Schubert one

Last week to the first of Mitsuko Uchida's two Schubert concerts. A lady who is just about the same age as ourselves.

D568, D784, interval and then D959.

Off to a good start, in that I remembered, for once, not to get a Travelcard to get to Waterloo. I also learned that Southern offer a special deal for Victoria only, not available from Southwestern for Waterloo. Perhaps reflecting the fact that Southwestern operate the better line.

Mildly irritated by a couple of hoardings around Vauxhall about Brexit. The sentiment of which was fair enough, but which also reflected the declining standard of public discourse. Perhaps I am just getting old and my past is being seen through rose tinted glasses, but whatever it is, I would much prefer public figures to stick to a  modicum of courtesy & decorum towards those with whom they disagreed. And to calm down a bit, to deploy a bit less hyperbole. And typing now, I seem to recall reading something about how we tend to get far more excited about small differences than big ones, which seems to fit the present hullabaloo about Brexit quite well.

But there was a tasteful brass band at Waterloo. Which made the musak at Sainsbury's (Kiln Lane) a few days later sound particularly bad.

On into the RFH, where we managed to round up a couple of seats by one of the flights of stairs for our picnic. I have still failed to work out the treads, snapped above. Superficially they look like solid slabs of timber, but the leading edge (left) is a one inch stick on, darker fillets have been let into the top surface, either for effect or for non-slip and the ends do not look like any end grain that I know, usually the mark of chip board, which I would not have thought was the case here. I have puzzled before but don't seem to be getting any nearer a solution. Autopsy would give a clear and easy result, but this option is not yet available.

We learned that a company called 'Company of Cook' has got the catering at RFH, and their bar staff seemed friendly enough. No coffee and no choice of sauvignon blanc, but the wine they gave me was good enough. A couple of rather rude - or at least unthinking - people standing by the water jugs with their drinks, chattering. Looked like chattering classes people. Completely oblivious that one might want to get at the water - or what might be worse, affecting to be oblivious.

Later on, at the interval, there were two black chaps serving, perhaps late twenties or early thirties, perfectly polite, but they were going to go at their speed, interval or no interval. After a few minutes they were joined by their manageress, whom I thought Spanish, and she tried hard with her speed to make up for theirs. Which was probably why she got into a muddle with the touch screen over my Black Label, not something that many people were calling for. Good stuff though.

Lots of young people sat on the stage, back left. Presumably a herd of music students from somewhere or other. Much rushing around of ushers to get them organised. Hall as a whole maybe three quarters full downstairs. We could not see upstairs from the middle of row G - which turned out to be very good seats for this sort of programme in this sort of hall.

Excellent programme, played without score. And Uchida has excellent stage dress and stage manners, with both entirely suitable to someone of her age and standing.

Pleased that they managed without projecting pictures about telephones, something the Wigmore Hall has now sunk to - possibly the result of their front of house manager getting a whizzy new PC. Some strange noises from the ceiling during the performance: I thought wind or possibly air conditioning, BH thought trains. Some strange wavering of the purple lighted organ pipes right, rather if they were heavily pleated, heavy curtains swaying slightly in the wind. An effect which came and went a few times at one point. But all in all, the hall was worn well. A good venue.

No encore, which I thought right after D959, and we just managed to catch the slightly late running 2154 at Waterloo, which was good.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/12/winter-journey.html. Last Uchida outing. Accompanying the Winterreise.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/12/sonatas.html. Last Uchida sonatas, a couple of weeks before the foregoing. A different selection.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/05/back-at-court.html. Last D959.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-thought-experiment-about-adaptation.html. On which occasion I appear to have had the same wavering vertical bars illusion as is noted above. Is it that the rhythm of this particular music is interfering in some way with the rhythms of vision?

Reference 5: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/11/fake-18.html. The last occasion I noticed the treads.

Reference 6: http://www.companyofcooks.com/. The RFH caterer has clearly got some prestige sites.