A good programme

A couple of weeks ago to the Wigmore Hall for a very attractive programme: Beethoven's Op.18 No.4 and Op.59 No.3. I have been following the first for a long time and the second for a while: but would they fly on this occasions? Would expectations be too high? Offered by the NOVO quartet of reference 1. No record of having heard them before in the archive.

But for some 18.4 outings, which read like they come from another world, see reference 2.

A day which started with discovery of my first pill box error. That is to say I had got the pills wrong in the plastic contraption - four slots for each of seven days - I use for dispensing my pills. Recovery from which probably soaked up quarter of an hour. A good job that pills tend to come in different sizes and colours and in different popper packs. The first time such a thing has happened in more than ten years of using a pill box.

Waterloo trains off again, so it was a Victoria then bus day. With both trolley and stick. 

Can't remember just at the moment why I took this particular snap at the station: it may have been that different panels of brick were shown up different by some trick of the light - but if that is what it was, the trick did not survive the telephone experience. Perhaps if I take another look at the bricks it will come back to me

The change of time to the afternoon (15:00 instead of our usual 11:30) left us slightly short of time at the Wigmore Hall end. I think we still did Olle & Steen, but by the time we had waited for the barista to do her stuff, I did not manage to finish my half pint of coffee. Which was slightly annoying.

We also caught a couple of unusual registration plates on the way. The first, a registration which was four numbers, 7773 or 7775, registered somewhere in the Persian Gulf, I think Bahrain. Not quite fast enough with the telephone for zoom to give up the exact number. Not, I think, a format which is allowed in this country.

But this Bentley was stationary, so I could manage that. Carcheck says a 2009 Continental GTC. Top speed of 195mph. Failed its MOT on trivia twice: trivia maybe, but you think that the owner of expensive wheels like these - maybe £30,000 - would take more care.

A hall which was very full for the occasion, so we can't be the only people who are fond of these particular works. And both works worked very well. Perhaps it was the verve & spirit of the young quartet that worked for us.

Out to take a meal at Ponti's, our first visit for a while. Perhaps the first since mid-November last, as noticed at reference 3. Wine availability was a bit patchy, but as it happened, the one that we wanted was available, so that was a good start. Fiano di Avellino. Last taken back in 2022, as noticed at reference 4. Another afternoon concert, as it happens.

Bread and olives, followed by a rather fine pizza for me and gnocchi for her, a change from sea bream being called for. Wrapped up for me with a spot of the pink ice cream favoured in the west country, more accurately raspberry sorbet. Just the one scoop as sorbet seems to be something that restaurants are quite generous with - not like green vegetables.

Plus a spot of grappa. Which came in a bottle with a very plain label. So was it cooking grappa from some wholesaler or grappa artigianato (?) from the parental village?

A rather gross person on the train home, tucking into coke and crisps. Harmless enough, but all rather off-putting. While on the rare occasions that I eat on a train, I try to do it out of sight. 

Home to a curious experience with our copy of 'View of Delft', where by some trick of the light the river (or canal) in the foreground was very reflective, just like a real river might be in the right conditions. I wondered if this was a possibility the artist had taken into account.

While today, not for the first time, surprised at how much digital images vary, even with today's technology. We have two copies of the painting, again rather different, but they have the excuse that they are quite old - one of them, I believe, one of my parents' wedding presents.

I have probably seen the real thing as a child, at the Mauritshuis at the Hague, from where the snap above is taken, but I can remember nothing about visiting the place, beyond the bare fact of visiting. I suppose that the wedding present is somewhere between the two snaps. Has the painting been cleaned since?

Failed to find anything remotely like it in gmaps. Perhaps, along with nearby Rotterdam, Delft was badly knocked about in the second war.

Very dry mouth in the evening, two oranges, two sticks of organic celery and a mug of tea notwithstanding. Although I am starting to suspect the acid in oranges of exacerbating the problem, probably kicked off by the interaction of alcohol with my water tablets.

References

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

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=18.4.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/schumann.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/09/d956.html.