Carducci

Last Sunday to the Wigmore Hall for what for me was my second dose of Carducci and for BH was her first

Nearly missed the 0954 - a train which gives us time to taste the Smarties in the Regent Street All Bar One - but a late spurt by BH saved the day. To arrive at All Bar One to find it a lot busier than it usually is mid Sunday morning. Smarties supplies good. I also noticed a rather fancy looking dumb waiter - nothing so crude as ropes or mahogany casing, but we failed to work out whether the kitchens were upstairs or downstairs. More careful inspection from the outside called for on the next occasion.

Wigmore pretty full for this popular programme of Shostakovich's string quartet No. 9, Op.117, and Beethoven's Op.59 No.3. For Razumovsky, see reference 2.

As luck would have it, we had a fidget to the right, a fidget to the left and a party of four or five young girls, quite possibly on some kind of birthday outing, in front. As it turned out, while one of the young girls had no doubt selected a concert for her birthday outing, collectively they were far too young and fidgeted their way, pretty much, all through the concert. Almost, but not quite, to the point of intervention. One of the dad's, together with his dad, seemed quite oblivious to what was going on to their right. No doubt he would have pleaded that he had no idea, with mum intervening.

Which was a pity, because the concert itself was very good. Very high impact.

Afterwards we decided against a fancy lunch and strolled down to the Wetherspoon's in a handsome & tastefully converted cinema in Charing Cross Road, built by and named for Magnus Pyke, a cinema entrepreneur from the golden days. At some point after that, the home for a while of the Marquee Club, in which guise it is possible that I had visited the place. Two steak and kidney puddings with chips and peas at £6.99 a pop; much the best value in the street. Served, I think, by a young man from Germany who knew all about how to pour a half of bitter shandy (for BH) without making a mess. He had clearly been practising.

While we ate, we wondered whether Wetherspoon's would sponsor a race to visit all the Wetherspoon's pubs and hotels in the three islands. Need to think about continental given the chain's owner's strong stand against the European Community (odd considering where most of his staff come from). We thought that by the time one had completed the circuit, a few more would have been opened and a mopping up operation might be needed, depending on the rules under which the race was run.

PS: I find that the old Lumia does have its points. Some of the old features are simpler and better than the corresponding new features, and it is certainly the case that the battery lasts a lot longer. No need at all to carry a charger on a day out.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/carducci.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/razumovsky-ensemble.html.