Proms Break
18 July

Well, when Roland and I first mooted this trip some time back, we were just intending to go to a Saturday matinee at Covent Garden. Then the Proms prospectus came out and it all spiralled away from there.

It was a very early start to get to the station and onto the train t get to London in time to check into the hotel and get to the theatre for 12 noon for the opera matinee.

And to be sure, Massenet's Cendrillon was a treat although why it wasn't being done for Christmas must be counted as a great mystery. Joyce DiDonato shone as Cendrillon and I was very glad to hear at last Ewa Podles as Mme de la Haltière. It was good entertainment and I'd be happy to watch it again in several years' time possibly at FACT. But I wouldn't go chasing off for it a second time.

We had time to go back to the hotel, freshen and then hike over to the Albert Hall for the second Prom of the season.

I attended a performance of Rossini's Guillaume Tell at the Royal Opera House in 1992. It was memorable for Jane Eaglen singing the main female role. I can't say that I found much about this performance memorable at all. Possibly Roland and I were just too tired to take it all in. We both felt that the acoustics seemed to mitigate against any involvement. We left at the second interval reasoning that we would be back in our hotel before the end of the last act. The critics loved it. I didn't

The following day brought a really unexpected treat. I suggested to Roland that we fill the morning out with a visit to the National Gallery to see a small free exhibition entitled Forests, Rocks, Torrents - Norwegian and Swiss Landscape Paintings from the Lunde collection.

Well, it was stunning. It took me back to the National Art Gallery in Stockholm and meeting some Scandinavian artists for the first time.

I had never heard of Alexandre Calame before. His The Mythen is above and his The River Lutschine is to the right. It is difficult to believe that they were painted in the nineteenth century. They are really, really good.

Then there was Knud Baade and his Scene from the Era of Norwegian Sagas.

Or Peder Balke's Moonlit View of Stockholm.

This was a gem of an experience and I was so glad that I'd made the effort. Roland was delighted too and we counted it as an unexpected but excellent experience.

From there we made our way over to South Kensington. We stopped for a coffee, sat out under an awning and, all of a sudden, the heavens opened and there was a monumental deluge for about fifteen minutes which then cleared away completely. Bizarre.

Taking no chances, we used the underground walkway from the station to the Victoria and Albert Museum for The Age of Beauty exhibition. It was the first time that I had been in the place and I'm sure I shall return sometime. However, I really disliked this exhibition.

I'm going to have to lay off all of that late nineteenth century English art and design stuff for a while I think. It's not good to get so sated that you simply start rejecting. Roland loved it.

We have a splendid meal in a local restaurant and made our way to the Royal Albert Hall for our second Prom.

We were attending a rare performance of Havergal Brian's Symphony No1 The Gothic. As well as four soloists, the work requires four youth choirs, six adult choirs and two complete orchestras with batteries of brass laid out strategically within the building and two opposing groups of three sets of timpani. We were told that there were about 1,000 performers under the control of Martyn Brabbins.

Well, it was an experience and a very good one. There was just too much to take in on a first hearing. However, there wasn't necessarily enough to make me want to chase further performances. I don't suppose I would even buy a recording (a free download possibly but I can't see me expending ready money). There are absolutely monumental moments of a sheer wall of sound and then moments of quiet radiance and transcendent beauty. I'm ever so glad that Roland suggested we attend.

And then home and then I had my asthma review and the Asthma Nurse thinks everything is OK but is going to send me off for blood tests and will organise a Spirometry test just to check whether or not I have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

I'm all in favour of knowledge like this.