pumpkinstrokemarrow

Yesterday to Epsom station for a bit of train spotting, hoping to see again the strange train I saw the other night. Locomotive at both ends, something very inferior to the Class 45 locos the better trains from Cambridge to London used to be pulled by. It had the same general shape as a 45 but it was smaller all round and had a shorter snout; I think now maybe Class 38 but this is denied at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_Rail_modern_traction_locomotive_classes which claims that such things were never made. Anyway, between the two locos were maybe half a dozen recycled passenger cars, painted a dingy yellow. Some of them still had windows through which one could see sink, kettle, coffee pot, a range of flat screen PCs and a vacuum cleaner. And there were some large contraptions. The only person involved appeared to be the driver marching sturdily from one loco to the other. But what it was all about I could not tell; nor could the Portuguese (I think) lady who had charge of the platform at that time. So imperative to see the thing again and have another crack at identification. But failed. The thing was nowhere to be seen.

Foiled here, we carried on to the South Bank to pay our third visit in three weeks to 'Eat'; indeed our second visit to this very branch in two weeks. A far more sensible place than the poncy eatery entirely inappropriately called 'Canteen'.

Then off to hear Imogen Cooper play Schubert. A triumph, played to a nearly full and very enthusiastic house. Off to a stunning start with impromptu number 1 in C minor (D899, part), through to the climax of a sonata in B flat (D960) and wound down by what the chap behind me thought was one of the moments musicaux (D780). Sadly, my stock of Schubert piano music very thin so it may be a while before I track it down. Amazed, once again, by the way that one piano can fill a big hall, even when being played very quietly. Reminded of a cheap crack that Norman Lamont made at the expense of one of his hard working mandarins, who, thinking to congratulate him on his handling of a meeting, told him (Lamont that is) that he thought he (Lamont again) handled the silences very well. Lamont relates, we all laugh. But we were all wrong. Managing silences in meetings is a very useful art. And managing - or perhaps timing - silences is something that Imogen Cooper did very well last night. Not to mention the telling chords dropped into those silences. And then there was the thought that how odd it was that a composer who died of the clap in his mid thirties getting on for 200 years ago, speaking through a lady in middle years and a posh piano, could hold 1,000 of us in thrall for a couple of hours. You are not going to get much more immortal than that. Odd also that we in Epsom should rate the creative arts so highly. All those hoodies doing substance enhanced conceptual art at http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/. When there is so much to be had from reproductive arts. A point that D H Lawrence made many years ago in 'Women in Love' when castigated by a tiresome lover that he ought to be creative rather than copy the creation of someone else.