Fake 99

Fake 99 is a new gate post in Manor Green Road, in substance a substantial steel H-girder, but faked up to look like wood.

Which I found a bit silly, despite all the hundred year old steel frame buildings in central London, draped in imposing looking masonry, which do not bother me at all.

Not sure what the solution to this one is. A steel post set in concrete will last a lot longer than a wooden post, but is hard to work into a appealing decorative scheme without doing something of the sort that has been done here. They could at least have carried all the timber facing down to pavement level.

More Mozart

Consolation prize on Brexit day, a day which came with upsetting - if expected - triumphalism from the DT. That is to say, last week to the RFH to hear a couple of Mozart piano concertos from Mitsuko Uchida and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The same team that we had heard just about a year ago and noticed at reference 2.

No.17, K.453 and No.22, K.482. Plus Jörg Widmann's second string quartet arranged for a small orchestra.

We persisted with this outing despite it being a cool evening and despite the fact that I had acquired a minor cold - fortunately of the more or less invisible and more or less inaudible variety. No trolleys on station approach and no taxis on the stand outside the station entrance - which was very unusual. Epsom Station, while not up to the standard of Surbiton, is usually pretty good on black cabs.

Get to the ramp at Waterloo to find it half full of Bullingdons, which is how it should be. Bullingdons to hire and spaces for return; the happy middle position which they seem to be finding it harder to keep to. As I have suggested before, one suspects austerity is making it harder for them to find the money needed to keep this flagship, but expensive, operation afloat. And it will be a great pity if the mess of brightly coloured hire bikes from other operators wins the day.

The bad news was that it had started to rain. With it being possible to get quite wet in the few hundred yards separating the station from the RFH.

We took the same picnic spot under the stairs that we had taken on the QEH occasion noticed at reference 1, although it took a little longer to gather up two free chairs. In the course of our picnic a young couple turned up, with the lady having been taken ill. She sat on the floor, briefly, declining our offer of seats, and then they shuffled off to find somewhere quiet, hopefully for her to recover. I found out afterwards that what they should have done was tell the lady on the nearby reception desk of their plight, who would have been able to summon help and get them to a first aid room for recovery - and for whatever other help might have been needed. Alternatively, many of the trusty's carry radios which can be used for the same purpose. All in all, just what I had expected from a major venue from the era when could be proud of being in the public service.

Ill lady apart, a number of other ladies in fancy dress - in the sense of fancy clothes rather than of being dressed up as someone other than oneself.

While a lot of the ladies of the orchestra sported surprisingly long heels and some of them equally fancy dress.

The first concerto included a good part for the flute, a black flute rather than the silver flute which I think was commoner when I was young.

For the Widmann we had the string part of the orchestra standing in the middle, with three winds at some distance, right, back and left from where we sat in row J. Lights down. All very theatrical and not without interest. The leader used a computer for this piece, the only one to be seen in the course of the evening.

For the second concerto we had a couple of antique trumpets, probably what Wikipedia calls Baroque trumpets, a sort of compromise between the natural trumpet of Mozart's day and the valve trumpet which most of today's trumpeters learn on. Trumpets which did not seem to have that much to do. Wikipedia also tells me that getting true notes out of a natural trumpet was a very difficult business, with those who had the necessary skill doing well for themselves. Otherwise, the whole complicated business of trumpet sound generation remains a closed book.

I think I have decided that I prefer these concertos with a conductor, finding the pianist bobbing up and down and doing it from the piano a little distracting. Nevertheless, a fine concert and I dare say we shall go next year if she does some more.

The audience was very enthusiastic, to the point of starting to clap the second that the concertos stopped, which I found tiresome. And for the second, there was quite a lot of stamping up and down by the orchestra. They must be keen on their pianist. Perhaps the ladies wore high heels especially. While the audience was content to wait for a decent interval before starting on the Widmann.

We got what I thought was a Schubert Impromptu for an encore.

And a programme for the Aldeburgh Festival on the way out. From which I learn that this is a big festival with lots going on - and some of it the sort of thing that we would probably quite like. But all too far away and too much of a circus.

Cabs back on station by the time we got back to Epsom.

PS: a passing helicopter succeeds in making the table on which I am working vibrate for a few seconds. Through the brickwork of the house and the substantial wooden window sill to which it is attached (thus enabling working standing up, which I find comfortable and convenient). Or perhaps through the window?

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/02/hagens.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/02/mainly-mozart.html.

Tree down

The damaged tree

The undamaged twigs

There has been some tree action down Longmead Road since I was last there. Action which looks to be of the emergency rather than of the planned maintenance variety, so presumably there has been some overnight wind since my last visit, probably some time last week. Action which looks to extend to the other side of the stream, possibly involving the rotten stump, just about visible below the yellow bricked porch of the middle building.

Does the discolouring in the middle of the cuts visible on what is left of the trunk signal some fatal disease? Will what is left of the trunk have to come down too? Can the council afford to operate a one-out-more-in policy and thereby set a good example?

From the dead leaves lying around, I thought maybe a poplar of some sort, a thought which is supported by the pictures turned up by Bing on the search key 'poplar tree twig'. Long distinctive buds, alternate on the twig.

Huddersfield

In our scramble to contain the threat posed by radical young men with aspirations to Islam-flavoured martyrdom, let us not forget existing problems around the use of armed police units. In particular, the now three year wait to find out how a young man came to be shot by police in Huddersfield, a matter I last noticed around half a year ago at reference 1.

Inspection of reference 2 suggests that there has been no visible progress since then. But I do notice that the present head of the Independent Office for Police Conduct is a high flying management accountant, CIPFA flavoured, one Michael Lockwood. And that it is an organisation which is sufficiently concerned with its independence to say on its website that: '... By law, our Director General can never have worked for the police. Also none of our executive team, regional directors or our Director for Wales have worked for the police ...'. I suspect all this is something of a mixed blessing, but perhaps appropriate given all the circumstances.

So when will our high flying accountant put this particular, three year old story to bed?

PS: will the much trumpeted tilt to the north in the wake of the recent General Election help push up the standard of police work there in years to come?

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/huddersfield-and-manchester.html.

Reference 2: https://policeconduct.gov.uk/search/node/yassar%20yaqub.

Preludes and fugues

The not often performed Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich came to the Barbican the Sunday before last, so having discovered them quite by chance, getting on for ten years ago, I had to give it a go. But Igor Levit rather than Alexander Melnikov.

Various disturbances on the railways on the day and it took some messing about with the Network Rail and TFL journey planners before I lighted on the right answer, which was to take the train to Balham and take the tube from there to Moorgate. The reason why I had not got there before was probably that I have, in past, got to the Barbican (or nearby St. Luke's) by Bullingdon from Waterloo, and the lateral jump from Bullingdon to Balham was too much for me.

Struck on the tube by an improbably happy picture of a young lady advertising the services of the people at reference 3. Obviously a con: no-one is going to be that happy for long, flogging small scale office space.

Struck at Moorgate by the journey time platform to platform being just about an hour. So much the same as getting to the Wigmore Hall.

No Bullingdons on the stand at Silk Street on arrival, but I forget to check on the way out. Not a big problem as there are other stands reasonably close - but it all serves to deter one from trusting them on a Sunday evening.

At the Barbican, I investigated getting a reprint of a ticket for a future occasion which I thought I had lost, but the young lady took one look at me and pointed out that if I lost it again, I would be stuck as only one reprint was allowed. Much better to get the reprint on the day. As it turned out, I had not lost it at all, so she was clearly right.

Next stop warfarin, and the first water supply I came across involved little conical paper cups - which one could not set down on a table. Which made things a bit tricky, but I did manage, young lady notwithstanding. I then went to get a beverage to take with my picnic, to find that they did free water out of regular glasses. Seats in short supply, so I found a quiet wall to sit against while I took my bread and wine.

I don't think that I can have been in the Barbican Hall - fairly full on this occasion - for many years as it all seemed very unfamiliar. As did sitting quite near the front, a little below the piano, which turned out to give me a very good view of the pianist's hands which, unusually for me, I did watch for some of the time.

A serious looking lady page turner, whom the pianist exchanged words with from time to time, so perhaps she travels with him. The pianist was rather theatrical in manner, sporting a Russian beard and what I took to be vaguely Russian clothes, particularly the oddly creased lower trouser legs, so done as to give the impression of quilting. But he was also very good, giving me a very intense 75 minutes for the first half. Sufficiently intense that the piano tuner moved almost as soon as the pianist left the stage.

The lady sitting next to me explained that the second half was going to be even longer. She was OK because although it was her second concert of the day, she lived on the spot. While I was tired and wondering about last trains from Balham, given the disturbances and the fact that it was a Sunday. So, sadly, I abandoned ship at this point and headed for home. Missing, inter alia, the 14th episode which has always impressed, even on CD.

Got to Balham fast enough where I was able to admire the heritage shop fitting at ground level. And which turned out, once I had puzzled out the orientation of the platform, to be a good place to play the aeroplane game, scoring first a three, then a series of rolling fours.

Home in good time, a little disappointed that I had not stayed the distance. But it would have been bad form to have sneaked out during the proceedings, despite having an aisle seat, and leaving at half time was the right decision. After all, even getting on for ten years ago, I was not sure about doing all 24 in one go.

I close by noting that I have made up some of the lost ground since by listening to some of the second half on CD - in the Melnikov version. No.14 continues to impress.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/02/second-half.html.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=melnikov.

Reference 3: https://hubblehq.com/. Today, the young lady in question might be the one in the middle of the three person line-up right, but I failed to enlarge to be sure.

Plagues

I learn this morning from a combination of Edge, Microsoft News and the Boston Globe, that while some parts of the globe are in the grip of a dangerous new flu virus and other parts are plagued by fire, East Africa is in the grip of a plague of locusts, the worst for years. Set to get worse before the dry season in the middle of the year damps them down.

I wonder if these locusts can be put down to global warming, along with so much else?

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

Hagens

The programme

Just over a week ago to QEH to hear the Hagen Quartet, a concert which had been held over from early December due to illness. Which would have been just about a year since we last heard them, as noticed at reference 1. A rather different programme this time, with Beethoven Op.132 for the first half, Op.131 for the second. Also rather different from the more usual offering of one heavy Beethoven, one light Beethoven and a stocking filler.

Burns Night as it happened, and quite cold it was too, despite having been a mild day.

A trolley in station approach, with its front wheels down a hole, which I thought quite a good way of stopping people falling down the hole. Another trolley a bit further on, but it does not look as if I captured it the following day. Perhaps someone had moved it on.

The small Southern lady in charge of the gates on this occasion was having a bit of trouble with a band of youth, probably from Sutton, both mixed race and mixed sex. I think the upshot was that they boys did not pay. Glad I don't have to spend my evening dealing with such people. BH, at least, went and commiserated with her.

Trains to Waterloo not working for some reason, but we were able to get a crowded Victoria train at the same time that our train was supposed to have gone, in which we were sat next to some ladies who took their football very seriously. One of them was some sort of wannabee journalist and one was a Mum chaperoning her talented boy - who looked quite small to be a footballer to me, even if we was the goalkeeper.

New to me livery for a South Western train set

Trains to Waterloo from Clapham Junction not too bright either, and we were reduced to platforms 3 and 4. But did get first class seats, the tables to which appeared to be mobile air charge capable - of no interest to me as my mobile is too old for that sort of thing.

The side of the shop

We thought to picnic in the Festival Hall and went up to level 2 or 3 to be firmly told that whichever level it was was for ticket holders only, and our tickets were for the other place. Back downstairs to scrape up a couple of chairs which we moved under a staircase, which kept the crowds away. We also took a peek at the programme and were surprised to read a claim that the Southbank Centre was the centre of classical music in London. Which might have been true when we were little, and the three halls there all did classical more or less seven days a week, but it is certainly not true now, occasional big name concerts notwithstanding.

We then admired the side of the shop, just a few feet from where we were sitting. It was almost scorable as a fake, with ridiculously heavy duty steel and glass, given the job to be done. Although despite being heavy duty, the glass came in lots of pieces and I don't suppose the fastenings were anything like as strong as the glass.

After all this excitement, BH found a very quick route to get us to QEH - which would have been a very long route had she followed my lead.

There was a piano in the foyer, mercifully shut, covered and therefore silent. But the cover was fairly heavy duty and I chickened out of lifting it off the keyboard far enough to be able to score the piano, feeling sure that some attendant would rush across to tell me that interfering with the piano was strictly forbidden.

Hall pretty full. Due to the date having been changed, we were both there but sat a few seats apart - which meant the BH got a very good view of the proceedings from an aisle seat in row C, which she liked, while I was in the middle of row F which I liked. Usually we compromise! And the Hagens sported three piano stools for the small strings, proper bows for the small strings and one computer. Otherwise conventional. They were also very good and we managed the two heavy Beethovens without any trouble at all.

Just caught a train to Winchester at Waterloo, and just caught a train to Epsom at Clapham Junction. Which knocked out further beverages until we got home. We also heard that the Island Line on the Isle of Wight was caught up in engineering works, which was good, as it means that the line is not about to shut. Brading would not be the same without it - not for us, anyway.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/hagen.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/birthday-boys.html. What looks like the last time we heard Op.131.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/belcea.html. What looks like the last time I heard Op.132, just about a month previous. The 'Point Counter Point' quartet.