Artemis

A week ago to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Artemis Quartet give us Haydn, stocking filler and Beethoven. That is to say, Haydn Op.20, No.2; Widmann String Quartet No.7; Beethoven Op.130 with Grosse Fuge, Op.133. No encore as is proper after this last. Although I do recall a quartet doing a comic version of 'Happy Birthday' after something similarly if not identically heavy - which worked rather well to break the tension. But I can't find the occasion just presently.

A Scottish version of Artemis

An overcast evening with a cool breeze. Vauxhall tube station crowded. Tube train crowded. A lot of advertisements in the tunnels at Oxford Circus from British Airways about the delights of holidays on West Indian islands - a form of holiday we are going to need to bear down on as part of bearing down on climate change. How long will it be before it is thought a bit naff to boast in the bar at the golf club about your latest jaunt to such an island?  In the way that it eventually became a bit naff to boast in a men's bar in Kampala about your latest rape. And will we be offering the islanders any compensation for the loss of what one imagines is a large part of their income?

A sprinkling of party dressed young people among the shoppers on exit to the street.

An indigent with a fully loaded trolley had taken possession of our bench on the north west corner of Cavendish Square so we carried onto the hall, where the Beckstein Room bar was shut, so we had the place more or less to ourselves when we started our picnic. Although we were amused while we tucked in by a regular - regular in the sense that she is as often as not there when we are - getting really cross when some German thought to make free with her Financial Times and concert programme which she had left on a seat while she went off on some errand or other. Newspaper and programme recovered, she flounced off to a nearby seat to do the crossword.

One of two arts

On the way in it had not been busy and the art noticed on the last visit was still there, along with another, off snap to the left. So I had a play. The story seemed to be that if you stood on of the little figures on one of two slots at the front of the stage a bit of music was played, presumably different piece for each figure. And if you wanted more, you could put another figure on the other slot. Mildly entertaining, perhaps intended for children attending for outreach during the day? Sadly, even the power of Microsoft cannot recover the text back right which probably explains all about it.

The programme

A publicity shot

An excellent concert, with the Widmann being just about long enough; a piece which seemed to contain speeded up versions of well known snippets from Beethoven quartets.

The violinists alternate, a democratic if unusual arrangements. While the Dutch cellist sported a dark top which appeared to have vertical stripes and which managed to be both subdued and flashy at the same time. BH thought Fortuny, and a quick peek at their website suggests that this was quite probable. But not the top with horizontal stripes in the snap above. A brand only known to me for the dresses that Proust's narrator is in the habit of trying to buy Albertine with - unsuccessfully, as it turned out, expensive though they no doubt were.

Furthermore, the fingerboard of the cello appeared green when the light caught it in the right way. Clearly some freak of human colour vision. Or perhaps the brand of lights used by the Hall. Still furthermore, something unsightly has been done with her hair in the course of cutting it into the background. Perhaps Photoshop is not always the miracle it is cracked up to be.

Cock & Lion for a half time drop of Jameson, as is presently the custom.

On the way home, not impressed that the man guarding the gates to the escalators at Vauxhall tube station did not appear to be wearing a uniform. A form of clothing which ought to be mandatory for public duties of that sort.

Just the one aeroplane at our stopover at Earlsfield.

TB empty, lights down but not out when we passed in our taxi at around 2245. So perhaps being difficult about bar stools is not the only failing of the new management. See reference 2.

PS: prompted by the fiddliness of hearing aids and the ubiquity of mobile phones, even among pensioners, I continue to wonder why the people that sell hearing aids don't sell an app to put on your mobile phone with which to control the thing. Without having to fiddle about with little buttons. A gadget which would be very useful in concert halls.

Reference 1: https://www.artemisquartett.de/index.php/en/.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/trolley-379.html.