Faust

Last week to the RFH to hear Isabelle Faust and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment do some older music. Haydn, symphony No.49. Mozart, violin concerto No.1. CPE Bach, Symphony in G. Mozart, violin concerto No.5. Unusual in that we do not do orchestras very often.

Bright but cool evening and I was pleased to see a young man heading west on the cycle path over West Hill. Someone actually using it for once, rather than cycling on the path on the other side of the road, intended for pedestrians.

First young lady of the outing caught my eye on the platform on account of her tight lycra leggings, plain black below and strongly patterned on her bottom. I was reminded of the displays that some monkeys make in the same area.

Second young lady was crossing from Waterloo to the South Bank Centre, soberly dressed in black top and trousers, but with the black set off by glittering gold shoes, mainly strap, but including very high heels. It must have taken her some time to learn to walk in them without falling over.

Arrived at the RFH to be given a substantial and free program. The first time such a thing has happened. A program which seemed to make more of a splash with the creative team - including people like the digital content officer and the director of marketing and audience development - than it did with the orchestra.

However, the orchestra were listed, all 31 of them. 11 ladies. 2 brass - seemingly french horns without valves or pistons, but one with a spare coil of tubing and the other with a selection of what looked like shoe horns hanging from the music stand. 3 woodwind - seemingly old style oboes looking rather like modern recorders. Cellos without legs. The drill was stand for the first piece, sit for the second, stand for the third and sit for the fourth. Cellos excused standing, Faust excused sitting.

I was very taken with it all, with the Mozart 5 bringing the concert to a triumphant close. Apart that is from the encore, said to be Mozart's Rondo in C major, probably K.373. Also, having been very taken with CPE Bach's symphony (for strings only), I was reminded of reading somewhere that CPE was much better known in Haydn's day than his father, with Haydn being quite surprised to learn that the father was a musician at all.

Orchestra small enough and playing the sort of music that meant one could hear what was going on, without it all burring into a wall of sound. So good.

My only comment would be that there sometimes seemed to be odd clicking noises from some of the strings and I wondered whether something untoward was happening when the bow changed direction at the end of a stroke, perhaps catching the string at the wrong phase.

The leader and the younger string players paid great attention to Faust when she played - but I was amused to see a fatter, older chap at the back of the violins who had clearly seen it all before and paid her no attention at all. For all the world he might have been having a scratch.

Faust, unlike Wuja the week before (noticed at reference 2), was soberly dressed, with a long yellow skirt (with cummerband) and a lilac top, a sort of hybrid between a blouse and a shawl. I found the shawl part, flapping about below her arms, a little distracting, but it did not seem to bother her.

More or less full downstairs, including the cellist from the Endellion Quartet (the second time I have seen him in an audience, a cello player with a PhD in philosophy from Cambridge) and a chap who looked like an older version of someone for whom I used to work. His father or older brother? I restrained myself from bothering either of them.

Already booked up for a near repeat concert, this time with the new-to-us Rachel Podger, in November. With this exact same concert being given eight times in Australia before it gets to us at the end of the month. Do they steam around Australia in a giant bus with trailer, after the fashion of a road train? In any event, another orchestra which is getting as much as it can from its investment in rehearsals. See references 3 and 4.

PS 1: with thanks to reference 1 for the picture, rather more interesting than anything I had to hand.

PS 2: reference 5 reduced me to geekery. Involved doing something with exceptions in flash in content settings. But it seems to have worked. Ten out ten to the relevant chrome help page.

Reference 1: http://www.janackuvmaj.cz/.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/wuja.html.

Reference 3: http://www.rachelpodger.com/.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train.

Reference 5: http://www.endellionquartet.com/.