Artemis

Last week to the Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) on the south bank to hear the new-to-us Artemis Quartet. For those sufficiently impressed to want to hear them, the programme is being repeated in Hamburg tomorrow and the Britten Quartet will be repeated in Montreal next month. See reference 1.

Programme

Barber, Molto Adagio from Op.11. Probably a first. Britten, String Quartet No.2, Op.36. Last heard about five days ago and noticed at reference 4; first heard about five years ago and noticed at reference 5. Schubert, D.810, aka Death and the Maiden. Last heard about two years ago and noticed at reference 6. One of our favourite works, but as with several of our favourites, this one is not 100% reliable. Doesn't always work the magic.

The repeat

A cool, cloudy day and we were interested to find that one of the contractors employed by the council to mend our roads was testing the temporary traffic lights on this Sunday afternoon, just to make sure that all was well in time for the morning rush hour.

Testing the lights

Not a contractor or a contractor's vehicle to be seen, but impressive lines of cars in both directions.

Outside the station, three near derelicts, two young, one older. Some tinnies to be seen.

Then on the concourse at Waterloo Station, we were amused by the pairing of a couple of ladies, seemingly travelling together on business for the Humanitarian Academy for Development (of Birmingham, see reference 2). One white European, probably English, was middle aged and a touch brassy: very tight trousers and high heels. The other, probably English too, but was rather younger and in what might be called (by analogy with military usage) No.2 Islamic dress for ladies.

Sudden shower of rain and hail on exit from the station, but that soon dried up. And had we not brought a picnic we might well have bought lunch from the street food operation below the Festival Hall. As it was, I nearly bought some kabanosi, as noticed at reference 3.

Onto the QEH, to find that nearly all the river side seat and tables had been colonised by people, not all young, who found it convenient to drive their laptops there. Just a few of the rather poor looking people there had been in the RFH. On the up side, there was no musical offering in the concourse area (which has been a regular source of annoyance in the past) and we did find a half filled table to share. The other half being a young mum with her young daughter, both dressed up to the nines, waiting to go and hear her young brother do something musical in the Purcell Room. But we never did find out exactly what that was, so perhaps it was a private event for yummy mummies. The young daughter passed her time doing mathematics exercises on her small laptop computer, perhaps cramming for this or that test for five year olds.

There was some difficulty about the programmes, but we eventually managed to track one down. One would have thought that such things were delivered days, if not weeks, in advance, so the problem must have been more local.

Auditorium about two thirds full. Two of those black things hanging from the ceiling that remind me of vacuum cleaners, first noticed at Milton Court at reference 7.

Two members of the quartet used computers, two used music, and I was struck by the lightness of touch with the foot used for turning the cello's computer page, and wondered about how easy it was to turn two pages at once. I think the other computer, I forget who, did it by hand. How long will it be before the pages get turned by themselves? The technology must be more or less ready. Gentlemen in frock coats, ladies in black trousers. All very smart and proper to my mind.

Some improper clapping during the first half, not something I remember happening for a long time. We liked the Barber and we liked the Britten much more on this occasion than the last, just a few days previously, despite having failed to take on board the musicology quoted at reference 4. Perhaps QEH was better suited to this particular music; perhaps we liked the banked seats; perhaps the quartet created more of a sense of occasion. Who knows? The young lad in front of us, perhaps mid teens, not very taken at all; rather fidgety and his mother had to take him in hand, or to be more precise, in arm.

What appeared to some fumbling by the bar staff - working for the South Bank concessionaire 'Company of Cooks' - resulting in my getting a double of 'Monkey Shoulder' for £5.20 which seemed very reasonable. After which the Schubert came off very well indeed. Even the fidget in front was taken up by it.

Waterloo Bridge

After some indecision, we decided to exit east, making our way up to Waterloo Bridge via a stairway which was a little the worse for wear. Nor did it contain the memorial plaque to the ladies of London who built the bridge; once seen in a passage somewhere and never found again: perhaps I need to make a systematic search of all four corners of the bridge.

Spotted the Green Room down below and decided to give it a go, having been refused the last couple of times for lack of booking. Near empty on this occasion, around 1700 on a Sunday afternoon, and so not a problem. And as it turned out, being near empty suited us rather well on this occasion.

Cheese on toast and green olives to start. Lancashire Hot Pot with red cabbage for me, salmon on a bed of spelt for her, together with some good looking kale. Everybody pleased with the result, although I should say I get a better Hot Pot at home. White wine satisfactory too, although the waitress had trouble getting the cork out with her ratchet contraption. I suggested the health and safety people had banned the straight pull on the grounds that one might damage one's elbow doing a lot of it, but she assured us that this was not the case.

The wine

We had bottle 12,093 of the 20,000 made, according to reference 8. Perhaps we should go back to note the number of the next bottle that they give us, assuming that is that they do things properly at the Green Room, and sell them in numerical order.

The ice cream

Let down, as so many of these places are, with their desserts and with the ice cream, which I don't usually take anyway, looking very odd. Why could we not have something like a jelly, stewed fruit or even tinned fruit. We had some tinned peaches at home the other day, after a reasonably heavy main course, and they were fine. And I seem to recall such stuff figuring on the dessert trolleys in the hotel dining rooms of my childhood, so entirely heritage-full and proper.

To round off the proceedings, we learned from the other waitress, a cheerful sort, about the peripatetic life of a narrow boat dweller in London. BH knew, but I did not, that if you baulk at paying the fancy mooring prices anywhere near where you might be working in central London, you have to move on every two weeks, to be a veritable traveller. I would have worried, at her age, about having a few drinks of an evening and then turning up at the wrong mooring, which might be a touch awkward late at night.

Once again, I thought I was only going to manage to find notice of a failed attempt to get into the Green Room rather than a successful attempt - but I persisted and eventually got the right combination of search terms to reach reference 9, about four years old. Would have been a bit faster had I bothered to read the clue at the end of reference 10: festina lente as we used to be told at school. Perhaps our only previous visit?

Reference 1: http://www.artemisquartet.com/.

Reference 2: http://had-int.org/.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/anxiety-dream.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/elias.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/12/last-evening-visit.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/12/belcea.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/06/brahms.html. One of those occasions when a favourite disappointed; own goal on this occasion.

Reference 8: http://bodegasfrontonio.com/vinos/los-botijos/botijo-blanco/. Label looks right.

Reference 9: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/11/big-charles-1.html. The successful visit.

Reference 10: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/11/wilde-one.html. The unsuccessful visit. And it took quite some time to recover from bashing my arm and shoulder. I was even reduced to doing the odd exercises while out on my constitutional. More or less OK now.