Endellion at 40

Last week to hear the Endellion Quartet give the opening London concert of their 40th season, having had their first ever rehearsal in January 1979. I don't suppose we have heard them 40 times, making our average up to one a year, but it is probably up to 20 times, with half of those being in Dorking.

Mendelssohn Op.44, No.1. Britten Op.94. Beethoven Op.59, No.2.

Started off badly with a ticket machine that refused to take my card and I was reduced to using cash. Then the Victoria train which we had planned to catch, because it was a strike day on Southwestern Trains or some such, was cancelled due to there being a person on the line. So we wound up catching a Waterloo train, strike notwithstanding, running 6 minutes late. So we managed.

Picnic'd in Cavendish Square and on into a very full hall. Flowers the same as the Sunday previous but looking a little fuller. A little riper would no doubt be accurate, but the word has a rather negative tinge in this context, which would not be what was intended.

I worried about the entablature, assuming it is permitted to use the word of a door, on top of the big brown doors at the back of the stage, one of which can be seen in the snap following, behind the rehearsing singer.

Given the extent of wall above the door, one did perhaps need something, over and above the frame, but on this occasion, for the first time, I felt quite strongly that the detailer had overdone it a bit, without being sure whether it was the strongly delineated shape or the size that was the problem. But looking at the snap left, turned up by Google, I am no longer so sure, so clearly something to be looked for on a future occasion.

Once again we failed to make a proper connection to the Mendelssohn, but otherwise the quartet were on their usual good form, with the Britten going down well and the Beethoven very well. They gave us as an encore the finale of Haydn's Op.20 No.5 quartet - in token of their view that Haydn, Beethoven and Bartók were the masters of the form.

Their puff for their sponsor, Lark Music, an insurance company, was managed rather more gracefully than when we first heard it.

Tone rather lowered while we were waiting for the tube at Oxford Circus by two rather gross advertisements for fast food and by the rather gross headline on the wrapper of the day's Evening Standard. Public standards in these matters seem to be slipping - while to my mind gross is best consumed in private, perhaps in the public bar of old.

A long wait for an Epsom change, so we took refreshment at the Half Way House. Where I was confused by a number of people walking around with blind sticks and red cloaks. BH was quite confident that it was fancy dress - which may well have been the case, but I do not approve of such abuse of the blind stick signage.

Scored a three and several twos during the subsequent short wait at Earlsfield.

Onto the train, where a gaggle of young people rearranged themselves so that we could sit down together. They were English - and amused when I told them that such displays of good manners were much more common coming from foreigners.

Day closed by my finding out all about cross quarter days, a relic of Celtic times living on in the shadow of our modern quarter days. So, rather late in the day, I now know who Beltane was. See reference 5.

PS: my recollection had been that some years ago we had heard all the Mendelssohn quartets at Dorking and not got on terribly well with them, hence the 'once again' above. A recollection which is not borne out by reference 4, such as it is. Anyway, all rather a long time ago.

Reference 1: https://www.astonlark.com/. There are a number of lark flavoured musical offerings out there, but I think that this is the right one. A big insurance broker, with a number of specialist areas. They also seem to be into the business of fancy musical instruments as an investment - while I have noticed that quite a few string players play on instruments owned by some rich business man. A win-win arrangement, with the musician getting the instrument which he could not otherwise afford and with the business man being able to feel good about his investment, even if he does not get to stroke it every evening, in the way of a miser with his gold.

Reference 2: https://www.astonlark.com/larkmusic/. Bing turned up this one, but I have yet to find the way to it from reference 1.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/05/saint-endellion.html. The last outing of the lark.

Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=mendelssohn. Most of what little I can find about Mendelssohn.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_days.

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