Was it good? In one word, Yes. How good? In one word, Fantastic. Have you seen better?

The venue of this concert is outstanding. The style of the building is amazingly modern and has a breathtaking view of the canal from the restaurant. Outside is basically made of glass and inside there is lots of art and sculptures. The wood furnishing of concert hall one is so sleek. My dad met a carpenter who worked on it and he said it was made out of one large Bavarian Oak.

It seems incredible that an orchestra can create power, emotion, expression and musicality in one performance. The Philharmonia Orchestra combined all these things, making their show at the Festival Hall spectacular. After watching the orchestra perform Smetana’s Vltava, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 and Dvorak’s Symphony No.8, it left me inspired to create music of my own and to listen to a wider variety of composers.

Elgar – In the South (Alassio)
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64
Ian McQueen – Earthly Paradise (BBC commission: world première)

Edward Elgar, having lived until February 1934, is one of the more contemporary composers of the ‘classical’ genre. Elements of Strauss, Mahler and other late romantic composers can be heard throughout this symphony; Elgar makes good use of the expansion of the modern Orchestra, including not just strings, but brass, woodwind and plenty of percussion. As soon as the orchestra begins to play I am impressed. Partly because of the quality of sound, partly because of the already apparent togetherness of the orchestra, but mainly because of the sheer energy exerted from the first few bars alone. There was something powerful, yet calming in how the orchestra worked together as a team, as one body. They didn’t just produce a sound - they created an atmosphere. As the piece hit its peak point in the music about 7 minutes in, I realised that not only was it entertaining to hear, but also enjoyable to watch - you could see from the expression on each of the performer’s faces that they were enjoying themselves as much as we were.

I didn’t realise how good The Sixteen were until I saw them performing live. The fact that I could hear the clarity and expression of the words they sang despite the enormous size of St Albans Cathedral was amazing. The Sixteen are a well-known choral group and they performed nine pieces, including works by Byrd, Sheppard and Tallis - three very well-known choral composers.

Before the concert began, the conductor and one of the soprano singers talked about each of the pieces The Sixteen were going to perform. They were extremely enthusiastic about the music and knew all the little details in each piece. This talk was an interesting beginning for the concert.

On the 31st March I went to the Coliseum in London to see Swan Lake performed by Ballet Nacional De Cuba. Swan Lake was the first ballet Alicia Alonso staged for her new company back in 1948. The company now has a brilliant reputation worldwide for their outstandingly talented male performers. Tickets sold out for this performance which was called ‘the hottest tickets in town’ by ‘Visit London’.

We went to the Unicorn Theatre on London’s South Bank on Saturday to see ‘My Mother Told Me Not to Stare’, which was a production by Hullabaloo. The Hullabaloo is a company from the North of England who offer opera suitable for children.

The theatre was very little and it was full. The stage was very low because it was just the ground with lots of rocks on to make it interesting. I didn’t think it looked very exciting to begin with.

On the night of Saturday the 6th of February I went to the Brighton Dome to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing pieces by Jean Sibelius and Johannes Brahms. The pieces were all conducted by the famous conductor Osmo Vanska who was awarded first prize at the 1982 Besancon International young conductors' competition and is said to be the greatest Sibelius conductor of today.

The first piece was Sibelius's Tapiola, a beautiful piece that starts quite gently and then slowly gets louder and more fierce. It has a lovely introduction on the violins and a little way through the piece there is an pretty oboe solo. I really liked the beginning because it made me feel happy. It is a very mysterious piece with a lot of suspense and secrets.

I was really looking forward to the concert because I enjoy many pieces of Russian music.

The concert began confidently with Stravinsky’s Symphonies Of Wind Instruments. We were plunged into a Russia, both ancient and modern, welcomed by the brass and woodwind. The piece is twenty-four instruments (thirteen woodwind, four horns and seven brass). Broad, masculine and clean sound from the brass contrasted with sweet, whistling, alive textures from the flutes.

The concert began with “Danzas Fantásticas” by Joaquin Turina. I liked the percussion and the brass because they made an exciting sound.