THE GRANDEUR OF THE WALLACE COLLECTION LONDON

ABOVE:  THE GREAT GALLERY AT HERTFORD HOUSE

On Tuesday I managed to finally go and visit Hertford House in the center of London
to check out the wonderful Wallace Collection. And unlike my last museum outing
 I was able to take many pictures.

The Wallace Collection is a fine art collection in London open to the public, housed at
Hertford House just behind the top end of Baker Street, the Oxford Street end.
It's the former town house of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford.

First established in 1897 as a private collection created by the 4th Marquess of Hertford
who later handed the entire collection to his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace who then
in turn left it to his widow who decided to bequeath the whole collection to the Nation, first
going on display in 1900.

And looking around the many rooms, there's definitely a hint of 18th century French
opulence.  As well as some fine well known paintings the house also holds many statue busts
as well as some rather grand looking furniture. And there's also a large collection of battle armour
in the European Armour Galleries.

I did wonder though if the Gallery organizers were playing down a very active building restoration
project, saying on their website that there may be some building repairs being carried out.
In fact the entire front of Hertford House was completely covered up so I was not able to
get a picture of the outdoor front of the House.

Fortunately the main big Great Gallery had just reopened as I got there just after 2.00 pm,
having been closed all morning for repairs. And of course I didn't want to miss The Great
Gallery which houses some of the finest paintings in the collection.

You can find out more about this wonderful collection below.


THE WALLACE COLLECTION LONDON

Above: Almost the first room as you enter the House is the very
impressive Front State Room.

Above:  The Laughing Cavalier by FRANS HALS  ( 1584 - 1666 )
Situated in The Great Gallery.

Above:  The Back State Room.

   (Above)  VENICE:  The Bacino di San Marco from the Canale della Giudecca.

By CANALETTO  (1697 - 1768 )  Italian, c.  1735 - 44


In the image below and to the left of the Canaletto is Diego Velazquez's
LADY WITH A FAN, painted between 1638 - 1639.
Velazquez was King Philip IV of Spain's favourite Court painter, although
the identity of the Lady in the painting is still a mystery.

Above, and situated at the far end of The Great Gallery is
'THE SHEPHERD PARIS'  by ANTHONY VAN DYCK.
Painted in 1628.

Above and below: Some spectacular French 19th century opulence situated in The Large Drawing Room.
The room itself has the most dramatic looking chandelier throughout Hertford House.
And there's also a wonderful marble bust ( below left ) of the master of early French opulence,
Louis XIV King of France ( 1638 - 1715 ).

Above:  TITUS, THE ARTIST'S SON
by REMBRANDT ( created in 1657).
Painting situated in The East Gallery 1.

Titus, the only surviving child of Rembrandt, aged around sixteen.
Unlike other paintings by the great Dutch artist, the authenticity
of this portrait has never been questioned.

Above:  From The Dutch Golden Age is 'A WOMAN PEELING APPLES'
by Pieter de Hooch.  (1663).

Above:  The Rainbow Landscape by PETER PAUL RUBENS.
Flanders, c.  1636.  oil on oak panel.
Situated in The Great Gallery.

Below:  The Dining Room.

Above and Below: The Purple Room, known as The West Gallery III.

Below is it's eye catching center piece painting by ARY SCHEFFER
a Dutch-French romantic Painter.
The work is titled 'FRANCESCA DI RIMINI AND PAULO  MALATESTA
APPRAISED BY DANTE AND VIRGIL.'  (1835 ).

Below: Situated in The Front State Room is
(left)  The young Queen Victoria by Thomas Sully ( 1783-1872).

Below (right)  George IV as Prince of Wales.
By John Hoppner  (1758-1810).

Above: A member of The House staff gives an educational tour
around the Galleries to a group of visitors.

Below (left) A Self Portrait by Rembrandt  (1637).

Below (right)  Boy With a Hawk  by Johannes van Noordt.

Above: Just one of the many exhibits on display in
THE EUROPEAN ARMOUR GALLERY.

Above: The front of Hertford House all covered up and with
building restoration taking place. So I was not able to get a shot
of the front of the House.

Below: This is what Hertford House really looks like.
Image by Anthony O'Neil.

Just behind Hertford House in nearby George Street I saw this
wonderful Gothic looking Church. Of course I couldn't resist
snapping away a few pictures. And the inside of this St James's
Church looked quite spectacular, almost Cathedral like.

LONDON'S NEW TUBE TRAINS

So London is to finally install some new trains for our Underground system.
All fully automated with the added comfort of air conditioning, something
badly missing on our current crop of trains that run on the deep level sections
of the Tube.
Unfortunately we might not see any of the new trains until 2023. And from
then on, new stocks will spread onto the all important lines
with the hope that the whole Underground system should be updated by the
end of the decade.
Apart from the new design at the front of the trains, they don't actually look
much different from the current trains. That may have a lot to do with the fact
that the new trains are sporting the exact same colours of red, blue and grey.
But we are promised that they will be superior with more space and doors and
will run more regularly to cater to London's ever increasing population.

Below is London Transport's promotion video.

More can be found out on the pages of THE LONDONIST

Rossini's Spectacular Swansong Finale..... Not Forgetting Mahler.

I imagine that even non music fans would have heard at some point in
their lives the ever popular William Tell Overture by the great Italian
composer Gioachino Rossini. But it was only a few years ago that I
heard the climax of this opera, also known as Guillaume Tell. Well it is
quite simply spectacular and a tour de force.
In the video above we see the great Riccardo Muti at the helm and
conducting this performance at La Scala back in 1987.

Surprisingly Conductor Muti seems somewhat reserved in this climatic
performance. Now aged 87, but back then at his physical peak he was
prone to throw himself about a lot and audiences certainly got their moneys worth
when he was in charge, as you can see in a couple of gifs I made below.

And how surprising that Rossini having composed at least 34 operas
simply walked away after producing this last offering Guillaume Tell
in 1829. And he was still only young in his late 30's. Perhaps it was due
to health problems. It's still not really known why.

And when you watch the climax of this work (above) with Muti as
conductor, you can only say to yourself about Rossini, well, what
a way to go out.

Further down below  is also another staggering piece of music,
the climax of Mahler's 8th Symphony.
On both videos I have slightly pushed them forward so you
can enjoy the climax.


ABOVE VIDEO UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE BY PROMETHEUS 1889

Above is the new young pretender American Conductor Robert Trevino
who is about to take up his new post as Chief Conductor for the Malmo
Symphony Orchestra for the 2019-2020 season.
And like Riccardo Muti he is a real showman. Here (above) we see him
in a gif I made conducting the Finale of Act III of Verdi's Don Carlo.
Having practiced Conducting from the age of 16, it was actually in this
above performance of Don Carlo that he suddenly became noticed
internationally.

Below: The great Italian showman and Conductor Riccardo Muti
conducting in one of his favourite pieces The Overture to Verdi's
Nabucco.

"THE GREATEST AND MOST POWERFUL FINALE EVER WRITTEN IN THE
HISTORY OF MUSIC."     arrup3 - Youtube uploader.

"EPIC.  SIMPLY THE GREATEST FINALE EVER WRITTEN."   Greg Raines.

"I FEEL SAD WHEN I THINK THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE BORN AND DIE
WITHOUT EVER HEARING THIS."   Pedro Teixeira.

"MAHLER'S 8th SYMPHONY FINALE HAS JUST TAKEN MY MIND TO
ANOTHER LEVEL..... OUTSTANDING."      Allpress inc.

"THIS IS EASILY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL 5 MINUTES OF MUSIC I HAVE EVER
HEARD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. THANK YOU GUSTAV MAHLER FOR SHOWING
ME LIFE'S UTTER BEAUTY."   Charlie Zandieh.


Well, who can argue with any of the above appraisals. All I can say is
that if there really is a Heaven and that our dying brain takes our souls
through a long bright tunnel, then this is the music to take us through that
supposed journey.

(Strictly headphones for the full on experience).