The home of the Guardian

Last week saw a return to the headquarters building of my newspaper of choice, the Guardian, up York Way, behind Kings Cross railway station. Fine view of the tracks. Aka Kings Place.

My first, and possibly only visit previous was noticed at reference 1.

Thought about but decided against pedalling up from Waterloo on this occasion. Which meant that I was reminded how far you can walk in the newly refurbished underground station at Kings Cross. In the course of which I came across a group of maybe 50 or more foreign football supporters, drink taken, but singing rather well. No idea where they were from or what they were singing about.

I don't know if I had seen the honeycomb roof over part of the railway station before, but it was rather effective, rather more so than the one over what was the courtyard of the British Museum which I find too large: impressive but not likeable.

Arrived at Kings Place (illustrated) to find the same couple we had sat next to the evening before, on this occasion taking coffee. This despite the lady's assertion of the night before that they were not going to do culture three nights running - their having done two Emersons to our one. See reference 6.

I thought about sandwiches, but remembered the failure on the last occasion, so slipped out for a little something else in the nearby Central Station of Wharfedale Road. Probably a gay bar but quiet enough on this occasion and serving an acceptable sauvignon blanc from France.

Natalie Clein was the star of the occasion, offering the fourth and fifth of Bach's cello suites, topped up with some Kurtág (Signs, Games and Messages) and Suite No.1 from Bloch. The suites were as good as I have come to expect, and I even liked the extras. Furthermore, for me, two suites in a short concert worked even better than six in a long concert, for which see reference 3 from February. I seem to have last heard Clein more than two years ago, at St. Luke's, an occasion noticed at reference 7.

Nice stage manners, including flashy red dungarees, rather than the flashy green dress of last time. Off the shoulder, which exhibited what looked to be very muscular shoulders and upper arms. Very expressive and mobile face. Quite a lot of breathing noises. Some references to what I suppose is her Jewish heritage. She also told us about needing to retune one of the strings of her cello for the fifth cello suite, mourning in passing the passing of the days when musicians fiddled with tunings rather more than they do now. So maybe the lady from the Guardian, complaining about lack of tuning, mentioned at reference 6, had not told us the whole story.

On my last visit I had been in Hall No.2 so this was my first visit to Hall No.1, rather like a rectilinear version of that at Milton Court. A very good seat and very good hearing, but I found all the flat rectangular surfaces of the brown timber trim a bit harsh, a bit hard on the eyes. Hall No.2 had a folk concert going on at the same time, completely unheard by me, which was as it should be. All the timber in Hall No.1 also reminded me of the rather smaller, but otherwise rather similar concert hall at the Menuhin school, off the M.25, not far from Epsom. Maybe there is an architectural practise out there which is into timber with its music. Maybe the timber is good at soaking up the sound waves hitting the walls, rather than reflecting it. In the way that similarly organised timber is good at soaking up the energy in the water waves hitting the beach?

The chap sitting just along from me had been working hard to impress his young lady with his knowledge of music and cellos, but was quite unable to help me with my diagonal query. See the postscript to the post at reference 5.

On this occasion, despite the Bach, the encore was rather good too, something to do with a Sarajevo cellist, probably Vedran Smailović. Being a cello solo and not lasting for getting on for ten minutes, I have not managed to work out what it was, beyond possibly being some version of or extract from Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor, famous at the time of the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990's? See reference 2.

Worked my way back through Kings Cross - a far cry from the seedy area I used to know fifty years ago - in time to take in a quick round of aeroplanes at Earlsfield. A quick two, then nothing, despite being in just the right spot to catch them sinking into the western horizon. But I was reminded towards the east of my youthful, artistic interest in the tops of elm trees, then common, set against pale winter skies.

With entertainment on the train taking the form of a pair of girls, one dressed up and one not, for some reason. The dressed up including long blonde hair, elaborate make-up, big red handbag, white jacket, pink and orange fluffy scarf, shiny black leggings and fancy shoes. Quite unclear what she might have been dressed up for.

PS: eventually tracked down the reference to more suites from Jean-Guihen Queyras at reference 3. Confused by it saying St. Luke's there when it should have said Milton Court, which has been booked. Tracked down with the help of Bachtrack (a useful resource when you are looking for something particular, see reference 5) and google email search.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/kings-place.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedran_Smailovi%C4%87.

Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/wednesdays-girl.html.

Reference 4: https://bachtrack.com/.

Reference 5: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/cello.html.

Reference 6: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/emerson.html.

Reference 7: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/coped-with-modern.html.