Chopin preludes

Last week to what might be the first and only visit to St. Luke's this season, their programme having drifted into the doldrums, at least as far as I am concerned. Maybe they have lost the grants which enabled them to put on the good programmes of the last seven years. See reference 1 for what appears to have been my very first visit.

Dull, overcast day but took a chance and did not take an umbrella. Got to Epsom Station to find some police community support officers in attendance and, for once, all the receipts which litter the area around the ticket machines having been swept up. Perhaps there was a connection.

Exactly 19 minutes to make the run from Waterloo Station 2, Waterloo to Roscoe Street, St. Luke's, although for some reason it did seem like a bit of a pull to get to the crest of Blackfriars Bridge from Stamford Street. I'll be puffing next. A few cycling contraventions on the way, including a couple of trivial ones (naturally) from self.

Market Restaurant in Whitecross Street busy. Same proprietor but a couple of new girls serving. Tea and bacon sandwich as good as ever, also very reasonably priced, so they get their tip.

St. Luke's maybe half full, which I thought odd for a freebie of a well known work - at least Chopin's preludes are well known to me. Plus Bach's Italian concerto (BMW 971) and the world première of Elizabeth Ogonek's Orpheus Suite, after Rilke, the chap noticed recently at reference 2.

The pianist, Sophiko Simsive, was in London by virtue of having won a competition put on by the Music Academy of the West, with the west in question being Santa Barbara in California. She was introduced by the director, with the result that I associated first to the tennis academy noticed at reference 5 - another hothouse for talented youngsters - and then to the Menuhin School at Stoke d'Abernon. I think the Soviets were keen on - at good at - hothouses too.

She turned out smartly and soberly dressed, perhaps in some version of Georgian national costume, which was rather better than the publicity shot included would have suggested. She was also very good. She played without music (except for the Ogonek) and only bothered with looking at the keyboard for the tricky bits; otherwise she seemed to be gazing out over the piano into space. My only reservation was that some of the tricky bits in the preludes did not come off as well as the rest of it. And I was slightly surprised that she sat with her forearms sloping slightly down - while I had thought the usual drill was level.

The Ogonek was interesting, and quite short. With the composer being present for her première and coming up to take her bow afterwards. But I passed on her in conversation with the pianist later that afternoon, being content to leave that sort of thing to the professionals. While today I find a very articulate young lady on YouTube - but no pirate copy of the piece given here.

Bread and cheese in the grave yard round the back, then 21 minutes and 2 seconds to make the run from Finsbury Leisure Centre, St. Luke's back to Waterloo Station 3, Waterloo. Odd that it should take so much longer going downhill. I should say that I have got used to and feel safe on the new cycle lane down Farringdon Road and across Blackfriars Bridge, but there are lots of traffic lights, slowed down by the complication of the extra lane for bicycles.

I thought I was going to have trouble when the first Bullingdon that I pulled turned out to have no chain, but it let me put that one back, red flag it and pull another without making me wait for 10 minutes while the computer digested the unusual transaction. Which I had expected it to do.

Broke the train journey home at Clapham Junctions, where the viewing conditions for aeroplanes were good, including a tall pole marking the western descent, always helpful. But while I scored a few twos, I did not make a three, with the lead planes vanishing into the haze over the western horizon. I probably would have made the threes with binoculars. The sun being bright and low, I wondered what pilots do for sunglasses: they could be a bit stuck flying down into Heathrow on a winter's afternoon without something.

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=Leysian+Mission.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/awakenings.html.

Reference 3: https://www.musicacademy.org/. 'The Music Academy of the West is among the nation’s preeminent summer schools and festivals for gifted young classically-trained musicians. At its ocean-side, ten-acre campus in Santa Barbara, California, the Academy provides these musicians with the opportunity for advanced study and performance under the guidance of internationally renowned faculty artists, guest conductors, and soloists during its eight-week Summer School and Festival, presenting more than 200 public events on campus and in downtown Santa Barbara'. And having read some of the other material on this website, perhaps Dartington Hall in Devon would be a better comparator than the Tennis Academy in London.

Reference 4: http://elizabethogonek.com/.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/end-of-term.html.