On Friday to the QEH to a concert under the auspices of this trust (see http://www.bbtrust.com/), which looks to be under the artistic direction of Mitsuko Uchida and to be financed by David Landau. This last with an interesting history as according to the Daily Telegraph web site: 'David Landau, 59, who made his fortune from the free advertising newspaper Loot, said he had left because Alistair Darling's tax raid on non-domiciled individuals had "broken" their trust. Mr Landau has returned to Italy because of the tax change, which came into force in April... Mr Landau, who has served as a trustee of the National Gallery, a governor of the Courtauld Institute and on the board of the Art Fund since coming to Britain to be an Oxford don in 1983, said of the levy: "It really broke the trust of non-domiciles'''. Not clear exactly how the Italian connection fits in or whether it includes lasagne (see http://www.buitoni.com/); in a place like Italy it might well do.
The programme was Mozart's clarinet quintet (the draw, as far as I was concerned), Britten's temporal variations for oboe and piano and Schubert's piano trio D898 (a late work).
The performers included the Elias quartet, although perusal of the printed programme did not make it clear to me in which items they were to participate. We have heard the Elias quartet on a number of occasions (see the other place) and possibly for the first time doing, guess what, the Mozart clarinet quintet with Micheal Collins (see March 11th 2011), at our first ever visit to St. Luke's. More careful perusal today suggests that the Elias might have done the quintet again without Micheal Collins, and then retired from the scene. But it does not tell us anything about the tax affairs of the trustees of the sponsoring trust, which might have made interesting reading.
Off to a bad start, arriving at the QEH where there was a tremendous racket from the stage erected in what should be the antechamber. Had to wait outside until 1900 for that to go away; all very tiresome. Must write a disgusted from Epsom to the management.
On into the chamber where we had seats in the AA row which I like for the leg room. There is also quite a good chance of a good view of the stage: on this occasion a result for BH but not for me - but on the other hand she had a fidgety and smelly neighbour on the other side from me. The Mozart was done with a light touch, which I liked; one could really hear the parts. But it was not to everybody's taste as one loud punter was complaining on exit that the strings were beautifully phrased but feeble. The Britten was interesting and the Schubert, as one might have expected, good. And, as the programme explained, surprisingly cheerful for such a late work.
Just caught a train at Waterloo which was good, sitting opposite, as it happened a lady who had been to the RFH to hear the RPO. We were entertained on arrival at Epsom by a cheerful young man who plonked down in the adjacent four seater to roll himself a joint, while explaining exactly what he was up to to someone at the other end of his mobile phone. The conductor, who happened to be nearby, turned his back. The lady opposite us, of something near our age and who should have been familiar with such things from her younger days, looked rather bemused. Joint was not lit on board, we did not notice whether it was lit on station.
PS: for once in a while the blogger software threw a bit of a wobbly today, it being unclear about whether I was logged in or not and generating lots of near open windows in Chrome. Closing Chrome did not clear, but restarting the PC did. albeit with a few traces when first back into blogger.
No comments:
Post a Comment