Tag: Renée Harris

Fannying Around With The Castalian Quartet At The Wigmore Hall On Mum’s 100th Birthday, 1 May 2022

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

When Janie trained with and then joined The Samaritans via Zoom during lockdown, neither of us expected one of the consequences to be a real life visit to the Wigmore Hall Green Room (now known to the cognoscenti as the Jessye Norman Room).

But it turned out that one of Janie’s cohort, Sini Simonen, is not only a good Samaritan but also a virtuoso violinist. When Sini let it slip that she and her quartet, The Castalian String Quartet, were due to appear at the Wigmore Hall in a few month’s time, Janie and I agreed that, if we were available that day, we would go.

As it turned out, “that day” was a coffee morning Mendelssohn concert on a Bank Holiday Sunday – click here for the Wigmore Hall rubric on the concert.

Of course we could go…of course we would go…of course we did go.

The day was 1 May 2022, which which also happened to be the 100th anniversary of my mum’s birth.

Mum would have loved the idea of us going to a concert on her birthday to see Janie’s musician friend/colleague perform. Especially as Sini’s instrument is the violin; the primary family instrument of Mum’s very musical family, explained to some extent in this recent Ogblog piece about the family origins.

Turn It Up To Max & Spit: The Baltic Origins Of My Mother’s (Marcus) Family Revealed

The links in the above piece to the exploits of my mother’s cousin Sid, not least his virtuoso playing of both violin and hand saw, are worth the price of admission alone. OK, there is no price of admission, but the stories are priceless.

I was also reminded of the very last time I went to the concert hall with mum, which was a lunchtime concert at St John’s Smith Square in 2011 – a groupie circumstance of mum’s making, to see mum’s unlikely young friend, the pianist Karim Said:

Charlotte Bonneton & Karim Said, St John’s Smith Square, 29 September 2011

I hadn’t done “the Green Room thing” since then.

Anyway…

…the Wigmore Hall concert on 1 May 2022 was an all Mendelssohn string quartet affair, but with a twist: we first heard Fanny Mendelssohn’s sole String Quartet, followed by Felix Mendelssohn’s 6th String Quartet.

Both were a very enjoyable listen – Fanny’s piece much lighter and easier on the Sunday morning ear than Felix’s. Felix was in sombre mood when he wrote his 6th, dedicated to his recently deceased and beloved sister Fanny – possibly also anticipating his own impending doom – he died soon after completing the work.

Impending doom? Felix portrait c1846

The concert was very well patronised – if not a complete sell out then surely the place was near to full. The performances were, deservedly, extremely well received by the Sunday morning audience.

Janie and I asked the elderly gentleman sitting next to us if he had enjoyed the concert.

Yes indeed. I prefer Fanny.

On balance, so did Janie and I.

Sini had said to Janie several times that we simply must show our faces in the Green Room after the concert, so it would have been rude to partake of the traditional Wigmore Hall sherry rather than visit the artistes in that hallowed room.

There were plenty of other groupies around in The Jessye Norman Room, but Sini greeted us warmly and we chatted for a while.

Before setting off for The Wig, I had discovered that the Castalian String Quartet had released an album this week, Between Two Worlds On Delphian…

…which was already picking up rave reviews, such as this one in The Scotsman – click here.

I also couldn’t help but notice that the album includes a couple of arrangements of Renaissance pieces – one by Orlande de Lassus and one by John Dowland, as well as a Beethoven late Quartet and a modern quartet by Thomas Adès.

Sini, with characteristic modesty, mentioned in passing that she has arranged the Renaissance pieces as an experiment. She also kindly pressed a copy of the Between Two Worlds CD into my hand as we said goodbye to her.

Following an enjoyable stroll around Fitzrovia and Marylebone, Janie and I listened to the album as soon as we got home. We can both thoroughly recommend it; in particular the beautiful sound of the Renaissance piece arrangements. Choral works of that era were often arranged for consorts of viols, of course; the string quartet being the direct progeny of the viol quartet.

It was an enjoyable day and such a fitting way to remember my mum’s 100th anniversary.

But there was one more coincidence to come – as I read the programme notes to the Between two Worlds album. The viola player on the album was not Ruth Gibson (whom we saw at Wigmore Hall) but Charlotte Bonneton. Wasn’t Charlotte Bonneton the young musician mum and I saw along with Karim Said that very last time mum went to a concert?

Yes indeed – it turns out Charlotte was The Castalian String Quartet’s viola player until quite recently – for some 10 years – perhaps already with the group when we saw her perform with Karim Said in September 2011. Perhaps Sini and/or some of the other Castalians were even there to support Charlotte that day.

I know the classical music world isn’t big – but it isn’t that small either.

Here’s to the Castalian String Quartet. You can read more about them through the link here and below.

Biographies

Out With The Old, In With The New, Plus An Evocative Memory, 23 September 2018

With Janie’s encouragement, I did some comprehensive updating to my wardrobe (i.e. the contents thereof) at Solo Uomo after the lunchtime concert we attended at the Wigmore Hall on the Monday:

Trio Mediaeval, Wigmore Hall Lunchtime Concert, 17 September 2018

By the weekend, all the alterations were ready, so we ventured, on the Sunday, to Cavendish Square to collect the clobber, take it to the flat and clear out some of my old gear.

The items identified for the chop included, among many other things, a pink stripped shirt which was showing signs of wear and a pair of green corduroy trousers of seriously discernible vintage and wear. The charity shop seemed grateful for all.

Sartorially Antiquated?

Point is, I realised that those items, when combined with my purple Massimo Dutti jumper (not for the chop – there must be decades of use left in that garment)…

…were the very togs I wore on one of my last visits to see mum before she died – a visit that yielded one of my favourite anecdotes about that difficult time.

It was late December 2014. Mum had pretty much been unconscious throughout my previous couple of visits, including Christmas Day, when I visited together with Janie.

I was working at home between Christmas and New Year. One morning, I think the 28th or 29th December, when I called the hospital for my daily update, the nurse, rather surprisingly, said that mum seemed much better that morning and was sitting up and talking.

I asked if I could come and visit, despite the fact that it was not visiting hours, as she had been unconscious on my previous visits and I would like to catch a conscious phase if I could. The nurse asked how far away I was and, when i told her, said that I should set off straight away, to get there and have some time with mum ahead of the lunchtime rounds.

So I hurriedly threw on the purple jumper over my “schlock around working at home” pink shirt and green chords, then sped off in Dumbo towards St Georges.

When I got to the ward, mum was indeed sitting up and conscious. “Hello darling,” she said – immediate recognition although she had adopted terms like “darling” and “honey” about a year earlier, once the dementia had eaten away at her memory for names.

Then she looked me up and down, frowning.

“Oh dear, that jumper does not go with that shirt and those trousers. And couldn’t you even have brushed your hair before coming to see me? Oh dear.”

Yes, even on her death bed, with dementia ravaging her mind, my mum could still form a judgment on my appearance and dole out a tongue-lashing if she so desired.

It might sound strange, but it is one of my most abiding memories of mum; that exchange was quintessentially her.

Mum’s Funeral, South London Crematorium/Streatham Park Cemetery, 15 January 2015

In the orthodox Jewish tradition, the funeral takes place very rapidly after death. But mum and dad had opted out of the orthodox way and had planned to be cremated. Hence the 10 day interval between mum’s demise and her funeral.

The funeral took place at South London Crematorium/Streatham Park Cemetery at 16:00 that day. The funeral was officiated by the Streatham Liberal Synagogue’s Rabbi, Janet Darley.

As for dad, I wrote and read a eulogy which I shall upload here, with any other artefacts I think worthy of retention, such as the music playlist, when I go through the relevant papers in the fullness of time.

We, family and friends retreated to Nightingale for a reception, the centrepiece of which was the cafe cheesecake which made mum so happy during those last few years of her life.

Come to think of it; if there is one thing I do miss about that whole period it is that wonderful cheesecake.

Mum’s Death, 5 January 2015

Janie and I had visited the day before and suspected that mum was fading.

Angela Broad visited on the Monday, allowing me to try and get back into work. She called me late afternoon to let me know that mum looked very weak indeed – significant change even in the last 24 hours.

So it didn’t come as a surprise to me (although these things are always a shock) when the hospital called about 10:00 pm and broke the news to me that mum had died.

After sorting out the formalities over the next couple of days, I made the following posting on Facebook:

I also felt the hospital treated the whole matter with great care, compassion and professionalism, so I also (a few days later) published the following open letter of thanks to the hospital staff:

Those two Facebook postings pretty much sum up my thoughts at the time, really.

Lunch With Mum, Garry & Janice at La Cucina, 23 February 2014

Image borrowed from www.londontown.com

Towards the end of mum’s life, these outings were not easy affairs, as her confusion was certainly getting quite a bit worse from the start of that year.

Mum liked La Cucina in Northcote Road and had settled on that as being “her place” after a not such good meal at Numero Uno early in her time in Nightingale.

La Cucina is now gone. Here is an extract from that restauarant’s final LondonTown.com record – click here:

A large corner building marked by large burgundy awnings, Italian bar and restaurant La Cucina is a Northcote Road landmark – indeed you’ll often hear uttered locally ‘I’ll meet you at La Cucina. But the popularity of this restaurant isn’t just down to being easy to find, of course not, La Cucina is so well loved by Wandsworth locals for numerous reasons, not least the laid back, friendly atmosphere and friendly service from all Italian wait staff.

Indeed, we were happy to carry on going there because the waiters used to fuss around mum (Janie deliberately malapropises the notion of waiters fawning around mum to “fornicating waiters”) and make her feel special. They also did “old fashioned Italian-style food”, such as liver strips in sauce, that made her feel comfy.

Garry and Janice kindly came up from Southend to see her/us from time to time and this was one such occasion. Mum was really pleased to see them – she still recognised people she knew well at that time – six moths later it was different.

An enjoyable lunch indeed. I think we retired briefly to the Nightingale cafe so mum could show off her family to the visiting masses.

Charlotte Bonneton & Karim Said, St John’s Smith Square, 29 September 2011

Mum, Angela, Janie and Me

Late in life, mum formed an unlikely friendship with the young, extremely talented pianist, Karim Said. I can’t remember exactly how it came about.

I know I recorded some BBC4 programmes about young musicians, which mum loved and watched over and over. Karim was one of those featured artists.

I think mum then watched those programmes with Angela Broad and I’m pretty sure Angela knew Karim, perhaps because he was one of the Tabors’ sponsored artistes…so the rest is history…

…anyway, mum and Angela had been to see and had met Karim before this gig. Mum and Karim had also had some exchange of correspondence, I seem to recall.

A very young Karim, I think from mum’s earlier outing with Angela to see him

Mum the groupie. I don’t suppose artistes at Karim’s stage have that many groupies either.

When this concert came up, it was most fortuitously located and timed for me; lunchtime at St John’s Smith Square. As a friend of the venue, I get a fist-full of free passes for those lunchtime concerts. I was also able to organise my work around a visit to Church House that morning, which was maximally convenient.

Here’s the order of play:

Charlotte Bonneton And Karim Said at St John’s Smith Square. The violinist and pianist perform Beethoven’s Sonata For Violin And Piano No 3, Boulez’s 12 Notations For Solo Piano and Faure’s Violin Sonata No 1 In A.

My taste in music did not/does not always coincide with mum’s and Angela’s, but on this occasion we were as one. We all enjoyed the Beethoven and the Fauré; we none of us liked the Boulez, which seemed in any case to make poor Karim’s fingers bleed.

“I’m going to tell him if no-one else will…” said Angela afterwards, in the matter of the commercial sense (or lack thereof) in Karim pursuing the work of composers like Boulez.

No matter.

Mum had a cracking good time. Karim was extremely pleasant and attentive after the concert. He even introduced us to his fellow musician, Charlotte, making mum ever so pleased by describing mum as his friend.

Curious about Karim? Here is a link to his website…

…and here he is performing something that is to my taste – click here or below:

Several Seasonal September Soirees, 1, 8, 9, 14 & 18 September 2010

1 September: Dinner With Mum At the French Cafe

Picture borrowed from Quandoo – click the pic to see that website.

Mum was especially keen on this Balham eatery towards the end of her time at Woodfield Avenue. It was conveniently close to the house too, so I would sometimes pick her up and take her to The French Cafe for dinner. This was one of those occasions.

8 September: Middlesex CCC Kit Sponsors Party

Daisy came along this time around – a rare visit to one of these parties by her. I seem to recall that the event had been especially good the year before and my report had triggered a “may I come to one of those?” question to which the answer was, “of course you may!”

I think this one was in the press bat of the old Warner Stand, if my memory serves me well.

I think this was the evening we spent quite a lot of time chatting with the late, lamented Derek “The Diamond” Britain and some members of his family. We also chatted with some of the players, nibbled at food and drank wine.

9 September: Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner

Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinners had been going for just over 10 years by then. In fact, I missed the 10th anniversary one, in June. I am writing this soon after the 20th anniversary one was wiped out by the Covid lockdown in the spring of 2020.

The headline photo was circulated by John Random ahead of that June 2010 get together, which I missed. So I never discovered the context of the regal look. Perhaps John, feeling a little insecure, wanted to assert his authority with regard to our gathering.

Anyway. he was certainly in charge in September and circulated some more pictures and bants:

“The lovely Victoria”, as John describes her.

Many thanks to all those who came out to the Cafe Rouge on Thursday. If you weren’t there you were either sorely missed or we all slagged you off behind your back. No, seriously. We had a good turn-out, including – may I say – the Three Graces in the form of the lovely Harriet, the lovely Victoria and the lovely Jasmine, who is not only lovely but can show you all how to save up to 10% on Travelodge. Harriet came in her pyjamas. OK, with some pyjamas. In a bag. From La Senza. Anyway, it’s not often we have so many women come to the Ivan Shakespeares and I hope this trend continues.

Personal highlight of the evening, though was Keith Wickham reading out the scores to the quiz in the voice of James Mason.

Finally, Where Are They Now No. 127: Mark Flitton spotted on location in legal drama Silk playing the owner of a dangerous dog. Many of you will have fond memories of Mark in Noel’s wonderful Smoking Doctors sketch. He also went to Edinburgh for us and performed in both the Newsrevue show and Whoops Vicar.

Mark Flitton with John Random
Colin Stutt

I do recall Keith Wickham’s James Mason impression that evening. I have always liked his James Mason, but there was something about Keith reading out the quiz scores in the style of James Mason that especially tickled me and I do remember giggling a lot. Perhaps it was the fourth glass of vino wot dunnit.

Anyway, as always a fun evening with the NewsRevue alums.

14 September: Middlesex CCC Forum & Party & The Robert Browning

I must be honest and admit that I remember very little about this particular forum and party, other than ending up at the Robert Browning Pub with Barmy Kev and others, where we continued the libations and played bar billiards until chucking out time.

Mercifully, I don’t need to remember much, as Barmy Kev documented the forum, party and even the bar billiards in a ball-by-ball report – click here to read it in all its gory…I mean, glory.

Coincidentally, the Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinners were, for a while, held at the Robert Browning, until the inhospitable nature of the place (last orders for food were taken ridiculously early) drove us across the way to Cafe Rouge.

Writing 10 years on, I note that the Robert Browning is under new management and has been rebranded as The Eagle. Bar billiards is still listed. Might be worth giving it another try once lockdown is over.

18 September: Pickled Herring Of the Year “Fast Breaking” At Jacquie Briegal’s Place

Schmaltz Herring from a later year – the schmaltz often wins

The family gathering which includes the Pickled Herring Of The Year awards has been described at length in other years, e.g.

Pickled Herring Of The Year Competition and Other Delights, 12 October 2016

In 2010, mum would have been there, as would Michael and Dorothy, me, Janie, Hils and possibly some special guest stars, such as Jacquie’s grandson Josh. Mum might even have had a sleepover at Jacquie’s that year; I think she did that once or twice after dad and Len had died.

The 2010 spread would have looked much like the 2016 spread depicted. But the winner of the award that year has been lost in the mists of time.

Drinking and Eating, With The Mainelli Family, Hawksmoor Spitalfields, 13 March and with Mum, Perfect Blend Streatham 14 March 2010

No idea where Michael and I had a drink on 10 March, but my diary simply says:

MRM fm 17:00

I’m guessing we wanted to get all the business chat out of the way ahead of the social gathering a few days later – probably on pain of nagging from both Elisabeth and Janie.

MRM to me later that evening (10 March):

Good to chat tonight over a bottle of wine.  Should do it more often.

Asked about our China travel guides, apparently given away…

…Behind the scenes for Saturday – Elisabeth has NOT booked a sitter and thinks Xenia and Maxine are coming.  You might want to chat with Janie.  (1) If that’s fine, then we might as well meet at Hawksmoor.  (2) If that’s not fine, i.e. the girls are in total female communication mode, then I’m happy to put the paternal foot down for a sitter.

Me to Michael fewer than 15 minutes later. I sound a bit stressy. Perhaps just tired and emotional:

Thanks.

Re Saturday, I strongly suggest you get Elisabeth to speak with Janie on this.  The whole point of meeting at yours, as far as Janie is concerned, is that otherwise we won’t see the children.  If I raise this matter, Janie might well go off on one!!  We should either meet at the restaurant at 19:30 six strong or at your house 18:00 with sitter on the way.  Leave it to the girls to decide.  I’m easy either way.

Another boat worth not rocking is the itinerary for the holiday.  There won’t be any holiday unless we simply close on this very soon (5th or is it  6th iteration); and believe me on this occasion I am totally cool about it, other than imploring not to pack the itinerary with so much that we don’t get any rest!!  Stone Forest was inked in on first iteration and won’t budge, I’m sure.

The itinerary in question was the forthcoming trip to Yunnan and Sanya, which all came good in the end.

Janie and I recall that the Saturday event ended up being deferred to 19:30 at Hawksmoor Spitalfields with the Mainelli family complete.

Hawksmoor Spitalfields was (quite probably still is) a cracking good restaurant – absolutely top notch. Janie reckoned it even topped Smith and Wollensky in New York for quality – praise indeed. The Mainelli girls were (quite possibly still are) very well behaved to the point of being good company on a grown up meal out – at that time they were 12 and 10 ish.

The Hawksmoor thing was great for family eating, as you can choose your size of steak/chunk of beef and then share.

Anyway, Saturday 13 March was an excellent evening out.

Probably the last thing Janie and I needed was a big lunch the next day but…

…14 March 2010 was mothering Sunday.

Mum was really into Perfect Blend at that time – a local eatery run by a really nice and friendly family – the son ran the restaurant/cafe, which was across the road from his father’s greengrocer shop, which had been there since the very dawn of time.

Perfect Blend is sill there at the time of writing (October 2017) – well done – but here is a scrape for just in case the above eponymous link doesn’t work.

We liked the place because the staff were all very nice with mum and she felt she was supporting nice local people whom she had sort-of known for a very long time. I vaguely recall the service being a bit below the normal superb standards that day, as most places are on mothering Sunday, as the plethora of demanding mothers needing above average levels of attention spread the service capability a bit thin in even the best places.

Between all these eating and drinking activities, I would have been following the test match from Chittagong – click here.  I’ll guess that we timed lunch and our arrival at the house to ensure that the cricket was over and mum therefore will have noticed no distraction on my part. Mum might have noticed a slightly hungover version of me, though, from the Hawksmoor evening – great wines.

Oh well.

A Birthday Treat For… Someone, Vito’s Restaurant, 29 August 2009

We visited mum on that Saturday afternoon and then took her to one of her favourite Italian restaurants, Vito’s, on Northcote Road.

This will have been, in theory, mum’s birthday treat to me.

In practice, Janie will have driven to Streatham, done mum’s feet (there are copious notes about that in Janie’s diary) and then we’d have chauffeured mum to Vito’s.

There, the waiters will have fawned over mum in their classic style (Janie deliberately malapropises that description to “fornicating waiters”) while mum will no doubt have proudly told the waiters that she was treating us to an evening out for my birthday.

We’re somehow getting by without treats like this now that mum has gone.

We went to Vito’s quite a lot with mum in those days. She had her favourite places and it was a lot easier to take her to one of those. We went again 1 November, I can see in the diary.

Still, the food at Vito’s was always satisfactory and that style of service certainly pleased people like my mum. Unfortunately, that generation of customer has been dying out for some years and Vito’s itself has bitten the dust, at some point in the second half of the teeny decade, I presume.

Oh well.

Several Friends And Family Events In The Space Of A Few Days, 21 To 24 May 2009

Thursday 21 May 2009

Janie might try to deny that she attended Michael Mainelli’s last Gresham lecture in his series as Professor of Commerce, but all the evidence suggests she was there 21 May 2009. Her diary. My diary. Worst of all, CCTV evidence if you merely look at the thumbnail of the video – click here.

Back then, of course, that four year series of lectures was the bedrock of what would become a joint magnum opus between me and Michael, The Price Of Fish. So that last lecture of the series was both a milestone and a landmark personal event. I suspect we all ended up at The Cheshire Cheese for a Samuel Johnson-inspired meal afterwards.

But before that, we held a reception in the Headmaster’s Study at Barnard’s Inn Hall, during which someone without question will have told me I look like the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, a copy of which hangs in that study. I’d been handling that quip in that place since 2005 and at the time of writing (2020) am still handling it there and in other places.

Friday 22 May 2009

I did some work in the morning before heading down to Balham/Streatham Hill, where I treated my mum to lunch at a delicatessen named Fat. Now long gone. I rather liked it, but mum had her favourite places (by that time I think there was a Parisian-style cafe, also in Balham, which she favoured) so I don’t think we went there a second time.

Postscript: actually it looks as though Mum, me and Janie went to Fat together the following Sunday (31 May), so I have a feeling I might have posited the idea of Fat with mum on 22 May without us actually having vivited it that day.

In any case, I think I went straight on to Sandall Close, where Janie and I had a quiet evening in.

Saturday 23 May 2009

Phillipa and Tony arrived. They were staying in the Crown Plaza, on the Hanger Lane gyratory, very near to Sandall Close.

We went to Chez Gerard in the evening; no evidence as to which branch; Janie’s and my combined brains reckon Chiswick most likely.

Sunday 24 May 2009

Both our diaries say “Barby” or “BBQ” at Kim’s. That will have been the main purpose (or at least the focus) of Phillie and Tony’s visit. In truth I don’t remember this particular Sunday lunchtime gathering especially well. We wouldn’t have known it at the time but it was to be Phillie’s last such visit to Kim’s place.

The following picture was taken just a few weeks later in Sandall Close. I prefer its look in B&W because the colours, not least the red eye, were not so good:

Janie, Phillie & Me