Travelled during a lull in a spell of strikes about train guards, with the Waterloo trains affected for the first time, having failed to give the unions a guarantee that they would never ever run a train without a guard. With the unions seeming to me be having a death wish: only a matter of time before driving the trains gets handed over to what will be rightly perceived as more reliable computers.
It being cold and dark we took our picnic in the Bechstein Room in the basement of the Hall, which I felt a little bad about as they do sell food and drink there - but we were by no means the only ones. Must be our age, having been brought up by parents made frugal by their experiences in and after the second world war. It is also true that I prefer bread of my own making taken with a spot of decent cheese to the sort of sandwiches which get sold to the public.
First half very strong with a Concerto Grosso from Handel and a song about the crucifixion from Ferrandini. Prina's singing in this last very forward, with a terrific voice and with full accompaniment from the body. A sort of exaggerated version of the full body conducting I had noticed at reference 3. I suppose, the sort of thing that singers of popular music do at arenas.
Second half started well with some un-Bach-like Bach and another Concerto Grosso, this one from Locatelli, but I was not so impressed by Prina on her second outing, with Vivaldi. There was a lot of impressive vibrato, which left one wondering how on earth she did it, but perhaps her florid style was wearing a bit thin on me. The rest of the audience, however, was very enthusiastic. We stayed for one encore, from Handel's Messiah, but there were more for the enthusiasts.
And Prina out front was complemented by a older lady violinst, rather tall, in the back row who seemed to be laughing and joking with the chap next to her whenever she had a free moment. I thought she should have contained herself better, all rather distracting once you had noticed her.
Both orchestra and singer stood to their music, with the small stage at the Wigmore seeming rather crowded. And even before the musicians came on, the stage had seemed to be rather crowded with the dozen or so microphones set out by the BBC for their live recording for Radio 3, but I am pleased to say that once the musicians did come on, one no longer noticed them.
I spent part of the remainder of the evening puzzling about the mysteries of basso continuo, aria, recitativo and ripieno, with Ripieno being the name of a choir we hear a fair amount of. See, for example, reference 4. I learned that the eighteenth century saw the departure of music from the democratic ways of the seventeenth century with its consorts of viols and consorts of voices. Much more into loud, high lines of music - be they voice or instrumental - taking the lead. A time of rapid evolution towards the dizzy, mainly German heights around the end of the century.
PS 1: having indulged in BBC iplayer (radio) this morning, will I remember to own up to YouGov next time they ask? Consumption of streamed film, music and news being regulars on their questionnaires - but not something that I do very often, so I usually just click through those sections.
PS 2: I close with a wonderfully obscure factlet. It seems that Prina was born in an unimportant town called Magenta in north western Italy and that the important colour magenta was named for the colour of the uniforms of the French Zouaves who fought at the battle of Magenta, just outside that town. This according to Wikipedia.
Reference 1: https://akamus.de/de.
Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Prina.
Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/more-enlightenment.html.
Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/vespers.html.
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