BBC Proms visit

Finally got tickets for the proms for Friday to hear Stephen Hough play Tchaikovsky's Concert Fantasia. Mother, The Little One, The Kiddo and Kiddo's best friends (AK) were having an early celebration of the Kiddo's 25th! 25..wow...never thought he would grow up.

The concert was fantastic. I have often heard the proms and seen it on iplayer, but from the sheer grandeur of the Royal Albert Hall to the gorgeous 20 foot organ forming the backdrop for the symphony to the riveting phenomenal music it was a memorable experience. Next time its standing for 5 quid for me.

I can barely sing and nor can I really appreciate music but this sort of live concert really allowed me to understand the different instruments being used, the pauses, emphasis and just the sheer tempo and feeling with which the music is being played. When I hear music as a recording, I often can't distinguish the different instruments being used but when I see the different instruments coming in at different times during the symphony I can really appreciate the sound they are making.

The Concerto Fantasia was great and I am slowly becoming a fan of Stephen Hough (who incidentally has a MacArthur Genius award). The cello piece, variations on a Rococo theme played by Steven Isserlis was amazing. I have never seen a cello performance like it before.Amazing..
The final piece played by the orchestra was Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini which is based on Dante's Inferno. This was absolutely unbelievable. The story is about Francesca who is on the cusp of Hell hearing the howling winds about her and the fire down below. You can hear the winds howling when the strings in the orchestra play that bit and if you close your ideas you can imagine yourself standing on some cliff with winds howling about it and thunder all around you screaming at you to jump.

Anyway, it was fantastic and I think we all came out feeling overwhelmed and a little bit awed by the music.

The evening was capped off by dinner at Il Falcioniere which we found through the internet. Its a family run Italian restaurant near the South Kensington tube station. We loved the food. The food was very simple, nothing fancy but, the food was very tasty, flavourful and each dish had a unique taste to it (unlike Italian chain restaurants like Ask which probably make one white and one tomato sauce and add different meats and veggies).

Try the tiramisu if you do visit..fantastic!