More trios

A week or so ago, back to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Leanore Trio, last heard just about three years ago, as noticed at reference 1. On this occasion, joined by Lawrence Power, whom I know from my St. Luke's days.

Beethoven Op.1, No.2, so a very early work, which, as it turned out, has worn very well. Dvořák Op.87.

Searching the archive for Power proved a bit tricky, as both words of his name seem to crop up a good deal, resulting in far too many type 1 errors to be useful. But I eventually tracked down notice at reference 2, from near ten years ago, when I seemed to have packed a lot more into a day out in London that I do now. An interesting day by the look of it, although I don't actually remember any of it - apart from vague memory of a passing interest in wine made out of birch trees. Sparked I think by reading Rambaud on Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

On the present occasion, we thought to drive half way to the station and park in the little car park opposite what used to be the Eclipse public house. Where I learned that RingGo charge 40p over the odds to use their telephone application to pay. Which I suppose is fair enough, they do provide a useful service and the council are not saving much, if anything, as they have retained the cash/card option. For now, anyway.

Quite a lot of gregarious ladies of middle years on the train, wearing the shirts and off for a 15 mile walk for a Marsden flavoured charity. A long way if you are not used to that sort of thing.

Summer fashions were to be seen in Wigmore Street, but it was quiet at Olle & Steen's when we arrived, picking up a bit by the time we left around 11:00. The counter hand made some mistake when I was paying, with his machine ringing up £73.50 for some reason - which it would have been easy enough to pay by tapping without paying attention. Luckily, I was paying attention on this occasion, and the mistake was put right before it had gone too far.

Back out in the street, failed to snap a smart looking Bentley, which pulled away from the lights before I could deploy my telephone.

Down to the Bechstein Room to study the plant snapped above, and decided that, despite appearances and the very small pot, it was not a fake.

Also to study a chair, the construction of which would be well beyond my carpentry - the point of difficulty being the tricky way the front leg has been jointed to the seat. I was reminded of the similarly tricky jointing noticed at reference 3.

Followed by an excellent concert. Both they and I were on form on this occasion, which had not been the case on our last visit to the Hall the week before.

Celebrated by trying the fancy Barolo on offer at nearby Olivelli's, a place which has, in some large part, replaced for us the late lamented Ponti's. Regarding which Barolo, I learn from reference 5 that '... for the Lanzavecchia family Barolo has always represented the union between form and substance in its wines...'. Clearly people who take their wine seriously.

Quite a fancy website too, with lots of tasteful pictures of countryside scenes. I offer a sample above.

Lots of the wine to be found on the Internet, but it took the help of Google Images to track down some with the blue stripe. Amazon do one for something more than £50 from 2014 rather than 2018 - but I get the impression that the mark-up was reasonable for a restaurant. 

A rich red wine, but with a clarity and translucence I associate with the fake Chambertin we treat ourselves to occasionally. It went down very well.

Olives and bread to start, after which I took a summer stew, rather good. Good portion too. Taken with extra focaccia, so hot meat sandwiches was the order of the day. BH stuck with her pantelleria.

I was a bit full for a serious dessert but I did manage a discussion about the merits of orange sorbet. I had to settle for pink ice cream. Plus a little grappa to round things off.

Crowded tube to Waterloo, including an immaculately turned out older gentleman, complete with bowler hat and loudly striped regimental tie, formerly of the 13th hussars, on parade that day with our other cavalry regiments, on Hyde Park. 13th hussars as previously noticed at reference 6. The first catch being that they were amalgamated in 1922 to become the 13th/18th Royal Hussars. Perhaps they use an abbreviated title. Presumably two lots of regimental silver to be found in the officers' mess.

The second catch being that the tie looked much more like that of the King's Royal Hussars of reference 7, an amalgamation of a number of horse regiments, but not including the 13th or the 18th - and for which see reference 7. Clearly either hearing or a memory problem.

At Raynes Park. In the olden days, when we used to travel after dark, we used to play rodent spotting here. It made a change from aeroplanes.

And some paint, which from the way it was peeling off, might have been stuck on, in the way of sellotape. From where I associate to the thought that trying to think of words like sellotape which have jumped from brand name to common noun might be a way to get to sleep at night. First thought is that there are not that many of them.

Back at Epsom, a trolley which would have to wait until the morning. Possibly the first of those subsequently noticed at reference 6.

Impressive looking magazines from Raynes Park. The one at the bottom from the Globe theatre has some content too, not yet properly gone into.

Later on, for some reason, I was moved to listen to a CD of Wilhelm Kempff playing Schubert's D958 piano sonata, something I do not do very often these days. Nor indeed do we get to hear Schubert sonatas properly very often either as they are more usually evening than lunch time fare at the Wigmore Hall. I was even moved to get out my red Urtext from Schott. With one oddity being that although my reading of music is pretty shaky, I did seem to know roughly where I was. Clearly something was going on under the covers.

PS 1: according to reference 7, the regimental silver of the King's Royal Hussars includes a silver chamber pot gifted by (the first) Napoleon to his brother. Used for ceremonial drinking sessions. The things they get up to behind closed doors; the sort of thing which would have amused my father.

PS 2: reference 8 tells me nothing about why Kempff did not serve in the first war or about what he did in the second. Consulting Gemini, nothing very specific, but the first war answer seems to be that it was deemed better for him to keep playing, sometimes to the troops, than to get killed. I associate to our own Eric Gill getting off because he was doing the Stations of the Cross for Westminster Cathedral. And the second war answer seems to be that he was something of a collaborator - but he does not seem to have got into trouble on that account afterwards. Something else which my father would probably have known about.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/new-year-trios.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/11/viola-times.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/on-bike.html.

Reference 4: https://ristoranteolivelli.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://www.villadoria.it/portfolio/barolo-docg/.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/trolleys-832-833-and-834.html.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Royal_Hussars.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Kempff.