Monday, February 07, 2011
Sacconi quartet
The people at Dorking have gone for a younger quartet this year so we got to hear the Sacconi Quartet (http://www.sacconi.com/home) on Saturday, the first of their series of three. And very good they were too, bringing a bit of youth and zap to the proceedings. But not so youthful that the viola player didn't wait to start a second movement until a presumably older gent. in the back row had stopped mumbling. Programme went small, medium, big rather than the more usual medium, small, big. So we started with Wolf's Italian Serendade (never heard before), then Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 (never heard before) and finished with the reasonably familiar (but not too old to hear something new each time) Beethoven's Op. 59 No. 1. A musical feast of climbing. Wolf started a bit jerky - at least it seemed so to me - but settled down to something rather good. Smetana good and Beethoven the business. Although the joined up, last two movements seemed to sag a little: perhaps I was getting tired. Or perhaps the glass of cheap wine (sold in small bottles with uninteresting labels; not as posh as what you used to get in BA club class) was a mistake.
Yesterday, a swing through a part of the Sussex countryside we do not know so well, not even to the point of knowing whether it was east or west. Never mind hawk from hacksaw. Vaguely east from that nest of mixed holies at East Grinstead, through Forest Row and Groombridge, ending up for our penultimate stop at the Beacon in Tea Garden Lane (http://www.the-beacon.co.uk/). Interesting place with a grand site and grand beer - Landlord again plus some more local stuff which I was not able to sample on this first occasion. I imagine they do good food. Villages on the way were an odd combination of twee, old and shabby. Quite a lot of pubs which had expanded into the gastro/hotel business. Quite a lot of large leylandii. Perhaps there is a top-notch breeder in the vicinity. Generally, a good mix of mature trees, suggesting that there is money in the vicinity too.
Home to a spot of Rotman's group theory. Odd how after all these years, turning the pages of Penrose on the secrets of the universe and Yau on the shapes of the universe has stirred the mathematical juices again. Humbling to realise how little of what there is I learned at university.
This morning, the first swing out on the bike for a while. Half hour run round Horton Lane. Cold wind but no ill effects so far. We will see what the story is at the end of the day.
# posted by Jim @ 1:31 AM 
