No.17, K.453 and No.22, K.482. Plus Jörg Widmann's second string quartet arranged for a small orchestra.
We persisted with this outing despite it being a cool evening and despite the fact that I had acquired a minor cold - fortunately of the more or less invisible and more or less inaudible variety. No trolleys on station approach and no taxis on the stand outside the station entrance - which was very unusual. Epsom Station, while not up to the standard of Surbiton, is usually pretty good on black cabs.
Get to the ramp at Waterloo to find it half full of Bullingdons, which is how it should be. Bullingdons to hire and spaces for return; the happy middle position which they seem to be finding it harder to keep to. As I have suggested before, one suspects austerity is making it harder for them to find the money needed to keep this flagship, but expensive, operation afloat. And it will be a great pity if the mess of brightly coloured hire bikes from other operators wins the day.
The bad news was that it had started to rain. With it being possible to get quite wet in the few hundred yards separating the station from the RFH.
We took the same picnic spot under the stairs that we had taken on the QEH occasion noticed at reference 1, although it took a little longer to gather up two free chairs. In the course of our picnic a young couple turned up, with the lady having been taken ill. She sat on the floor, briefly, declining our offer of seats, and then they shuffled off to find somewhere quiet, hopefully for her to recover. I found out afterwards that what they should have done was tell the lady on the nearby reception desk of their plight, who would have been able to summon help and get them to a first aid room for recovery - and for whatever other help might have been needed. Alternatively, many of the trusty's carry radios which can be used for the same purpose. All in all, just what I had expected from a major venue from the era when could be proud of being in the public service.
Ill lady apart, a number of other ladies in fancy dress - in the sense of fancy clothes rather than of being dressed up as someone other than oneself.
While a lot of the ladies of the orchestra sported surprisingly long heels and some of them equally fancy dress.
The first concerto included a good part for the flute, a black flute rather than the silver flute which I think was commoner when I was young.
For the Widmann we had the string part of the orchestra standing in the middle, with three winds at some distance, right, back and left from where we sat in row J. Lights down. All very theatrical and not without interest. The leader used a computer for this piece, the only one to be seen in the course of the evening.
For the second concerto we had a couple of antique trumpets, probably what Wikipedia calls Baroque trumpets, a sort of compromise between the natural trumpet of Mozart's day and the valve trumpet which most of today's trumpeters learn on. Trumpets which did not seem to have that much to do. Wikipedia also tells me that getting true notes out of a natural trumpet was a very difficult business, with those who had the necessary skill doing well for themselves. Otherwise, the whole complicated business of trumpet sound generation remains a closed book.
I think I have decided that I prefer these concertos with a conductor, finding the pianist bobbing up and down and doing it from the piano a little distracting. Nevertheless, a fine concert and I dare say we shall go next year if she does some more.
The audience was very enthusiastic, to the point of starting to clap the second that the concertos stopped, which I found tiresome. And for the second, there was quite a lot of stamping up and down by the orchestra. They must be keen on their pianist. Perhaps the ladies wore high heels especially. While the audience was content to wait for a decent interval before starting on the Widmann.
We got what I thought was a Schubert Impromptu for an encore.
And a programme for the Aldeburgh Festival on the way out. From which I learn that this is a big festival with lots going on - and some of it the sort of thing that we would probably quite like. But all too far away and too much of a circus.
Cabs back on station by the time we got back to Epsom.
PS: a passing helicopter succeeds in making the table on which I am working vibrate for a few seconds. Through the brickwork of the house and the substantial wooden window sill to which it is attached (thus enabling working standing up, which I find comfortable and convenient). Or perhaps through the window?
Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/02/hagens.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/02/mainly-mozart.html.
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