Music in the park

The BBC Proms are an annual event I look forward to. This year was no exception and one particular prom grabbed my attention: film music. So on that late afternoon, Marianna paused from her thesis-ing and joined me at Imperial and soon after headed to the Royal Albert Hall, eager to experience some serious musical indulgence...

What awaited us was a 1000m long queue, snaking around the whole of Kensington Gore! This particular prom attracted more people than anticipated and the 1 hour turn up in advance proved to be insufficient. We stood there, moving slowly at 1m/min until we were almost at the box office. Perhaps 3o or 50 people before us. Then one of the polite RAH staff came out and told us that the hall is filled to its capacity and sadly we had to leave for home. A great dinner and some good red wine took away my blues.

Thus, yesterday we decided to go to yet another appealing musical event: the LSO playing live most of the soundtrack of The King's speech, a movie which we both enjoyed and whose OST is simply amazing. So we headed to the mini Manhattan of London - Canary Wharf - and assembled ourselves on the small grassy bit midst the shiny towers and devoured a packet of M&S jalapeno tortillas, enjoyed a slight breeze and while the musicians took their places.

The music itself was out of this world; nothing beats live performances and my favourite, the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony, simply blew me away. I soon found out that this event was only one of almost a 2 month long festival of cultural events at Canary Wharf, ranging from movies, music, drama and art. In the heart of the financial and money-making district of London, a feast of cultural bonanza, all for free. The first thing I did once we got back home was subscribe to the mailing list of the organisation responsible for these events and make the most of it next year!

It is almost surreal how much effort and investment (time and money) Londoners put into setting up such activities. And, of course, I am not complaining!