Albert Memorial

The second night of our weekend Prommng pass took us to the Royal Albert Hall for performances of Ravel's Mother Goose and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. There were also a couple of other short, new pieces. One of these, by the composer Jukka Tiensuu, involved the orchestra. a soprano,. and 2 separate groups of musicians placed each side of the arena. A weird but rather amusing piece with the human voice creating wordless sounds (including sobs and laughs) which were imitated by the various groups of musicians. It was quite interesting to witness, but I doubt it would have done much for the radio listeners.

As usual, before the performance we had a picnic in Kensington Gardens, with a view of the extraordinarily elaborate Albert Memorial. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott and was unveiled in 1872 to commemorate the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband.