, where we found that some of the trains had been cancelled or delayed - but luckily the one that we were headed for was on time. Unusually, a blue train rather than a red train.

Arrived on the South Bank, we got a full-on view of the art on the Royal Festival Hall, which we had only glimpsed from the Archduke. A bit tacky to my mind - and I wonder how much they paid to have it put there. Just think of the cost of all the scaffolding involved. Or was it sprayed on, using a variation of those long poles used by today' window cleaners? Poles first seen by me in Washington, DC of all places. Perhaps not, as it would be difficult to do such a neat job with a long and swaying, hand-held pole.

The back of a rather more modest Christmas decoration, just outside the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Free programme and power coffee inside. Oddly, I was not able to finish the coffee in the time available; at least I did not want to. Not a problem at Olle & Steen. Perhaps we give ourselves more time there.

Into the hall, which I thought was wearing its 75 years or so pretty well. And we still had the same black seat covers, although I dare say they have been turned once or twice over the years.

And the royal box had been trimmed back a bit to make way for the new décor of the stage area.

As for the musicians, eminently respectable, but seemingly without their own website. The best I could do was references 4 and 5 - from which I learn that we get members of the group, not the whole lot. Six to be precise, plus the conductor, with only five voices on at any one time, two ladies (left) and three gents (right). Roughly speaking, with pitch falling from left to right. The ladies had a neat way of rotating after each madrigal, with the lady sitting out on the left, always moving into the right hand slot for her turn, with the lady already in it moving to the left one place. A hand-dancing conductor. No backing instruments on this occasion, but someone or something was giving a pitching tone or two before each madrigal: but I failed to work out who or what it was.

I elected to manage without the words, without having done more than glance at the titles and the words (of the poems). And did very well. With an hour and a half or so, including interval, being about right.

Furthermore, just the one telephone went off and the clapping was at the right places, that is to say at the end of the two sets. I find clapping at the end of each song rather intrusive.

I had booked at the nearby Côte Brasserie, which earned us a table for four in the front part of the restaurant - as opposed to the part underneath the railway arch. Efficient service, including a pleasant young waitress from Moldova. Her English was good, but sounded American to me. Don't think that I have ever knowingly met a Moldovan before.

Another restaurant using fake Laguiole penknives. Faked by Laguiole themselves to cater for the needs of the catering trades. I made a mental note to take my penknife in next time we were to use the chain.

Now owned, having got into difficulties during the plague, by the finance house at reference 7. Easy enough to get that far, but reference 7 did not tell me anything about what else they have gobbled up. Strong on strategy and cuddling, weak on details. Will Côte turn out to be one of the 50% of such operations which thrive when bought up by finance houses?

The bread was good, much better than average. The new-to-us wine, a Côte-Rôtie 2021 Madinière from Yves Cuilleron à Chavany imported by Enotria Winecellar Ltd, was quite satisfactory.

A homely shot from the website at reference 6. A wine which appears to come from a rather steep hillside above the Rhône.

For the third time on the trot we took a sharing steak. Nicely presented, but flavour a bit bland compared with the wood-fired offering previously noticed.

I was good for cheese and Calvados but the cheese came in four varieties and a lot of trimmings. But it turned out that I was allowed to have the same cheese - Comté - for each of my four. Sadly, the cheese was a little tired as well as over-decorated. Notice the strange biscuits - apparently coloured with charcoal. These were BH's portion.

Once outside, we had to wriggle our way through the road works around the Archduke. Can't have done its walk-in trade much good.

Raynes Park platform library was shut. But my stick earned me a more or less instant standing seat on the busy train that followed. And a sitting seat not long after that.

And it being dark, we were able to admire the serious Christmas lights on view as we approached our house. There do seem to be lots of them this year. At least on other peoples' houses.

PS 1: I thought, maybe, that this sort of singing was one of the feeds for the later string quartet. And it struck me how limited the human voice was compared with, say, a violin. It might have emotional punch, but it cannot manage the virtuosity. It cannot jump around in the same way at all.

PS 2: I also thought that the flooring outside the hall proper was original. Which, given its age, made it some kind of genuine (and now expensive?) marble? The chipboard version, as used in our kitchen earlier in the year, not having been invented at that time.

PS 3: interested to read this morning about the ride of the Wasps. Who are all the ladies moaning in the media, if not in court, about the changes to their state pension age. Changes which were long overdue, but which were introduced a bit messily, without much notice and involving a nasty cliff-edge as your birth date drifted over some special date or other. But it all rather a long time ago now and it would be very expensive to pay compensation - so I think the government is right not to.

PS 4: as luck would have it, BH's birth date fell a few days on the right side of said cliff-edge.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/12/cello.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/songs.html.

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

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerto_Italiano. 

Reference 5: https://avantiarts.com/artists/concerto-italiano/.

Reference 6: https://www.cuilleron.com/fr/. 

Reference 7: https://www.partnersgroup.com/en.