Two related concerts in one evening, both of which looked right up our street:
- Here is a link to the stub for the 19:30 jobby, “Monteverdi to Tango”;
- Here is a link to the stub for the 22:00 jobby: “Monteverdi Meets Jazz”.
On the first stub, as indeed it read in the Wigmore Hall brochure, it says:
The Wigmore Hall Restaurant will serve dinner after the concert. Please contact the Box Office on 020 7935 2141 to make your table reservations.
This absolutely clinched it for us. The food at The Wig is pretty good these days and we know that they can deal with the sort of meal they can serve between concerts.
But what a palaver we had booking the meal.
“We’re not sure that we’ll be open still at that hour on that evening…”
“…but it says in the brochure that you will be open…”
“…ah, well if it says it in the brochure then we will be open…
“…great, we’d like to book please…”
“…I can’t take bookings yet, because I can’t be sure we’re going to be open…”
It all came right on the night (indeed before the night) of course.
The first concert, mostly blending Monteverdi and Piazolla, was an exceptional classical ensemble concert with several ensembles and soloists involved.
Then the relatively simple meal that Wigmore Hall can serve in these circumstances, all done with speed, efficiency and smiles in the end. We know many of the staff there; indeed any who stick around for a while.
The second concert was jazz with the Svante Henryson Quartet. We weren’t quite sure what Monteverdi had to do with it; perhaps some links in the musical themes being extrapolated. Still, it was very good jazz, although Janie, as usual in such circumstances, felt that it fell short of Tord Gustavsen, which is a tough, indeed perhaps unreasonable benchmark to set. But Janie has set that benchmark for all visiting jazz ensembles since Tord graced the Wigmore Hall with his presence some years ago – an event which I shall Ogblog in the fullness of time.
In short, our O/MODƏRNT evening was a great success and well worth the effort.
One thought on “O/MODƏRNT: Monteverdi to Tango & Monteverdi in Historical Counterpoint, Wigmore Hall, 3 July 2015”