Music Sixth Formers - Royal Festival Hall

Date: Thursday 27 September 2007

While geographers were reliving Dorset, senior musicians were  travelling to and from the Royal Festival Hall to enjoy a concert given by the LPO under the baton of Andrew Litton.

This was an outing of many 'firsts'. The first visit to the Festival Hall since its refurbishment; the first performance of Tavener's Violin Concerto; the first time Mr Braddy had seen a soloist break a string during a performance, and have to leave stage for running repairs; the first time Mr Underwood had literally bumped into a major composer, before the start of the concert; but, sadly, not the first time the M2 had caused such delays that the party did not get back to School until 1.30am!

But it was well worth it: the pre-concert 'master class' talk from Tavener certainly inspired Jacob Barnes; the performance of the Elgar Second Symphony was 'fantastic'; and the soloist, Nicola Benedetti was stunning in every sense of the word.