pumpkinstrokemarrow

This particular pseud was recently moved to discuss in a public place the quality of silences in chamber music. About how the quality of the silence was of a different order during a live performance than it was on my gramophone. I spared my audience the bit about Norman Lamont, but that can be found at December 9th 2009. We then went onto ponder about the fact that jazz and popular music do not seem to do silences. At least not in the sense of timed silences; just breaks between pieces or riffs. And my impression is that popular music is not into modulating the volume much. It is all loud. So that makes two dimensions of the musical spectrum which it does not bother with.

Moving on, yesterday to QEH to hear Mitsuko Uchida do a Beethoven quintet (Op. 16) with people from the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, followed by more of the same people doing the Schubert Octet (D. 803). Neither the quintet nor the Bavarians having been heard before, but with Uchida having last been heard around 6th October last year and the Octet around 11th April. Quintet went down well, despite my never having been exposed to a wind quartet with piano before and it taking a while to engage with their sound, helped along by Uchida's engaging energy. But the Octet, despite good passages, seemed strangely flat. Not sure what was wrong: the glass of wine before the quintet, sitting half a dozen rows further back, or the show itself. The players seemed a bit cold; they just sat there playing, which I thought reflected the fact that they were primarily orchestral rather than ensemble players. Used to just sitting there, whacking the stuff out from the score. The only one who seemed to have a bit of life was the double bass player. Cello not nearly as conspicuous as last year. That said, the rest of the more or less full house seemed happy enough. And by way of coincidence, for the second concert running, I had a comfortably off, abroad resident but native English speaking, visiting lady, by herself on my right. One lady on the first occasion and another on the second that is. Just one lady altogether would have been altogether too much of a coincidence.

Puzzled on the way home by a party consisting of a couple of middle age, a small daughter, a daughter in white fluffy party dress with shoes to match, three or four older girls and a violin. Much rather fast food litter poked into the rather small on-board litter bins. The dad, who spoke perfectly good English, seemed to be some sort of foreign and was clutching what appeared to be a programme for something or other. We thought that they were going to Dorking and we thought that Vaughan Williams, a famous son of Dorking, was in their conversation. Rather closed in on themselves, so we did not like to ask what particular sort of event had resulted in this particular configuration, but investigation this morning reveals that March 27th is a big day in the Vaughan Williams calendar, being the anniversary of the world première of his London Symphony in the Queen's Hall, conducted by the equally famous Sir Henry Wood. Google reports than the manuscript of the score was subsequently lost in Germany, in the travails of the first world war. There was no reprise yesterday and while there were various Vaughan Williams flavoured events sprinkled across the home counties, none of them seemed to fit the bill. So what this particular group had been up to is going to remain a mystery.

And then, arriving at Epsom, still no signs of life from our branch of Odd Bins which had been obstinately closed all day. There have been rumours about troubles at t'mill in the DT. One result of which was a visit to Waitrose to buy the luncheon wine, which turned out to be a very fine bottle of Meursault, ploughed by the king, according to the label. Labouré-Roi 2008. According to Google 'a refreshingly subtle and elegant style of chardonnay you could drink throughout the meal'. As it happens, we entirely agree.

Accompanied by roast orgo chicken accompanied by stuffing made from our very own bread, rather strongly flavoured by some elderly chopped walnuts, BH having had trouble sourcing any hazel nuts. Accompanied by rather than stuffed to take account of FIL's dietary sensitivities.