pumpkinstrokemarrow

Quality time yesterday was spent on the Hammerklavier sonata at St. Lukes, performed by Barry Douglas, who was interestingly introduced by the Radio 3 presenter as having been accorded the privilege of closing their season of Beethoven sonatas with the greatest of them all. A wonderful thing, rather loud in this version, rather different from my vinyl version by Claudio Arrau. Furthermore, the piano itself sounded different for Douglas, a rather different sound to that from Leonskaja, which made me wonder whether pianists supervision the tuning of their instruments to suit their style.

One side effect was that the subject introduced at the change of key at around bar 50 of the Scherzo, and repeated a few bars later, lost the impact and delicacy it was given by Arrau. A subject which I was particularly looking out for, it having caught my ear during revision. Another side effect was that having heard the thing live both brought the vinyl to life and changed it. To the point where it took me some time to find the subject in question.

And the substantial, well known but unidentified encore at the end of the first concert turns out to have been the third movement of Op. 31 No. 2. And what is more, inspection of the calendar reveals that we get to hear it all again in March, courtesy of one François-Frédéric Guy. While inspection of Mr. Google reveals much earnest discussion about favourite performances of the same sonata, a rather more elevated discussion than I am suited to.

Before the concert, had a quick look around the bit of City Road to the north of Old Street and was pleased to find that 'The Eagle' had survived the cull of pubs in this once proud & busy commercial area. The eagle, that is, of the nursery rhyme about popping the weasel. Unfortunately it was not appropriate to sample their wares before the concert. Also disappointed to find out today that the present pub, complete with a large spread eagle on top of a pole, was not the original. This had been knocked down in favour of some Salvation Army temperance operation and only became a pub again around 1900. And next to The Eagle' was a splendid looking old style café called 'The Sheperdess'. Clearly an area which needs to be explored more thoroughly.

The day also involved two more stabs at a Barclay Bike. Experience continues to be good, although I was sufficiently geed up by the sonata to lose Old Street: that is to say I started off just north of St. Lukes and managed to get caught up in the one way system around the Barbican Centre, having completely failed to notice that I had crossed Old Street without turning right, as I had intended. Very strange. I shall have to inspect the junction next time I am in the area to see how such a thing might have happened. A bit later on I got caught up in the one way system around Wardour Street, but that was more understandable. Don't recall when I last cycled in that bit of town.

Closed with a further puzzle on the Oyster Card front. I purchased a £20 top up at the ticket window, made one journey from Leicester Square to Waterloo, to find that my account now has a balance of £14.90. Which suggests that I was charged more than £6 for three stops on the tube; worse still than the £4 of last week. Did I fail to touch out in the approved manner? But if I failed to touch out, how did I get out? I certainly did not jump the barrier. When the journey in question makes it to the online version of my account I shall pursue the matter further.