Schubert with Momen

For once in a while, a Sunday morning piano recital featuring mainly Schubert D784 and D958 from Mishka Rusdie Momen of reference 1. Plus a little William Byrd and John Bull. I had not previously heard of Bull, but I have now read all about him at reference 2 - to find yet another arty type with a complicated private life.

First up were all the non-resident cars parked in Meadway, when there was plenty of space in the Eclipse car park at the town end of West Hill. Were the owners just too mean to pay the council the £3.50 or whatever is wanted they wanted for all day parking or did they have some more creditable excuse? I continue to find it very odd the lengths to which otherwise decent and sensible people go to to avoid paying to park. What on earth is the matter with them?

Next up was the broken glass outside the Cornerstone Church on West Hill, debris from some drink fuelled outing a few evenings previously. Given that the Cornerstonies are rather keen on banging on about Jesus, one might have thought that one of them would have got a dustpan and brush out of the cupboard and got rid of this glass, but no. Jesus stayed inside.

If it had been outside our house, it would have been gone within minutes of BH noticing it. I think the less of them for their lack of civic virtue.

Then the puzzle of the lifting flap on one side of the table in our compartment on the train. What on earth was it for? Eventually we lighted on the sign hiding in plain site, which explained that the flap was intended to accommodate the needs of with difficulty getting about, the pregnant and those with very young children. All very reasonable - while my first thought had been that it was something to do with people wanting use their computers.

Onto Olle & Steen, much busier on this Sunday morning than All Bar One had been the previous Sunday, as noticed at reference 3. Despite being dearer, not so comfortable and not so well served. Much better choice of buns and so forth I grant. Given the number of Muslim ladies about, I wondered if they preferred to use a place which was not licensed. From where I associated to a one-time colleague who did not like to be seen in pubs in or around Brick Lane in case someone nosy from his mosque spotted him: not that he ever drank, but he was something in the mosque hierarchy and did not like to have be explaining himself.

Interesting flowers at the Wigmore, again very sensitive to the lighting condition. But they certainly use a very good florist - from somewhere near London Bridge as I recall.

Momen got off to a flying start with D784 - doing a really good job on the drama of the pauses - and carried on through the programme. For a few seconds I worried that, as a relatively young person, she was going to overdo the dynamics. But, in the event, she was OK there. She also reminded me of all the harmonic colour that one is apt to miss in a recording - at least I am. In all of which the Byrd and Bull made a pleasant contrast to the Schubert. 

I associate now to a Minister poking a bit of fun at a senior civil servant who thought to flatter him by telling him how well he had handled the silences at a meeting. I thought the Minister was getting a cheap laugh by being a bit unfair: handling silences was and is important in that context. In any event, a fine concert.

On exit to Welbeck Street, a serious flight of stairs. Long way to climb two or three times a day if that was the form.

Then down the tube to Waterloo and Fishcotheque. Haddock and chips with two slices. Cod and chips with peas. Two power teas. All very good. A reliable place for fried fish.

Two books from RPPL, one of which I already owned, Cornwell (the Sharpe man) on Waterloo, which coincided with the re-reading of Heyer, as noticed at reference 4. Recycled to Oxfam. BH got through hers in no time at all.

Four or five teenage boy lording it in the library waiting room with their bicycles. Given that it was not cold and there were seats to spare outside, we did not challenge them. Unlikely to achieve more than providing them some amusement at our expense.

We thought two minutes was a bit ambitious, certainly at our age. Maybe I will remember to time it when next I come back from town.

A clutch of antique buses out on Station Approach. The only explanation on offer for retrofitting these doors, was that antique buses were often stored on farms and you needed to stop the foxes nesting inside and destroying the upholstery. Which struck me as an unlikely story: maybe they were not retrofits at all? Maybe I was getting confused with the bus below.

Which prompted a discussion about the sturdy leather pouches, formerly in the bus service, doing train service on the Isle of Wight, for which see reference 5. We learn that the associated ticket machines with rotary handles get a good price in working order, with supplies of ticket rolls.

And that the panels, while framed with timber, were made of some confection of steel and aluminium, the aluminium recycled from RAF war surplus. prone to rotting in some electrolytic way. Don't see how that might be in the snap above this evening, so I asked Gemini. With the question 'A couple of weeks ago, we were told that the external paneling of London Buses from around 1945 was timber framed, with steel and aluminum panels. What do you think' causing him to stall first time around. But resubmission soon elicited fulsome agreement with the foregoing. Seemingly a common type of coachwork at that time, not just buses.

Perhaps I was being told about a bus which was older than the one snapped above.

Perhaps I will get around to checking properly.

PS: I might be all for dignity in dying (the people at reference 6), but I don't think that I am gong to get into social media on that account. Quite apart from the antics of some of the people who own or control social media sites, I can't get used to the idea of conducting serious business in chatter and sound bites. Serious business needs to be treated more seriously - not least because if the problem really was solved by a clever picture and not more than twenty five words, it was unlikely to have been much of a problem at all. Nor am I very convinced that cluttering up the email inboxes  of our MPs achieves much more than irritating them - or the support staff charged with getting rid of it. That said, dignity in dying is a good cause, it is coming to a boil in our House of Commons this Friday and I shall try to find some other way to contribute.

References

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

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull_(composer).

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-day-of-rabbit.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/beans-with-polesden.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/interior-ryde.html. Pouch is the proper term, not bag or satchel.

Reference 6: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.