Niese

Last week to pay our first visit to the newly reopened QEH to hear one Danielle de Niese and friends, some very old.

A damp and cold evening, clearly one for which the folding umbie was required, as it happens bought from the Hudson Bay Trading Company in Ottawa, a sort of department store somewhere in the space between the Coop and John Lewis. See reference 1 for an abbreviated version of the name.

Passed a young couple, coming down Station Approach, fresh off their train from town, sharing a fag in a very couply sort of way. Not the sort of thing you see so often these days.

Then we had five fairly young ladies sharing a section for four, chattering nineteen to the dozen all the way to Waterloo. Young ladies from the far north out for a beano somewhere.

Arrived at the QEH to find repositioned bars and refurbished toilet blocks. That and the recovered black seats in the hall proper are about all the visible change that I can report. But annoying events in the antechamber continue, on this occasion with some rather noisy variation on a gamelan band. Annoying to be paying good money for a concert and have to put up with this sort of thing on the way in. It is not as if there are very many classical concerts these days, so they could at least let up on the busking when they do have one. Also annoying in the way that concourse areas at railway stations get cluttered up with all kinds of stuff blocking the free and easy movement of passengers. Although to be fair, Waterloo had a bit of a purge a few years back and is much the better for it.

Chamber itself about two thirds full, including three serious (male) music buffs in front of us. I might say that I thought there were significantly more men than women in the audience, perhaps drawn by the very youthful picture of de Niese used in the fliers. That aside, she turned out to have a tremendous stage presence and a tremendous voice, even if it did go a bit harsh at the top and bottom of her range. Her opening piece by Roussel - Deux poèmes du Ronsard, Op. 26 - had a very high impact (from row F, with no intervening heads). She also changed her dress for the second half, for which she wore a flashy blue off-the-shoulder creation plus a flashy necklace.

One of her friends was Sir James Galway (78) and another was Menahem Pressler (95). The former was news to me (but not to BH), but we had heard the latter back in 2011, at which time he impressed (reference 4). But I felt that now, eminent though he might be, he should not be performing in public any more, even with a couple of minders to help. Another was Mark Simpson, but the blog only admits to Simpsons on television or Simpsons in Piccadilly. And the last was the Navarra String Quartet, who did three concerts in Dorking back in 2014 (reference 5).

Good to hear Schubert's two death and the maidens juxtaposed, as here.

I think the encore was one of Tchaikovsky's 7 romances for soprano and piano, Op.47.

All in all, a memorable evening. But sampling one of the soprano pieces from YouTube this morning, perhaps something one really needs to hear live.

We thought we spotted at least two of the members of the quartet scuttling away as we headed back to Waterloo. So maybe performing with de Niese is one thing; having to play courtier in the green room afterwards quite another.

Overcast at Earlsfield, so no aeroplanes.

Reached Epsom to find that the 'Plaice to Eat' spurned late evening trade, probably put off by all the young people out having fun, so settled for bread, cheese and Bells at home.

PS: must tell the people at QEH that printing in yellow on black in anything other than bold is no good for people with home printers and home scanners. Not only is there a quality issue, there is also a cost issue, with great areas of black burning up a lot of toner. Furthermore there are plenty of people out there producing stuff for their club or society - perhaps a programme for a light opera company or a flier for a fete - who have a similar lack of regard. They have moved with the times to the extent of making whatever it is available electronically, but not to that of making it printer or scanner friendly.

Reference 1: https://www.thebay.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/thebay.

Reference 2: http://www.danielledeniese.com/en/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_de_Niese.

Reference 4: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=wimmin.

Reference 5: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=navarra.

Reference 6: http://www.plaicetoeat.co.uk/.