Uchida

On Monday to the RFH to hear Uchida do a mainly Schumann programme. The Kreisleriana and the Fantasie in C major. Introduced by the Mozart sonata in C major, K.545. No idea why I lighted on this particular concert as I am generally very conservative in such matters, sticking with what we know and, Shostakovich apart. rarely straying beyond Schubert.

Pondered on the way about what Uchida's warming up routine might be and how long before a concert it might start. It seemed to me to be quite likely that she would have some kind of ritual that she went through, a ritual which you disturbed at your peril. Perhaps the sort of thing that performers discuss among themselves - but prefer not to share with the customers. Which strikes me as entirely reasonable: I am not paying for what she does before she comes on. But it does seem to me to be quite likely that all performers have such rituals, little routines they go through. I remember once being told about a politician who made a practice of chewing on something chewy for a few minutes before the off, with the idea being to get the mouth muscles warmed up for a bit of energetic talking - which seems fair enough, but I suspect that there was a bit more to it than that: it was part of his ritual.

Rituals apart, I liked her stage manners. Confident without being flashy. And as for her playing, Mozart very good, Schumann one good and Schumann two not so good. Would probably have been improved by a bit more preparation that listening to the opening bars on YouTube.

A fidget head immediately in front of me, not too irritating. But a chap fidgeting with his watch on the stage was rather irritating, not least because the face of the watch kept catching the light. And then the was the lady at the end of the row taking notes - a business which, if one was a critic, might be necessary but which can hardly enhance the experience, either for the person concerned or her near neighbours. Taking notes while looking at a picture is one thing, the picture is not going to run away. But taking notes while listening to music, something which is passing in time, is quite another. Hard to see how one can both listen and take notes - although perhaps if you are a professional listener you hardly need to listen at all: you hear a few highlights from which you can spin some words for the rag and the rest of the time you just join up the dots.

For the first time that I can remember, we bought a couple of small chocolate bars to eat in the interval. We usually have sweets in the car for long journeys, I sometimes buy Bounty bars in service stations and I sometimes buy chocolates on birthdays and at Christmas - but that is about it. So buying confectionery at a concert very odd.

Skipped the encore and just caught the 2139 to Epsom.

Checking the next day, I was surprised to find that we had not been to hear Uchida that much at all. See references 2 and 3. While if I had been asked beforehand, I would have plumped for something much more recent.

PS: there was a review in the Guardian a few days later, from which we learned that the encore was Kurtág - so no idea how that would have gone down. Like us, the reviewer, liked the first Schumann better than the second. On the other hand, it was a he, so not the lady taking notes. And I should say that most of the review meant nothing to me at all, a completely foreign language. From which I associate to the thought that stage manners apart, I am hard pushed to tell one performer from another - and you won't often catch me saying that I much preferred X's performance of Y to Z's. Or that recording A is much better than recording B.

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=uchida.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/borletti-buitoni-trust.html.