A cold evening, with much talk in the media about the forthcoming eclipse of the moon, due to be visible at Epsom around 0500 the Monday morning following. But it seemed rather milder by the time we got to Cavendish Square, with our bench being available, so we took our picnic outside while we admired the moon, already quite high in the sky.
Rather a nice programme, including some photographs of the quartet through the many years, two visible in the snap above and some with a lot more hair than they sport now. We were able to entertain ourselves by working out who was who, perhaps helped along by it being the end of the bottle, so we had done well on the wine in the Bechstein Room. Up to a full hall, decorated with flowers that looked rather summery to me, considering that it was mid-winter. They also included some which BH explained had been dyed green. We also had celebrity in the form of Andrew Marr and his wife in our very own row, with he being rather shorter than we expected.
Some nicely pitched words from the first violin at the start of the first half, from the cello at the start of the second. Music all splendid, including my managing the lack of gaps in Op.131, probably because I knew about them in advance this time, having clocked the hyphens in relevant part of the programme. We also got a rather jolly take on 'Happy Birthday' by way of encore - which, or something very similar, I think we had heard before.
Cock & Lion very quiet at the time of the interval, that is to say around 2030. A good thing when one is on the run, as it were.
Out to be puzzled by the height of the full moon, but eventually worked out that the moon at the time of an eclipse in mid winter would be as high as the sun in mid summer. As it happened, we did get to look out of our window at 0500 the following morning, when a rather hazy moon was visible through the clouds, vanishing shortly thereafter. But we could not tell whether than was cloud or eclipse and went back to bed.
On the other hand there was a very fine, very large full moon low in the east at around 1800 later that Monday. Much more impressive than its early morning effort in the west.
PS: checking up our celebrity, we find that he is married to a daughter of Lord Ashley, lately an eminent resident of Epsom. Inter alia, being deaf for the second half of his life himself, a campaigner for the disabled, and honoured by the Gallaudet University noticed at reference 4. But he did not give his name to our Ashley Centre, that honour going to an earlier Miss. Ashley. See reference 3.
Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/failure.html. An earlier notice of the moon.
Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/02/sacconi-one.html. What looks to have been the last outing for Op.131. Further remarks about gaps here.
Reference 3: http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/AshleyCentre.html. A good site for Epsom history, even if the shot of Ashley House does not bear much resemblance to what can be seen in Street View.
Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=Gallaudet.
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