Cello & piano

To the Wigmore Hall, a few days after the outing noticed at reference 1, as it happens to hear one of the same pieces. Shostakovich Op,40 and Mendelssohn Op.58.

The plan was to go to Waterloo by the 09:23, except by the time we got there it had been cancelled. London Bridge 15 minutes later. Would we have time for the traditional bun?

But this did us time to notice the snap above, which looked to me to have something to do with MacCormac's novel 'The Road', noticed at reference 2. It turns out that it started life as a computer game then morphed into a TV series, as as reference 4. Nothing much to do with the film at reference 3 as I had first thought. Odd how they are so keen on this post-apocalyptic stuff in the US. Is it a side effect of all that Bible bashing? Too much reading of obscure parts thereof? I don't suppose I shall take this matter any further.

Our tickets - proper tickets that is, not the optical flimsies you get now for rail only journeys - failed at London Bridge. And it was a long walk to the tube platform. But, as it turned out, we were only five minutes late at Olle & Steen - where they seem to have an almost entirely new team. They had also moved their buns around. But at least the cardamon and almond buns we like we still there.

On the way, outside Steinway's, a car I felt sure we had seen before. But nothing to be found in the archive: if there I must have failed to include 'BJG' in the text. Carcheck says a 2022 Mini Cooper S electric level 3. Reference 5 talks of wireless charging, but the AI Assistant there told me that this was only for your telephone. Not quite there yet for the car itself. Slightly confusing wording for all that.

On into the Hall, where the flowers, as good as ever, were very mauve. 

We also had, for once, line of sight of the musicians. The pianist - Tim Horton - and his older page turner both seemed very familiar although search of the archive reveals nothing. Nothing for Gemma Rosenfield either. But they seemed to be very much a duo, with plenty of eye contact as they played.

And once again I wondered about the concentration and eyesight needed to be a page turner - even allowed for musical notation being designed to be legible at a good distance, at least to a musician. I never qualified on either count.

For some reason, the Shostakovich worked much better on this occasion than it had in St. Martin a few days previously. And both pieces had plenty of humour; a slightly odd word to use, but I can't think of a better, and musical people do talk of musical humour and musical jokes. I associate to the funny food words used by wine people to describe tastes.

All in all, an excellent concert. With both the musicians and myself on good form.

There had been talk of paying a visit to Muji for some sock shopping, taking in some pub grub on the way and then pushing onto to Tottenham Court Road, but that implied travel home via Waterloo, which had turned out not to be an option, so it was back to St. Christopher Place and Olivelli, first visited at the beginning of March, as noticed at reference 5. Possibly our new stand-by in place of the late lamented Ponti's of John Prince's Street.

Bread, olives and a fancy orange squash for BH to start.

I had thought to take the special Barolo, but thought the price was a bit fierce for the occasion, and settled for a Valpolicella on the regular menu. Entirely suitable. Just €13.50 mail order from reference 7 which seems about right.

 Although, this afternoon, I find that Barolo at reference 6 can easily be a good deal more, once allowance is made for the usual restaurant markup of 4 or so. Maybe I should have given it a go.

Having passed on the messy prawns of reference 8, a quite rich pasta with prawns. Also satisfactory.

BH went for a salad. I had to be reminded what the brown items looking a bit like walnuts on top were, the menu not giving me enough clues this afternoon.

I am betting on chicken but confirmation is awaited.

For a change, I went for white wine with dessert, rather than my usual grappa. More volume to the unit of alcohol?

And so to Bond Street for London Bridge. Where I was able to admire what appeared to be the very same brand of fake timber ceiling cladding as was used for the Ashley Centre refurbishment at Epsom and the new shop and cafeteria at the entrance to Wisley. See, for example, reference 9.

I then got to wondering about how much of the big column was real and how much was cladding. Presumably, having taken lunch, I did not think to get close enough to see whether the surface was regular concrete. Looking at it now, it could just be regular concrete with a bit of trim. Must take another look next time I am there.

Lots of intrusion on the train, in the form of advertisements on screens, unnecessary announcements out of the ceiling and inconsiderate passengers. We clear need more quiet zones.

At some point after we got home, I tried out our more or less mint condition but antique (1979) recording of the cello sonata, complete with an endorsement from the composer. Played by a couple of Finns, Arto Noras and Tapani Valsta. Recognisably the same piece, but a quite different experience.

£5.30 from the Village Bookshop, which makes it something I bought, rather than something which just came to me. Bing finds one in Dulwich Village which I would think is wrong and another in Regent Street - which I do not remember, but which seems slightly more likely - although hard to see how it was a proposition in such a location. See reference 10.

At some point, I took grilled tomatoes, from the Tesco by the station. Grilled with a little rape seed oil and black pepper on top. Very good they were too.

PS 1: I won the bet. The bill has turned up, listing pantelleria loud and clear. My dessert wine however is not loud and clear, being described as 'special liquor'.

PS 2: and discussion this (Sunday) morning has further elucidated the matter. The brown stuff on top is a dollop of the traditional Sicilian dish called 'caponata', according to Wikipedia: 'chopped fried eggplant/aubergine and other vegetables, seasoned with olive oil, tomato sauce, celery, olives, and capers, in an agrodolce sauce'. According to BH, an important part of her salad, serving in rather the same way as Branston's might in a more English way. While some of the 'shredded pan-fried chicken' can be seen lower right in the snap above. The 'salsa Sorrentina', a form of pasta, seems to be missing. To think that at one point, I had thought that the brown dollop was the chicken.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-window.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-road.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_Us_(film).

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_Us_(TV_series).

Reference 5: https://faq.mini.co.uk/s/article/What-are-the-differences-between-the-MINI-Electric-Level-1-2-and-3-ptyY6?language=en_GB. 

Reference 6: https://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/.

Reference 7: https://www.cantinadimonteforte.it/prodotto/clivus-valpolicella-ripasso/.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/faure-and-franck.html.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/12/fake169.html.

Reference 10: https://britishrecordshoparchive.org/shops/vintage-books-and-records/.