Even round here where the roads are wide and the sky is big, the pavements of our leafy streets are crowded. We are at the beginning of a long bus route that snakes its way for miles to the centre. Boarding that bus is possibly one of London’s roomiest experiences; often I am the only passenger at the start and it feels life-enhancing to have all that space to myself. However, one minute of the tranquil void is all I get; by the next stop the bus fills up with a long queue of people. Three or four stops later, it’s standing room only.
I leave the bus, with up to a hundred others, and make my way into the tube station for a speedier journey to the centre. Walking down the escalator on the left like a good citizen, every few steps hard-edged bags belonging to those who are dutifully standing on the right protrude, forcing you to either slalom round the obstacles, or bash into them. Next challenge, sitting in the tube seat you have to carefully position your thighs to avoid intimately intrusive contact with the thighs belonging to the stranger in the next seat. Or, if you can only find standing room, it’s a matter of preventing your knees from kneeing the knees of the people sitting. Leaving the train and you can’t walk in a straight line either in the station or out on the street, there’s too many people. So you have to dodge one way, then squeeze round another; more slalom courses.
The journey that started so spaciously on the empty bus unexpectedly ends, most symmetrically, in another void; one that is impressively sublime and peaceful. I am one third of the way through performing a recital series of my piano suites in a large, gorgeous, historically significant, ignored- by-the-listings, concert location; a church right near the heart of town. One Friday per month for the past two months, at my early evening offering of an hour’s lyrical new music on a world famous Bösendorfer piano, no audience has turned up to hear the concerts introduced by guest speakers. The third concert in the series is approaching and I’m wondering if once again, I will sample the rarity of being all alone in the capital. The question is do I prefer being alone on a bus, or with the Bösendorfer at my concert series? One strange journey...
Lola Perrin plays her Piano Suite IV Music from Fragile Light Spaces, introduced by Nazarin Montag, on June 3rd at 6.30pm, St Mary Magdalene Church, Munster Square, London NW1 3PL. Tickets £6/£3 on the door. The suite was inspired by Rachel Whiteread, Nazarin Montag and Roberto Battista: three artists concerned with the depiction of spaces. Lola is a contributor to International Piano magazine
Photo©Martin Mitchell
