The Re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall

Wow, what a weekend!

Or more accurately I should say, wow, what a week! It started on Monday with the commencement of a project with our school, the Royal College of Music students, a laptop orchestra from the London College of Communication, and the London Sinfonietta. Basically, they came in this week to put together a performance of Terry Riley's "In C", which would be performed at the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall after some 2 years of closure due to refurbishment.

The piece was absolutely amazing, the girls really rose to the occasion and joined in making some very interesting music (well, the piece is credited as being the first minimalist piece so it does have moments of sounding rather unusual). We performed two performances on Saturday night in the ballroom, which is a large performance area in the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall. It was a real privilege to be able to take part, there was so much going on over the weekend (some 250 000 people visited the South Bank over the course of 48 hours) and to be one of the performers, well, that was a real honour. Especially performing with the likes of the London Sinfonietta, one of 4 resident orchestras at the South Bank.

I don't know if this video does much justice for the piece, as it was taken on a stills camera, but it'll give you an idea anyway. And if you look (and listen) real hard, you'll spot me (playing woodblock next to one of the London Sinfonietta violinists)...

Then on Sunday, because there was sooo much going on, and I really wanted to be a part of it, I went back down to the South Bank. The only problem was that there were so many people there that it was difficult to move around, let alone get to see any performances (all of which were free, I might add).

But the highlight was tonight. The Head had been given free tickets to the "First Night Gala Concert" (the price range for which was £500 or £100) but she couldn't use them. So she gave them to the Deputy Head and to me. So I got to go to the first proper concert since the refurbishment, to hear the London Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (plus the Philharmonia Chorus and the London Philharmonic Choir) perform the following repertoire:

Julian Anderson Alleluia (world premiere) - London Phil, Philharmonic Choir, Conductor Vladimir Jurowski
Stravinksy The Firebird Suite (1919 version) - London Phil, Conductor Vladimir Jurowski
Ives The Unanswered Question - members of London Phil, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Conductor Marin Alsop
Birtwhistle Cortege (world premiere) - London Sinfonietta
Purcell Symphony from the Fairy Queen - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Ligeti Atmospheres - Philharmonia Orchestra, Conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi
Beethoven Symphony No 9 (Choral) 4th Movement - London Phil, Philharmonia choir, soloists: Joan Rodgers, Patricia Bardon, Philip Langridge and Brindley Sherratt, Conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi

and the closing encore, Ravel's Bolero - with members from all of the above ensembles, Conductor Marin Alsop. Actually I thought out of all the conductors, she was probably the best, closely followed by Jurowski. With these two, even the tiniest gesture created a subtle change in sound - and I don't just think that it was the orchestra being really good a following, because the other dude was all full of gesture and there didn't seem to be any real point to it. He was much like Tristan's 'mad conductor' in All Creatures Great and Small...

Then afterwards there was refreshments, speeches, toasts and a celebration cake (yum!). It was a simply fantastic evening, lots of the glitterati in attendance (and some not so glitterati!) - the Deputy Head kept pointing out various pommy socialites whom I had never heard of, and some I had, people like Janet Street Porter - I can't name the ones I hadn't heard of because I can't remember their names! hehehe! During one of the intervals (there were two) Salman Rushdie wandered past me. Dubious honour, but anyway.

I think out of the pieces we heard, I enjoyed the Rossini, Stravinsky and Ives the best. The Ives was really cool, it was played with a string quartet who are out in the wings, off stage, and a woodwind quartet on stage, and a solo trumpet (who was up in one of the boxes). Brilliant.

Anyway, it was such a special evening, one I will always remember, and to quote my sister Melissa (on the occasion of seeing "Turandot" at the Sydney Opera House) - "How can I go back to being a pleb after this?"