The Prom I went to on Monday wasn’t at the Albert Hall and there were no Prommers. It was at lunchtime at Cadogan Hall, near Sloane Square.
Norwegian chamber group, the Vertavo Quartet, and pianist Paul Lewis played music by Debussy, Dutilleux and Mozart. Henri Dutilleux would have been 100 on Monday – he died in 2013 – so I feel rather mean being critical of his composition, Ainsi la nuit (Thus the night). The programme writer describes the piece as “suggesting the elusiveness of things seen by night, whether in dreams or in reality, and doing so by means of musical impalpability: motifs that keep changing and a basic chord in a kind of shimmering, luminous tonality.”
To be polite I’d have to describe it as challenging. To be honest, as excruciating thereby showing up my inability to comprehend much newly composed classical music. However, it was all over in fifteen minutes and then Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 was sublime.
Lunch outdoors afterwards on Lower Sloane Street was excellent too. We both had Negronis and then starters of beef carpaccio with rocket and parmesan, followed by linguine alle vongole for me. Sukey had green and white tagliatelle with black truffles and pecorino cheese. She also had room for a small wobbly pudding which reminded me of Nanny’s Bottom. To drink we had several glasses of a Pinot Grigio rosé from Venezia. Bill Nighy walked past but was too busy on his telephone to notice us.
