Dorking three

On Saturday to the third and last recital given by the Piatti String Quartet at Dorking Halls, promoted by the Dorking Concertgoers Society. An outfit which must have been going for a while as we must have been going to their concerts for more than twenty years and it was not young then.

Brahms No.3, Op.67 and Beethoven Op.130 with the Grosse Fugue ending, aka Op.133. First new, second last heard just about two years ago and noticed at reference 3. Two more in 2014, another in 2013 and another in 2010. So it should be reasonably familiar.

Slightly irritated to find that the Dorking Halls people had thought it appropriate to provide light classical background music while we waited for the off, in and around the Martineau Hall, one of several halls in the complex. Furthermore, there were no cakes on offer. Not the first time that the Dorking Halls people had come across as a bit amateurish. But I suppose I should not moan and should rather be grateful that the facility still exists.

We were sitting near the left hand end of the third row - of raking seats installed on a slightly creaky scaffold - which I think was too close for comfort, at least on this occasion. The sound was too raw, too much the parts rather than the whole, possibly accounting for the fact that sometimes the first violin seemed a bit weak, while at other times the cello seemed a bit strong. One does not pick one's seats in the way that one would at, say, the RFH, but next season we will give the seat allocator a hint about further back and in the middle and see what that does. And one wonders, not for the first time, what the musicians hear; presumably something rather different to what you or I might hear, even if we had somehow been inserted into the middle of their group. And maybe someone in the audience who played one of the instruments concerned would be somewhere between the two, acting out that part of the performance, at least in their mind, as it unfolded.

In any event, while the Brahms included some fine passages, I did not really feel that I made a connection, that I had settled to it. Beethoven much better, probably helped along by knowing it quite well. Knowing it not in the sense that I could have hummed any tunes or phrases beforehand, rather that as the music unfolded, I recognised things. A familiar friend rather than a new acquaintance.

Smart exit through the back door, with the result that we were one of the first cars out of the car park. Odd that no-one much else seems to take advantage of it.

PS: the Martineau Hall was presumably named for some local eminence, someone whom I have yet to track down, with wikipedia only recognising a once Huguenot family which moved from Norwich to eminence in Birmingham. No Dorking angles at all. Perhaps a visit to the local museum is called for.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/dorking-two.html.

Reference 2: http://dorkingconcertgoers.org.uk/.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/big-fugue.html.

Dorking one

The Dorking season opened last weekend with a Sunday afternoon concert from the Piatti String Quartet. Haydn Op.76 No.3, Mozart Clarinet Quintet (with Anna Hashimoto) and Brahms Quartet No.1, Op.51 No.1. We get the other two Brahms quartets in the two concerts to come.

While waiting we wondered about of the chairs, a tubular steel affair with the two back legs propped up a couple of inches with neat wooden blocks, holes cut in the top to take the legs. Wondering in particular whether such blocks were something that concert halls carried for the convenience of performers, perhaps in a range of sizes, or whether performers carried such things about with them. The performer in question turned out to be the viola, a stand in for the damaged regular.

I usually like Haydn string quartets, but I was not very keen on this one, perhaps best known for its invention of the Deutschlandlied, the German national anthem. See reference 1. Haydn, it seems, had been impressed in a London theatre by the audience standing to sing our national anthem and thought that it would be a good idea if the Germans had one too.

Mozart as good as ever, given to us with a very long clarinet by a very short clarinetist. I had quite forgotten about the length of the A clarinet.

Brahms good - also quite noisy & bouncy - which served to muffle the air conditioning which had been a bit intrusive for the first two pieces. And also provided a better home for a quite noisy & bouncy cellist.

Following the wood blocks, I also puzzled about the grain of the wood from which the viola was made. The sides were strongly striped in the short direction, which I imagine corresponded with the grain. But these stripes were matched with stripes on the back, which I imagine crossed the grain; certainly the grain on the front went the long way, not the short way. Were these back stripes painted on, under the varnish? Seemed like a lot of bother to go to. Then there were muted stripes on the neck which were certainly across the grain. Looking around I could see short direction stripes on the sides of some of the others, but I was not close enough to see more. Clearly something to keep an eye on.

Home in under half an hour. So maybe not quite west end quality, but not west end traveling time either.

PS: quality more a function of the space rather than the performers, usually people we subsequently come across in the west end. While Dorking Halls shows its age a bit.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschlandlied.

Dorking two

Following the concert noticed at reference 1, back to Dorking Sunday past for some more Haydn (Op.20 No.2), Brahms (Op.51 No.2) and a touch of modern. Once again, from the Piatti String Quartet.

It was raining, so the background hum of the air conditioning was replaced by the patter of rain on the roof. With the ceiling that we see probably a lot closer to the roof that keeps the rain out than is the case, for example, at the Wigmore Hall. where I think, apart from skylights, we have a false ceiling.

Some switching of first and second violin, with one or the other continuing with his rather nice line in introductory chats. From one of which I learned that the viola with the puzzling grain was made quite recently, in the last few years, but with timber recovered from old Italian building. While his colleagues had properly old instruments. regarding the grain, I am now starting to think that the grain of the back of the instrument perhaps does run across rather than up and down. Can't really go back to the same shop to ask as last time, but will try to remember when next I pass somewhere else suitable. See reference 2.

Haydn as good as ever. I particularly liked the Burlesque, the third of the three Britten divertimenti, and I liked the Brahms, perhaps helped along by a drop of Bells. Not aware of the cello overdoing it on this occasion. Clapping seemed a bit subdued, but perhaps nothing more than a thinner audience than last time.

On the way out, a long standing music reading question was answered. Passing behind the music stands, I found that I, a non musician, could just about make out the score from around six feet away. So a musician who knew the music should have no trouble from say four. I presume that the notation evolved in the way it has with this in mind, to use a sloppy if evocative phrase.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/dorking-one.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/more-tuition.html.