A Question of Taste

A Question of Taste, Friday 3/10. [photos: Alice on an Egyptian Escalator Balcony at Harrod’s; the Dale Chihuli glass sculpture in the reception hall at the V&A.] Tonight’s entertainment would be a piano recital in Chelsea, so we decided to drop in on Harrod’s for lunch and two washcloths. We dined in the Georgian Room and chose the buffet because it was our main meal of the day. It was good if not great. I’d say it was overpriced too, except that the place was full for Friday lunchtime. They know what they’re doing.

Alice did buy two washcloths (there weren’t any in the flat) and I made her pose with the mannequins on the Egyptian Escalators (see photo). There a huge Pharaoh’s head at the top, and all the balcony rails are supported by snakes (with hoods like cobras - do ‘asps’ have hoods?). The store is huge and stocks everything, but what makes it unique is the number of staff. It seemed at times that staff outnumbered customers, and the store was crowded.

We walked west in the cold rain about one tube stop to the Victoria & Albert Museum, another must-see in London. In the two hours we had we visited only the English Galleries, following a time line from 1500 to 1760. There are standard museum things like silver, clothes, glass and books, and there are also several whole preserved rooms. We saw the Great Bed of Ware, which is a double-king-size canopy bed that has been a tourist attraction for 400 years. It has graffiti on the headboard from 1676. The V&A is also known for its interactive exhibits, including book reproductions you can touch and turn pages in and a computer room where you design your ‘family crest’. We each did one and then emailed the images home.

Thrown out at 5:45, we continued walking in the rain. We stopped at an Internet café and then at a real café for coffee. Finally we got to Leighton House, our concert venue. LH was the home of Frederick Leighton, PRA (President of the Royal Academy). He was very eclectic; among other things he collected Islamic tiles and decorated an entire room with them. He painted at the time of the pre-Raphaelites and some of his work is in that style. There are paintings by him and by Burne-Jones hanging in the house. Neither of us have been able to understand the appeal of the pre-Rs; perhaps the style was imitated too much by book-cover artists. He also did some very good portraits, but the best in the house is of him by his neighbor and friend Watts.

The concert was a recital by Marcella Crudeli. Like Leighton, her biography shows that her reputation is strongly academic. She’s given hundreds of recitals all over the world and we had never heard of her. She started with two sonatas by Cimarosa which she had unearthed and edited herself. Then came three sonatas by Scarlatti. All these were done in a very free style, and especially in the Scarlatti some extreme tempi. Then came the Beethoven sonata “Les adieux” (the concert was sponsored by the Beethoven Society of Europe) which was played very forcefully indeed. In spite of her very sweet smile, Ms. Crudeli was not a shrinking violet.

The last piece of the first half was modern (Calligaris) and dedicated to her. It was demonic, as if Balakierev and Busoni had gotten together to write variations on ‘do re mi’. A lot of work, but not much music.

The second half was Chopin and it was an amazing disaster. She plays Chopin as if it were Beethoven – extreme dynamics and tempi within very short spans of time. No lines were sustained; they were all broken up like firewood. We heard the murder of the 1st Ballade, 2nd Scherzo and the Andante Spiniato and Grand Polonaise. Since much technical skill was on display, and it was Very Loud, the audience persuaded her to do an encore. What would it be, I wondered. What does she consider her sure things? To my total surprise, it was more Chopin – the Fantasie Impromptu with the melody someone stole and turned into “I’m always chasing rainbows …” This received the same treatment as the first three.

Would the audience insist on a second encore? It would. It was the Military Etude and this time she played it very well. Maybe it’s because all the other were played so violently this pretty aggressive piece didn’t stand out, but really she kept the line and didn’t mess with the composer.

Fortunately we were near the door and before she could come downstairs and stand behind the table with her CDs on it, we escaped into the clear but cold night and a refreshing double-decker bus ride.