To London Town

A week or so ago we paid our first visit to Wigmore Hall since the beginning of last year. While I had visited London as recently as at the beginning of the same month. To hear Ronan O'Hara, whom we had heard once previously, noticed at reference 2, give a mixed programme not unlike the first one. So Schubert D.840, Brahms Op.79 and Beethoven Op.13. And we still thought he looked very like a man from Belfast, with what I regard as the typical square head, despite the fact that he actually came from Manchester.

But going back to the beginning, the fig tree across from Platform 4 was looking good, despite a front bough having broken away, I think some time last year. Plus the creeper left was doing well. Presumably hop or bryony. Mask discipline on the not very busy train from Epsom was good. Battersea Power Station, having sported lots of cranes for what seemed like years, has now more or less disappeared behind some tower blocks, at least as seen from the train. Why on earth did the heritage people waste their powder? Make the developer preserve the turbine hall and rebuild the four chimneys? Couldn't they find some bigger fish to fry?

Tube a bit busier and I was offered a seat by a young lady. Declined. I had forgotten that I am now of an age where this happens quite regularly.

All-Bar-One open, quiet and licensed, so I was able to take a beverage while BH had coffee with smarties. The waitress - quite possibly the duty manageress - did not insist on our ordering by telephone, which was just as well. But I was rather taken with the little carafe my wine came in: much more tasteful than the big glass with thick rim used in many pubs - and quite a few restaurants. By the time we left at around 12:30, several more staff had clocked in and the place had got much busier. An establishment which suits us, not least because of the high ceiling.

Out through Cavendish Square where outdoor fun is clearly the order of the day - rather than the concrete drain store of reference 2. I suppose that, until things settle down, we do need outdoor facilities, but I do hope that the square is put back to rights before too long.

Not too impressed that the Marsden had taken over a chunk of the fancy building, newly refurbished, on the west side of the square, for private care. I dare say that if you are the hard pressed financial controller at Marsden, it is anything to make the books balance - but it is not what I expect of the National Health Service.

And maybe they need to give a bit more thought to where exactly they put these commemorative plaques. Maybe somewhere not so near the fag ends.

The Wigmore Hall itself turned out to be properly spaced out, with less than half the seat occupied and lots of doors open. But rather to our surprise, only about two thirds of the audience, mostly but not exclusively of pensionable age, saw fit to mask up. Which we were surprised about - and rather put off for the future. For the moment the advice is to mask up in indoor public settings and we propose to follow that advice. To set an example, to encourage those (like our fat leader) who are impatient with rules, truth and all that sort of thing.

But the concert was good, despite O'Hara being rather keen on the fast and loud bits. The Schubert I was rather taken with. The Brahms not so much, and the Beethoven is well known. So more or less what we expected. There was a short and entirely suitable Schumann encore. O'Hara did say what it was but I have not retained more than the Schumann bit. The Schubert has been heard several time since, in the Kempff version. Given his dates it is possible that I have heard him play live, but I couldn't put it stronger than that. I do have a few discs and CD's.

Having taken the precaution of booking a table on our way to the concert, out to a very good lunch at 2 Veneti, a place we last seemed to have visited in March last year.

Mixed bread good, rather better than the Yarbridge on the other island. Fell for a Florentine steak, taken medium rare and served on a wooden platter which came with - and needed - a gutter. Very good, if not quite as spectacular as that we had one evening in Florence, just north of the Port San Gallo and noticed at reference 8. I think another time I would ask for medium rather than medium rare. I might also take my pocket Laguiole (the French one, which kept its razor edge for a long time) as they left a fair bit of meat on the bone, hard to get at with the knives provided.

The wine we took with the steak, something white from the 2017 harvest in the Alto Adige, run down via Facebook in Arabic to reference 9. What looks like the wine in question is to be found under etiquette. Perhaps Italian for brand or label?

Followed by an excellent tiramisu, served with some house pudding wine. One portion with two spoons, a format all good waiters are familiar with. Followed by mint tea for her and grappa for him, both nicely presented. The grappa in a proper grappa glass.

BH did not think it appropriate to locate the nearest M&S and walk this trolley back to it, preferring to climb onto the tube. More crowded than earlier and once again I was offered a seat, declined.

Two changes to get home, the second at Raynes Park where a good haul was noticed at reference 10. Another seat offered on the last leg to Epsom, where there was a scatter of racing people, some in full fig.  The taxi driver did not remember us, but he did remember the house, telling us on the way that the last year had been a bad year with him on furlough for most of it. One got by but it was a bit miserable.

PS: the Wigmore Hall is clearly watching costs a bit. The piece of A4 used for lunch time programmes has lost its colour and most of its printing. Just half of one side on this occasion.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/03/penultimate-outing.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/03/ronan-ohara.html.

Reference 3: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ronan-ohora-mn0002184646/biography.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/two-kinds-of-cheese.html. My last visit to London.

Reference 5: http://www.2veneti.com/.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/03/penultimate-outing.html. The last visit - perhaps the first since they started opening on Sundays. The present day being a Thursday.

Reference 7: https://www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/private-care.

Reference 8: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2008/10/culinary-matters-reprised.html. The first and best Florentine steak. Possibly the Perseus restaurant in the Viale Don Giovanni Minzoni. Format looks right, as we were on a small terrace and allowed to smoke after our meal.

Reference 9: http://www.vignaiolofanti.it/. 

Reference 10: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/platform-library.html. Notice of the haul on the platform library at Raynes Park (southbound) on the way home.