Pergolesi again

Last week to St. John's Smith Square to hear Pergolesi's 'Stabat Mater' for the third time in five years. Offered, together with a mixture of sacred and profane Neapolitan polyphony, by the new-to-us Concert de Hostel Dieu from Lyon, maybe a dozen of them altogether. The idea was to try and capture the atmosphere of a Neapolitan religious festival - Holy Week - at the time of writing.

A cold damp evening, but I didn't wear a proper coat knowing the cloakroom arrangements at Smith Square to be modest.

Started out by meeting a diabetic guide dog and learning what they were for. I had been vaguely aware of such dogs, but puzzled as to why one might want to sniff out diabetics, in the way of sniffing out marijuana - or charge in the student argot of my day. I finally learned that the idea was that your diabetic guide dog would tell you when you were about to have a hypo or a hyper, presumably of the blood sugar variety. Funny how I had not worked that out for myself.

Arrived at Epsom to find that there were no taxis on the stand at the station - not that we wanted one, but it is unusual for there not to be any taxis when we use the station. On the other hand, there was a beggar sitting outside the station, English, young male, able bodied, articulate and rather noisy. One of three or four beggars who seemed to have staked out Epsom town centre over the past few weeks.

Admired a track cleaning set which came through on the Victoria line while we waited, the first sighting of such for a while.

No.88 bus to Page Street from Vauxhall, slightly disorientated on arrival, not having visited for a while, but we made it to Smith Square without serious trouble.

Stunning start from the contralto (Anthea Pichanick) and the baritone (Romain Bockler), and so it continued all the way through - although I continue to find the Pergolesi less solemn and sombre than one might expect from the title. It is, after all, the lament of a mother for her crucified son. And some of the Neopolitan interludes were very profane indeed, with some very spirited song and dance (in so far as one can dance more or less standing on the spot) from the soprano (Heather Newhouse). A Canadian who seems to have settled in France. Oozing sex according to BH.

The conductor managed to conduct while playing a box organ, standing up. Presumably the organ music was not too challenging for him.

St. John's turned out to be an excellent venue for this sort of thing and sitting in the middle of row G was spot on. Maybe half full - with the audience making up in enthusiasm for what they lacked in numbers.

Sadly it is going to be a while before we hear them again, with Bachtrack offering just the one outing, in June next year, in Halle. Which I can't see us making.

Cheerful taxi driver told us all about the trouble caused by cyclists on the roads and we arrived at Vauxhall to find trouble on the trains. Got to platform 8 to be told to go to platform 6, the gates to which mysteriously shut just as we got to them. But they opened again in time for us to make the train, but leaving at least one cross customer on the platform.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/02/stabat-mater.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/04/return-visit.html.

Reference 3: http://www.concert-hosteldieu.com/.

Reference 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9XUiyfZXFg. The first item on the programme.