Perfect plucking

Once in a while, the Farnham Maltings put on lunchtime concerts on a Saturday. We haven’t been before but today they had a classical guitarist, studying at the Trinity College of Music, and Mirinda really wanted to check out his fingering technique.

We walked into town, wanting to have lunch at Caracoli. This proved impossible as it was full to the gunnels so we wandered down Downing Street to the Victorian Tearoom. Another full house! This is all very good for them but not so much for us. We then found a new cafe, Kiara’s and it was almost empty. We had a lovely toasted sandwich and latte, served by a decidedly androgynous waitress, the only hint as to her gender being the skirt she was wearing.

Suitably sustained, we continued our southerly journey to the Maltings.

The recent, almost continuous rain, has seen an increase in the level of the Wey. Over Christmas, the river had burst it’s banks, the water washing against the walls of the building. While it wasn’t that bad today, the water was still very high and rushing along.

River Wey on the rise

River Wey on the rise

We bought our tickets for the concert and settled into the front row of the Barley Room. And the room filled up. We were surprised at the number of people attending. It reached the point where more chairs had to be found. It was packed when Tom took to his guitar and started playing.

Tom Gamble and his magic guitar

Tom Gamble and his magic guitar

First up, we were treated to a piece by Bach, originally written for cello then recycled (by Bach) for lute. It worked beautifully for guitar. At the end of each movement, the audience, hesitantly applauded, thinking it was the end of the piece. After 20 minutes, Tom finished with a flourish and stood up, bowing. The concert was advertised to last an hour, so this was a surprise.

Tom then retook his seat and introduced his next piece (sonata for guitar by Carlos Guastavino) and we realised the concert was going to last an hour, after all.

He followed the sonatas with two etudes by Heitor Villa Lobos (“Villa Logos is to Brazil what Mozart is to Austria,” Tom explained) then, having a bit of time left over, he entertained us with a medley of songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim. The name may be unfamiliar but he wrote The Girl from Ipanema, among many other bossa nova hits, as well as playing guitar behind such greats as Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz.

All in all, it was a terrific concert and an almost perfect way to spend a lunchtime. The only imperfection came from Tom’s socks. I’d like to think he was wearing one red and one orange sock because he couldn’t care less about that sort of nonsense but, it was probably just because he’s colour blind.

Almost straight afterwards, we headed over to Optibob to finalise and pay for, our new kitchen. It’s going to look fantastic. In August, it will turn up, ready to be installed. This means we really have to have the extension now, otherwise, there’ll be nowhere to install it.

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One Response to Perfect plucking

  1. I was looking at his socks thought why would he wear coloured socks with a black suit, now find out they are both differant colours .
    love mum x

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