Before I forget again, the mystery objects at the end of Post 179 (July 2025) are hayracks, locally known as Kozolecs. Thank you Julia! I’ve looked it up and found the British Slovene Society, which tells you more than you ever thought you needed to know. They are open to the elements to dry out the hay. You don’t even have to go to Slovenia as they built one near Henley. However, if you do go to Slovenia, there is an open-air museum with examples of the six different types that you could find in the wild.
Kozolec
Back in the UK, I left you with the impression that we were taking some time to recoup our energy. Possibly. Although we didn’t have any major travelling for a few weeks, we did go to a number of concerts and dinners. I’ve rolled them all up in no particular order.
We seem to have had a Rachmaninov (Rachmaninoff) summer: we attended two different presentations of his Piano Concerto No 2, made famous (for my age group) in the film Brief Encounter.
The first was by the Firebird Orchestra at the lovely atmospheric church of St George’s in Hanover Square. We’ve been there a couple of times, but they now have a restaurant in the Undercroft so we tried that out after. I’ve given you a picture of the church plus the link to the Firebird Orchestra previously, in Post 152 of 31st August 2023, so I’ll not repeat myself (for now). If you fancy dining there, here’s that link plus a photo of JD before he managed to take a photo of me.
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Rachmaninov was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer, born in 1873 and died in 1943 (in California) just before his 70th birthday. He left Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 with his family and never returned. He had a very wide handspan: I can spread my fingers from middle C to high D (nine notes): he was able to span twelve notes (C up to high G). This is attributed to possibly having acromegaly. It does make playing some of his pieces difficult. Obviously he led an interesting life, which I do not intend to go to into detail. You can find many of his recordings on YouTube. If you want to know more of his life, follow these links.
https://www.boosey.com/composer/Sergei+Rachmaninoff?ttype=BIOGRAPHY
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1592053/
He was also left-handed, as all the best people are. The Southbank wrote an article about being sinister and famous pianists: maybe I’ll feature next time (if I stop writing and do more practice).
The second occasion was at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, bookended by a concerto for strings by Grazyna Bacewicz and a concerto for orchestra by Witold Lutoslawski. I know (knew) nothing about either of them, which as you are aware sends me off down rabbit holes.
Grazyna Bacewicz was a Polish composer and violinist, born in 1909 and dying just before her 60th birthday in 1969. These two links give you a taste and then an in-depth history of her life and works.
https://www.sco.org.uk/news/grazyna-bacewicz
Grażyna Bacewicz: Her Life and Works
Segueing nicely into the rest of the evening, the forward in the second link was written by our third composer, Witold Lutoslawski. He was also Polish, born in 1913 and dying in 1994 just after his 81st birthday. If you look at this link you’ll see how prolific he was. I hadn’t realised he’d written his own version of Paganini variations, in 1941, as had Rachmaninov in 1934 (as had Brahms and Liszt before them).
Witold Lutosławski
Witold Lutosławski – Variations on a Theme by Paganini
A Guide to Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Talking of which, we also saw that (the Rachmaninov interpretation) at the Edinburgh Festival this year, but that’s for the next post.
We went to another church recital, one lunchtime, at St Saviours Church in Pimlico. The pianist Olha Rubanova was a stand-in for the advertised one, playing Chopin. I searched and searched and managed to find a YouTube video of her, link below.
Getting away from music for a while, we had a trip on a familiar craft, the Silver Barracuda, with the London Business School (LBS), where JD studied for a MiF (Masters in Finance) a few years ago. No JD75 cocktail this time. I should have given them the recipe. I’m not going to say how long ago he was there, but I believe he was one of the first students on this degree. LBS were celebrating their 60th anniversary and after the boat trip we had a party at Old Billingsgate, formerly the London fish market and now an events centre. It was very crowded and very noisy and I got no photos, sorry. I did get one across the Thames of the London hospital though. If you want to see what the fish market now looks like, here’s the inevitable link.
https://www.oldbillingsgate.co.uk/
Back to music. I’ve already referenced Post 152 for the Firebird Orchestra: in the same Post, we happened to go to the LPO Gala dinner at Battersea Arts Centre and the setting was the same this year. Linking to the previous paragraph, our table was called:
The evening was great fun and the food very enjoyable. The dessert was described as Eton Mess but I think it could have been called The Shard.
We had quite a few meals in London, I’ll only mention one as I learnt something new when we got there. Did you know that Texas had been an independent republic once? Well, of course you did. BUT, did you know there was a Texas Legation in London at the time? I stumbled over the plaque on our way to St Jacques restaurant in St James. The plaque is between there and their neighbour BBR (Berry Bros and Rudd). We dined in the courtyard, which is also the exit for part of BBR.
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I don’t think I’ve mentioned BBR before, amazingly as they sell wine. We have been there to a few events, one quite a few years ago celebrating Burns Night where we had whisky and wine with every course (of which there were many). I can tell you no more as my memory didn’t last the evening. Thankfully, since then, we have had dinners we do remember as they serve both good food and good wine. I could tell you about them and Texas, but this highly amusing blog I found does a much better job.
It omits to tell you that BBR created the King’s Ginger liqueur in honour of King Edward VII in 1903. I’ve used it in quite a few cocktails but might not have picked it out for details, so here’s another link. I’m making you do all the work today.
https://www.thekingsginger.com/
Jumping back a few paragraphs, after we’d been to the Prom and listened to Polish composers we went for a late supper at Ognisko, the Polish restaurant along Exhibition Road. We hadn’t been to a Prom for two years and hadn’t been to Ognisko for longer: recommended if you are in the area. We were so late that the restaurant was closed and we had to have bar snacks. JD went up to the bar to order a bottle of champagne (possibly Polish). The barman asked if he’d like two glasses. No, came the reply, I want a bottle. This discussion went on for a while, (I couldn’t hear what the problem was) until the chap asked if JD was going to swig it from the bottle and how was I going to drink my share?
https://www.ogniskorestaurant.co.uk/
Just to show we’re not London-centric, we attended a birthday party in King’s Nympton in Devon (lots of Kings today). Actually, it was a birthday weekend. We arrived Friday night to stay in one of the Old Rectory Cottages with a couple of pals. Having arriving fairly late we decided to eat at the Grove inn just around the corner. As we were finishing our meal, who should be walking out from another part of the bar than the birthday girl herself! We started to chat and she insisted we go back to her house (next door to the pub) for a catch-up and glass of wine. We heard the story of how a previous owner and the publican at the time had a bet (the history seems to be lost on what the bet was) and the publican lost. Unfortunately for him, the payment was his back garden, so now the pub has no garden and the house has a massive one.
King’s Nympton is a lovely village to visit if you’re in the area with a very informative website, although it does not mention the pub bet.
https://www.kingsnymptononline.com/
The next evening was the party proper, in the village hall, again a short walk from where we were staying. During the day we visited the South Molton Pannier Market, where I bought a hat to make sure I couldn’t get lost in the crowds, and Appledore, where there is a memorial to the first RLNI lifeboatmen lost at sea. A reminder that the RNLI is a charity, independent of the UK government, founded in 1824. It had the original name of the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck for 30 years before becoming the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, relying on donations to keep afloat (sorry, couldn’t resist).
https://rnli.org/about-us/our-history
On Sunday we visited the church in King’s Nympton, with a lovely overgrown churchyard (just managing to miss the morning service) then headed to the final birthday celebration of the weekend, a barbeque in the aforementioned back garden. There was a jazz band to entertain us and the sun shone.
Although there was reported to be a heatwave in the south of England, someone forgot to mention that this particular part of Devon was very green and damp as it’s actually a Temperate Rainforest, very rare globally.
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/habitats/temperate-rainforest/
We’re now halfway through my birthday celebration year and having lots of new experiences. I’m not going to go back and see how they compare with the initial suggestions as I don’t think we have time to add anything else.
George and John's boating trip no longer 