James and I were back at RSNO’s “Symphony, Soup and a Sandwich” yesterday lunch time to listen to Dvorák’s Symphony no. 5. This time we just booked tickets for the concert and didn’t get a ticket for the soup and sandwich; although undoubtedly good value for money it’s perhaps aimed at an (even) older age group than ours, and anyway is very filling for lunch time. The upstairs concert hall was packed to see Jirí Rožeñ conducting this folk song inspired symphony, which romped along cheerfully. Emerging into the sunlight we did a bit of shopping before heading home.
And then this evening we were at the City Halls (luckily I checked the tickets or we would have ended up back at the GRCH!) to hear Sibelius’ Symphony no. 2 conducted by Thomas Dausgaard, who I think looks a bit like Father Ted. I found it very pleasant, but the star of the evening for me came in the first half, when the amazing pianist Yuliana Avdeeva played Tchaikovsky’s Piano concerto no. 1. Oh my goodness it was brilliant, especially the grand introduction to the first movement. On the other hand I was not impressed by the first piece which was Maxwell Davies’ An Orkney Wedding. I’m sure that I’ve heard it before but I had forgotten how rubbish it is. Apparently he wrote it after going to a wedding on Hoy; how rude of him to write such discordant and mocking music. I hope he was never asked back. Being at the City Halls, James and I were reminded of a music-loving friend, Steven, whom we ran into nearly every time that we went there. Sadly, he died at the beginning of the summer and we both felt his absence this evening.
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