A little nervous about the trains, given the recent upheaval at Waterloo, but the journey in to Victoria was uneventful, apart from a young gentleman who appeared unable to stand still and a not particularly young lady wearing a rather expensive but rather clinging dress. Not very English at all. And as it turned out there was another lady of the same sort just in front of us in the audience, probably German, this time wearing a rather expensive but rather short skirt.
At Clapham Junction we did a double take on a digger a couple of platforms away, moving south, but with wheels which suggested moving north. We decided that the answer was that it was a regular digger mounted on some kind of rail trolley, the wheels of which were turned forwards by the wheels of the digger turning backwards. All very confusing.
The flowers in the hall were very good, mainly red anthuriums with a lot of green to back them up. But the effect was rather spoiled by the hall having decided to use a projector up on the balcony to project messages about phones and such like onto the back wall of the stage, rather in the way of the people at the south bank. We much preferred the arrangement involving a person. Furthermore, either the projector or some other light source meant that one could see the shadow of the hanging microphone cluster on said back wall for the duration. Perhaps they will get better as the season progresses.
Haydn Op.33 No.1 very good.
Widmann String Quartet No.1 not without interest, but appropriately short. Introduced by reading the preface to the score from the composer, which explained how difficult it was to follow on from the greats. How can one do something which has not been done before?
The Shostakovich Op.57 piano quintet does not always work for me, perhaps because it is such a favourite. See reference 2, which seems to be the work's last outing. But it did work on this occasion, although I lost concentration just as it was petering quietly out, which was a pity.
We did not like the bit of Fauré played by way of an encore. It did not sit well with what went before - and, we think, meant that we just missed a train at Victoria.
The second violin had an engaging, self effacing way about her while waiting for her turn. She managed to appear to be taking an interest in the music, without chafing at the bit. A good team player. While the piano seemed to be very young.
Having missed the train at Victoria, it was clear that the trains were in a bit of a state, so we tried Clapham Junction, to be reminded of the different class of passenger on the Victoria side. Including on this occasion some very cheerful drunks sitting down by the doors while they did their burgers and chips. Very philosophical about our climbing over them. From Clapham Junction we got a train to Raynes Park, from where we were able to get a replacement bus service, a service which was surprisingly quick on the quiet roads. Helped along by entertainment from a cheerful English gentleman who worked and mostly lived in Munich, a town which he recommended to us very warmly. I certainly remember being very impressed with its description when I happened to look the place up a few years ago. Lots to see and do, including mountains in day tripping distance. Maybe we will make it one day.
PS: the gentleman's German was good enough that he could put an English accent into his German when he wanted to impress the Germans. Otherwise he was mistaken for a German and got no credit for his fluency.
Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/last-dorking.html.
Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/carducci.html.
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