Flinders Quartet and miso soup
So far it's been a quiet week; after a burst of enthusiasm on the weekend the house has slowly degenerated into a complete mess again. I was particularly annoyed on Wednesday when Emma's new wok arrived, and stuff was strewn all over the living room in the excitement, with no thought of tidying up the mess; when one member of the household gets bitten by the spring cleaning bug it helps not to have the other still in wintry hibernation!
There's been "new" Doctor Who on the telly - I've not seen "The Sensorites" or "Planet of Giants" before - so I've been diligently getting home from work in time for these; afterwards on Wednesday we were going to get to MUCS rehearsal, but Emma wanted to cook with the new wok, and after dinner she didn't feel like going out to the pub.
Last night on the other hand (after the final episode of Planet of Giants) I had been vaguely thinking of dropping into ROCS rehearsal (for the Fauré Requiem they need plenty of tenors and basses) but instead we went off to hear the Flinders Quartet (I'm indebted to Cameron from the ICCR for giving me tix). The main works on the program were Bartok's second quartet and Schubert's string quintet. The Bartok was given a bravado performance, especially the stern first movement. Although St Michael's is prone to noise from the street (trams, trucks, loud motorcycles), in quiet moments the second cellist could be heard practicing off-stage for the quintet!
The Schubert didn't come off quite so well; I suspect the heat within the church caused some discomfort for the players towards the end, and there were some bad lapses of concentration and problem tunings between the violins. Thankfully the quintet wasn't prolonged by observing the repeats! The second movement however was for the most part exquisite, and the interplay between first violin and second cello beautifully handled.
After the customary piece of delicious blue cheese washed down with white wine, Emma and I were starving and went off foraging. Inspired by mention of miso soup on one of the e-mail lists, I decided to be brave and give it a try. I wouldn't say it was the best soup I've ever tried, but it went down well enough. I forced some onto Emma, who had her predictable reaction of "bleah! bleah! bleah!" Ah, what fun...
There's been "new" Doctor Who on the telly - I've not seen "The Sensorites" or "Planet of Giants" before - so I've been diligently getting home from work in time for these; afterwards on Wednesday we were going to get to MUCS rehearsal, but Emma wanted to cook with the new wok, and after dinner she didn't feel like going out to the pub.
Last night on the other hand (after the final episode of Planet of Giants) I had been vaguely thinking of dropping into ROCS rehearsal (for the Fauré Requiem they need plenty of tenors and basses) but instead we went off to hear the Flinders Quartet (I'm indebted to Cameron from the ICCR for giving me tix). The main works on the program were Bartok's second quartet and Schubert's string quintet. The Bartok was given a bravado performance, especially the stern first movement. Although St Michael's is prone to noise from the street (trams, trucks, loud motorcycles), in quiet moments the second cellist could be heard practicing off-stage for the quintet!
The Schubert didn't come off quite so well; I suspect the heat within the church caused some discomfort for the players towards the end, and there were some bad lapses of concentration and problem tunings between the violins. Thankfully the quintet wasn't prolonged by observing the repeats! The second movement however was for the most part exquisite, and the interplay between first violin and second cello beautifully handled.
After the customary piece of delicious blue cheese washed down with white wine, Emma and I were starving and went off foraging. Inspired by mention of miso soup on one of the e-mail lists, I decided to be brave and give it a try. I wouldn't say it was the best soup I've ever tried, but it went down well enough. I forced some onto Emma, who had her predictable reaction of "bleah! bleah! bleah!" Ah, what fun...