Debussy

Wigmore again last Monday, picked, I should imagine in spite of Debussy, rather than for him, his being a composer I think of as fast, complicated and modern, adjectives with a negative rather than positive valence in this context.

As it turned, out the Debussy was both familiar and good, familiar on the strength of a single hearing about nine months ago. So the brain remembered the music, but I did not remember its name or the fact that I had heard it before. Clearly keep the different bits of that hearing in different compartments, with different keys. See reference 1.

But to start at the beginning, it was a cold night, despite being quite hazy overhead. Quite cold enough for me to be glad of my gloves but not cold enough to stop lots of young people working their telephones gloves-off. I blame the warfarin. And at Oxford Circus there was even a family of tourists buying ice-creams, clearly an essential part of a holiday as far as they were concerned.

On the way, what seemed to be a succession of young ladies talking to their telephones about having fun. Perhaps it is just because I am not young, but it all seemed a bit forced to me - with my limited experience being that the harder you go after fun, the harder it is to find it, with a more relaxed approach usually being more productive. Or is it more a matter of personality than age? But the diet of fun was varied by a story about an avalanche while out skiing - or to be more precise, I got to hear the various responses to such a story. But responses of a kind that was one able to have a fair crack at reconstruction. No real damage, so the two concerned could enter into the whole business with cheerful gusto, without feeling any impropriety.

Arrived at the Wigmore to find that their flowers had moved into red and green, to the extent of including what appeared to be green flowers, of a daisy variety. The lead flowers were red anthuriums, as last seen - in the white on that occasion - at reference 2 - so perhaps the lady that did that arrangement was back on watch.

Started with the Schubert D703 which was fine, but it made an odd prelude to the Haydn which followed (Op.20 No.6). Too much of a change of gear for me, a change which seemed to throw what followed a bit out of kilter. Serioso (Op.95) good, but would perhaps have been better had I done a bit of revision beforehand. Enough to remind me of how it went, not so much as to take the gloss off. But back at the change of gear, I think the problem there was that the three pieces making up the programme proper did not amount to a concert of what was thought to be of sufficient length, so the Schubert was tacked on front as a make weight. And a slow movement from Haydn (Op.54 No.1) was tacked on behind as an encore. At least this last worked fine, making a good closure to the very different Debussy.

I felt rather sorry for the cello at one point, obliged by the sponsor, Lark Insurance, to put in an advert for them - and he looked most uncomfortable about doing it. A chap who usually has much more aplomb when it comes to talking to the audience, something the Endellions are rather partial to. I wonder what Mr. Lark made of it; he can at least take comfort from my remembering all about it, which might be enough for him.

The programme was done under the Endellion flag, making it a bright orange on this occasion. The chap on the door would say no more than that they liked to do their own programme, so they did. One result being a more cantabrian flavour than a normal Wigmore produced programme. I wondered this morning about the business arrangement. Does the Wigmore hire the quartet and take all the risk? Does the agent for the Endellions hire the hall and take all the risk? Or is there some profit share agreement? Or do the they hire in it their own name - taking all the risk but also taking all the profits, should there be any. And printing their own programmes. Hall pretty much full on this occasion, so I suppose there would have been some profits. For the terms and conditions for hiring the hall, interested readers can follow the lead given at reference 4. I wondered also whether the Wigmore do better at providing their artists & artistes with refreshments than the Dorking Halls - a place which does not seem to be able to manage this basic civility, despite my poking them twice on the matter. Possibly the result of the catering there being sub-contracted out, with most of the staff being young, transient and zero-hours.

Home via the Jubilee Line, something I do not recall doing before, having been put off by the notion that it was a long way down and a long way back up again at Waterloo. In the event, one lost the walk to Oxford Circus, good for the circulation after sitting down for a while, but gained some minutes on the journey time, useful at what is, these days, late at night for me.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/its-those-dantes-again.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/borodin.html.

Reference 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2i6pX5kLBg. A rendering of the encore from the Conway Hall. I had not realised that they do concerts there.

Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/trios.html.