pumpkinstrokemarrow

Then off to hear Pollini at the RFH. Drawn there by his offering the Chopin Preludes. A sort of feast of 24 appetisers, or perhaps 24 warm-up acts. But I rather like them.

Auditorium not quite full, some having fallen by the wayside during the postponement from April. But there were a lot of flashily dressed ladies; a much higher proportion than one would see at, say, the Wigmore Hall. And lots of people from the far east. By way of contrast, the male attendants looked a touch scruffy in black SBC tee-shirts; perhaps a gesture towards the K. Livingstone/New Labour invented and now pressing need for the SBC to be more accessible. Two quite young ones had to sit in prominent positions on the stage through the performance and I did not envy them at all: what if one felt like a scratch or fell asleep? Some bad behaviour from the audience in the form of taking flash pictures despite being asked twice not too; hopefully the young ones saw the culprits afterwards. One phone went off during the performance. Which prompted the thought that given the number of people who feel the need to check them at every interval in the proceedings, it is a wonder that it does not happen more often. Luckily I had left mine at home, out of harm's way.

Chopin very good, followed by 6 Debussy Preludes. Also good, recognisably of the same genre, although getting a bit modern. The concert was wrapped up by a very energetic rendering of the very modern (1948) Piano Sonata No. 2 by Boulez. Flashy and shimmering are words which come to mind, but despite all that, rather too much for me. And enough for Pollini that he needed the services of both music and page-turner, a page turner whom I think to have seen on the same errand at the Wigmore Hall. Do prima donna pianists have favoured page-turners, in the way that prima donna golfers have favoured caddies? In any event, reminded why I usually avoid this sort of thing - of which there is usually rather a lot in these 'International Piano Series' concerts. Is this a relic of the taste of Al Fayed, the man from Harrods who used to sponsor them? But I was clearly in a minority, with the enthusiastic audience awarding the chap a standing ovation. We left before there was any chance of an encore.

On the way out, we had noted that Tower Crane 2 at the Epsom Station building site has now acquired a partner, Tower Crane 1. The same sort of crane as Crane 2 but a rather lighter, slenderer model. But why do the builders install Crane 2 months before Crane 1? And while we are on the subject, does the large on-site generator (which seems to be on 24 by 7) power the cranes or do they trust their luck to the National Grid?

So on the way home, we thought to inspect the green alkanet at Raynes Park (see 11th March). Hard to tell quite what was going on in the dark, but it rather looked as if someone had tried to kill it by spreading some sort of smelly compost on top. With new green alkanet pushing through nevertheless. Although given that compost on a Network Rail flower bed seems a bit improbable, perhaps someone had just strimmed it with the same sort of effect. All the chopped down alkanet composting down in the recent rain. Must try and take a look while it is still light.