Hahn the violin

That is, Hilary Hahn, as opposed to Mrs Hahn, lately bursar of Girton College and as opposed to Mr Hahn, lately lecturer in mathematical economics at the London School of Economics. This one lately a child prodigy, from Lexington, Virginia, not to be confused with its more famous namesake, Lexington, Massachusetts. On this occasion, at the end of May, a programme of Bach.

The programme

A mild overcast evening and I took the opportunity to withdraw some case from the Tesco cash point outside Epsom Station, unlike the more conspicuous pair of cash points nearer the entrance, which have taken to charging. Presumably, what with low interest rates and people going cash less, we can look forward to a world in which there will be far fewer cash points. Not for the first time, I wondered how much they costed and how those costs were apportioned.

There was a Chinook hovering a little to the east of Battersea Power Station, presumably warming up for the then forthcoming Trump visit.

The concourse at Vauxhall tube station awash with people once again, possibly to do with cricket at the Oval, but this time I did a better job a catching a train to Waterloo, from where I took the tube to Green Park. As a result of which I was able to admire the ever more gaudy exterior of Sexy Fish at Berkeley Square, a place I now know has a world renowned selection of Japanese whisky. It would be quite fun to inspect the interior, but I dare say I would care neither for the food nor the prices. Altogether a bit too far out of my league. As it was, I ate my sandwiches in Berkeley Square, wondering at the good condition of the grass, considering that a large antiques fair tent gets parked on it from time to time.

Lots of modern art for sale in the auction room - Phillips - at the top of the square. To my mind, mainly suitable for the decoration of the atria of show-off buildings in the city. But maybe there are rich people out there with both the money and the space for this sort of thing. Not for me, in any event.

Last year's red dress

Beverage at the Cock & Lion, sitting outside and admiring what used to be Debenhams opposite, the place with all the fancy stony work and the green pillars. There must have been a great deal of money to be made out of shopping to justify building it; not like now at all.

Lately Debenhams

Checking this morning, I am reminded that the stone work is actually tile and terracotta, the best that money could buy in the early twentieth century. While Wigmore Street was named in the early eighteenth century for Wigmore Castle in the marches of Wales. Once owned by the Harley family, not to be confused with the Portman and the Portland families both of which also own land and named streets in the area.

The hall was full for Hahn, who turned out in a fancy red dress in two parts, with the top part coming down to mid thigh and trimmed with what looked like red lace, and the bottom part coming down to the ankles. It looked very expensive to me. Plus there were large earrings which glittered with something or other and at least one ring, also glittering. She moved around the stage a bit as she played, standing without music, but I noticed that while she might be moving around, the violin was kept very still in relation to the angle of her shoulders. Presumably necessary so that the bow arm and the finger hand knew where everything was without having to either look or compute. She also had curiously white arms and I wondered whether this had been helped along with powder, or whether this was a trick of the lighting.

The Bach was very good indeed, not all familiar. A sarabande and a gigue by way of encores, both familiar. Maybe one unwanted note and one unwanted squeak all told.

Slightly marred by a couple of middle aged fidgets in front of me, a couple who stuck as being on holiday in London from somewhere out in the provinces who thought they ought to take in a concert while they were here. The gentleman kept moving about and fiddling with his spectacles while the lady kept fiddling with her programme. Managed to shut them out after a while.

Amusement in the interval at the C&L provided by a young couple who thought that they were in Oxford Street, taking a few minutes to realise their mistake as the barman gave them directions to somewhere or other. Rather an odd mistake to make, given the very different appearance of the two streets. And one might have thought that it would be hard to mistake Wigmore Street for a tier one shopping street. Perhaps they very Internet aware and thought that Amazon had killed off all the shops.

Three higher grade buskers in the course of the evening. The first a young lady in a tube tunnel, who sounded as she was opera trained. The second an older man on a keyboard in Oxford Street. And the third a Mediterranean flavoured band, ditto. Not what I really wanted with the Bach, but better than average nonetheless.

Caught a few aeroplanes over Vauxhall and Earlsfield, but no two's, just one's.

And showed my age by being glad of having my scarf by the end of the evening.

PS: I see from Hahn's website that she made the most of having worked up the Bach, airing much the same programme at various other places in northern and central Europe.

Reference 1: http://hilaryhahn.com/.

Reference 2: https://www.sexyfish.com/.

Reference 3: https://www.phillips.com/berkeleysquare.