Concerts were attended and other stories

Tuesday was a brilliant day. I drove up to HippoFlip's and we spent the day shopping and chatting. If you ever get the chance to meet her, she's lovely and has a wicked sense of humour. (Hippo, you know I'll only write more with your permission. I'll miss you when you go back home.)

The day was topped off by the late Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which started at 10.15pm. Ancient choral music, mainly a capella: Striggio's Ecce Beatam Lucem; Lassus' Aurora Lucis Rutilat; Tallis' Spem In Allium; and Striggio's long lost mass Ecco Si Beato Giorgno.

The BBC has the concert on "listen again" until July 24th, here. Please listen, if only to the Striggio mass - it's beautiful, soaring music which was believed lost and hadn't been performed for 400 years. Half an hour of musical heaven accompanied by some very rare musical instruments: a double-bass trombone and a lirone. The mass has 40 different vocal parts. I floated home at midnight.

Wednesday, we were at the Proms again. This time, it was the combined orchestras of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France, under the batton of Kurt Massur. Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and Bruckner's Symphony No 7. Big, bold, full bodied music. It was hard to believe that Bruckner died before even silent movies were widespread - the Symphony sounds like it was written for a blockbuster film score. Again, it's on "listen again" until July 25th here. Poor man, Bruckner kept his composing dreams alive for 15years whilst he was vilified by Vienna's biggest critic, Eduard Hanslick. I hope Hanslick choaked on his pen when he heard the 7th.

- Pam

PS: On a knitting note, I haven't started my "prom socks" yet. As last year, they're to be made from leftover sock yarn - this time it's 35g of an Opal silk, self-patterning yarn in cream/blue/mustard/yellow/brown tones for the leg/ankle, which I'll couple with honey coloured yarn for the foot part of the socks. I've just finishing off sorting out the yarn to ensure that I have an equal amount for each sock.