Yesterday, that is the 24th of March; I attended the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank. What an experience it was…in fact what a peculiar experience? One can only love it or hate it, and I say why it was a strange experience because I thought I hated it (that was the first part) but then I fell in love with it. Oh my God, when they played Edward Elgar’s first symphony that was simply incredible, Wow!
Back to the story now, so my friends and me decided to book tickets for the up-coming event at ‘Noise’ at South Bank (‘Noise’ has been specially organised for students by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, where students can get discounted tickets http://www.lpo.co.uk/education/students.html). So we booked 4 tickets which cost £12, very cheap that mean £3 per person, very good we all approved of ourselves. All happy and contented we then waited for the weekend earnestly, or I think it was only I because it was my first time to an orchestra ad I was particularly excited.
Finally the day came, Gosh and the day was beautiful so warm and sunny in March, that was a surprise, a pleasant surprise! The entire day I just wasted in the sun, soon it was 5:30pm time to go! We all met up at Waterloo Station and walked to Southbank, it was 6:45pm by the time we reached. Soon we made our way to the orchestra. I am on a wheelchair therefore we were designated special seating area and the view was superb as we had the full view of the orchestra. It was magnificent!
The orchestra started with Julian Anderson’s music ‘The Discovery of Heaven (and it was a world première), and then the ‘Sea Drift’ created by Delius. The second half was music created by Elgar Symphony No. 1, what a lavishing experience it was. He created this symphony at the turn of the twentieth century during the times of the economic recession. “In his Symphony he seized on a flicker of optimism, describing it as ‘a massive hope for the future.’ A moving, noble melody appears at first fragile and tender. But when it returns at the Symphony’s end, it’s revived and encouraged with gestures of support from the strings and woodwind, who throw themselves at the orchestral procession with a spirit of inextinguishable optimism.” And yes this is how it exactly felt like.
And now it was me, my despicable performace! Very careless Nadia! Unbelievable I made the orchestra stop. ‘I am so sorry about that, from the deepest pits of my heart!’ well the story of my atrocious behaviour now begins: I was chewing chewing gum, yes chewing gum Wrigley’s spearmint. And I chocked on it, oh my God am I chocking, and this was the time when everyone was clapping, a welcome to the orchestra, hence luckily my coughing sounds disappeared in the clapping noise, that was close I thought. Now everyone was silent and the orchestra was about to begin and yes they did begin but the coughs started again and when I tried to stop them a really funny noise started to come out of my mouth and then I don’t know why but the whole situation reminded me of ‘Bugs Bunny conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra’ (its on youtube, do check it out) and that is when I couldn’t stop laughing, that is when the orchestra stopped and I had to leave the hall, how embarrassing. Well two of my friends left with me, I am so sorry but they kept on saying no problem. We could only go in after the pause. Hence we waited for a while for the orchestra to pause.
Soon we were all back in, my friends are awesome. ‘Honestly, what will I do without you guys, X.’ The next performance was ‘Sea Drift’ by Delius, well I was very quiet thank God for that but I did not particularly enjoy it but I patiently waited for it to finished. Then we had a 15 minutes interval. All of us went out for drinks. Soon the interval was over and we all wet back in. It was all Eldgar now, his work it simply amazing. The contrast between the high a low notes, the swift but smooth and calming melody that goes from aggressive to passionate. Although I don’t know much about music but Eldgar’s first symphony was tremendously splendid!
Thank you my friends for your patience, kindness and thoughtfulness all 4 of you. An experience I’ll never forget with my awesome friends.
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