Well, 2016 has been rubbish, but let's try and pick out some more positive things from the year:

• Fiction - Doctor Who - Shada, by Gareth Roberts / Douglas Adams
• Non-Fiction - 1946 - The Making of the Modern World, by Victor Sebestyen
• Music - Prom 51 - the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop
• Museums and Exhibitions - Museum of the Americas in ( Read more... )

Last night we went to see the Michael Nyman Band at the Barbican. It's a few years since I've been there but not much has changed. In the balcony, pairs of red LEDs staring towards us from the lighting deck did make me think we were being watched by the Sand People ( Read more... )

I was given a flyer during the last week or two at the Proms for a concert featuring The Bach Players in Hampstead. We decided it looked interesting enough to be worth the effort, and booked tickets. Unfortunately we've both had colds this week and Mrs Q decided not to come along, so I was on my own ( Read more... )

Often, the highlights of the Proms season seem crammed into the last two weeks. It hasn't been so much the case this year, although there are a lot of visiting orchestras ( Read more... )

The Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle were visiting the Proms on Friday (and again today), so it was always going to be busy. Combine that with a programme containing a Mahler symphony, and it's a recipe for being very busy. So, rather than lunching and then heading off to join the queue, I headed off straight away and bought lunch on the ( Read more... )

We're getting towards the end of the Proms season - the second last week - and I'll admit a certain amount of fatigue over whether I really wanted to go to Prom 60. After all, it's not as if holiday from work can't be cancelled. But I decided that if I am sticking to the plan for next week, then it made sense to stick to the plan this week; and on ( Read more... )

I expected Prom 51 to be popular - a popular conductor, a popular orchestra, a popular programme - so I was pleased to get a good position in the second row of the Arena ( Read more... )

For the first time this season we had to take shelter under the canopy of the Royal Albert Hall during the afternoon, as showers unpleasantly came and went. The queue was small, but perhaps larger than I'd expected; I heard one or two people say that, like me, they had been to the concert on Wednesday and taken a break on Thursday, to come back for ( Read more... )

Big names draw big audiences. I'd suggest that I choose concerts primarily on the basis of the works being performed, but I won't suggest that I am immune to the artists performing. I picked this concert out primarily for the Wagner; seeing the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra would be interesting too, but most people seemed to have picked it for ( Read more... )

Both Proms by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thomas Søndergård were appealing, with a mixture of familiar, curious and unfamiliar works, but I decided I couldn't justify going to both, and in the end I picked Thursday's concert. The day didn't begin too well, as I discovered Reading Borough Council had just steeply increased their parking ( Read more... )