It's those elias again

To the Wigmore Hall on Thursday to hear the Elias Quartet once again, a quartet of whom we seem to have seen quite a lot since our first coming across them on or around March 11th 2011 (see the other place). (In the course of checking all this out I come across Norbert Elias, an interesting historian, but there is no connection as the quartet claims to be named for the German for Elijah).

Slightly panicky start as we were stuck in a train between Raynes Park and Wimbledon for a while, only making it to the Hall without time for a warm-up coffee, but in time for 18.4, an early quartet of which I am fond and must have heard a few times now, possibly for the first time from students in a church in Cambridge, shortly before the smoking ban came into pubs. I remember talking with a smoking, Canadian lady pub manager about it just before the concert, her take being that it would penalise small pubs like hers which did not have the space or money to go in for fancy smoking dens. This rendering from the Elias was very good, perhaps the best I have heard, with plenty of of brash and brio from this young quartet for this early quartet.

Harp good in a different way, the third hearing in not much more than that many weeks, slightly marred to my mind by the first violinist trying to play some of her quiet, contrast leads too quietly, more quietly than she or her instrument could comfortably manage, which distracted one from the intended effect. Op. 130 plus Op. 133 their usual grand selves, attracting a very enthusiastic response from the audience; a more or less full house with more people with coloured - as opposed to gray - hair colour than is often the case. Slightly marred by the fidgeting of the young man sitting next to BH who seemed unable to keep still. On the other hand, the lady sitting next to me told us all about free lectures at Gresham College (http://www.gresham.ac.uk/) which, on inspection look well worth a try. Some of them include wine: I remember the British Museum being quite generous in that way so perhaps Gresham College will be their equal.

Sitting much nearer the back than usual, row P, did not seem to matter at all. So, an excellent concert, but it was just as well I had taken a siesta or I might not have gone the distance.

PS: today I close with a puff for online forums. Experiencing some damage to my blogger user experience, I poked about in the help for a while to no avail but then tried posting a question on one of the various Google forums available for such purposes. About a day later I had the answer, very simple as it turned out, but it might have taken me a long time to work it out for myself. And given that the answer came from somewhere in Canada, more or less by return of post when allowance is made for the time difference, the forum really did work in the way intended.