Also the Central London parks are especially beautiful this time of the year. Where in Kew Gardens the displays are quite 'natural' (although generally planted and not 'wild', as far as the spring flowers are concerned), the displays in St James' park and Hyde Park are a bit more formal:
Way back in August, we booked tickets for a concert in the Royal Albert Hall. The Chinese pianist Lang Lang has been performing the 5 Beethoven piano concertos this week and last night was the final performance, the 5th 'Emperor' concerto. The Philharmonia orchestra accompanied him, and also performed the 'King Stephen' overture and the 4th symphony in an all Beethoven programme. Lang Lang was excellent as was the orchestra, so we had a most enjoyable evening. We took the opportunity of taking a tour of the Royal Albert Hall before the concert. It is an enormous (and iconic) building in South Kensington, opened in 1871. The acoustics were originally woeful, but after addition of a number of 'acoustic elements' (actually they look like over a hundred of inverted mushrooms hung from the dome), it has improved substantially. The tour even took us to the Royal Box, the Royal reception area and the Royal withdrawing room (where the Queen entertains her guests when she attends events here). It was interesting to see that a photograph of the event where she hosted Nelson Mandela has a place of honour across from the Royal Box (and is mentioned extensively by the tour guide)!
The Hall seats over 5000 people (plus about 500 standing places in the 'galleries' at the top). Although we were quite high up, we had a very good view of the stage and could look right onto the soloist's hands, which for Lyn, as an amateur pianist, is important.
Late addition:
Not only the flora shows new life, the fauna plays it's part too!
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