Trip Reports Section

We were lucky( in the restaurant )to have a window seat looking along the edge of the Hall and below us we could see the BBC technicians beavering away with preparations for tonights live TV and radio broadcasts. Every single Prom is broadcast live over the national BBC Radio 3 and certain Proms are broadcast live on the TV as well. Tonights would be shown live on TV as well.

Usually it takes a great amount of coaxing to get Jackie go anywhere near an edge that involves heights. This is after the meal so the wine must have had a relaxing effect on her. Incidently the area over Jackies left shoulder is where we were stood this morning pointing out our rooms and the building on the right is Imperial College.

We had booked seats in the Stalls. The seats have a simply but effective design in that you can turn them through 90 degrees towards the stage once you have sat down so you don't get neck ache if you're sitting at an angle to the stage.

The Program tonight consisted of Ravels Le tombeau de Couperin in its orchestral form. Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D with Gil Shaham, who also played for us a solo encore after the Stravinsky concerto: a Bach piece which was hauntingly beautiful and melodic.

Then after the interval came Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4 in F minor.

All three pieces were performed by the German NDR Symphony Orchestra, with their conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi, who was quite a characterful performer. It was real fun watching it back when we returned home (yes, we could spot ourselves on TV).