Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Pianos
Yesterday to hear Mitsuko Uchida at a fairly full festival hall. First time we have heard her. Started off with Beethoven Op. 90, followed by Schumann and Chopin virtuoso pieces and wound up with the first movement of Op. 27 No.2 (aka Moonlight) as an encore. The programme worked well in that I am not usually that keen on the virtuoso pieces which they like to trot out for these international piano series - but sandwiched between calmer fare these two were fine. Moonlight spot on for the encore; wound us down nicely for the train. She had attacked the virtuoso pieces with great panache and once one had settled into them one could, for once, see the point, with the end of the Chopin Op. 58 sonata being quite something. The rest of the audience clearly thought so too, almost going as far as a standing ovation.
But went away thinking that Beethoven managed to do a lot more with a lot less than his successors.
Today was the return of the sheep's neck for lunch. Usual recipe although I had a fit of the veggies in that before commencing the boil, I removed most of the pair of tendons running along the back of the neck and which the sheep, in life, presumably used to wag its head up and down. They can be a bit off-putting on the plate. Over the neck bones, FIL and I wondered whether being in the surgical trade would put one off meat eating. FIL, who during the second war had put in many hours in operating theatres, thought not. Certainly never caused him any problem in that department.
Wound up the day with a visit to our local Travis Perkins. A helpful and obliging bunch, the only catch being that one of the cast iron covers to the drain trench - about 9 inches wide and 12 inches deep - in their shared car park was missing - and clearly had been for some time. Only noticed the gap when my leg went down it. At which point I noticed that the front tyre must have missed it by an inch or so. Could have been nasty. Decided not to be busy and to go and pester the Travis Perkins chaps about it but spent the journey home wondering whether it would have been fair to sue had I broken my leg.
# posted by Jim @ 7:50 AM 
